SHIB price climbs 20% as Shibarium launch nears

Popular dog-themed meme coin Shiba Inu has seen its value rise by 20% to become one of the best-performing coins of the weekend.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) prices rose from a low of $0.00000827 on Aug. 4 to $0.00001028 early on Aug. 6. So far, it advanced 12.24% over the last seven days, according to CoinGecko statistics. 

The meme coin is gaining traction on Binance and other crypto exchange platforms and has outpaced other popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP, and Dogecoin (DOGE). 

Over the weekend, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP lost 0.6%, 0.4%, and 6.9% of their values, respectively. However, Dogecoin has enjoyed a 1% gain in the last day. 

Shiba Inu’s price rise is remarkable, considering the growing risk aversion across the broader tech and crypto market after Fitch downgraded the U.S. sovereign rating.

Analysts have chalked down SHIB’s performance to the announcement by its developers of a decentralized blockchain identification system for Shibarium, Shiba Inu’s layer 2 (L2) scaling solution.

Following the release, Shiba Inu’s on-chain measures, such as social dominance and trading volume, increased, indicating the meme coin’s growing adoption among market players. Santiment data indicates that Shiba Inu’s social dominance has reached a multi-month high of 2.914%.

There is also growing excitement among the Shiba Inu community as they await the imminent launch of Shibarium itself. According to Shiba Inu lead developer Shytoshi Kusama, Shibarium may be unveiled later in August at the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto, where Shiba Inu is a key sponsor. 

Shibarium’s developers believe the L2 blockchain will offer an alternative to Ethereum and expect it to increase SHIB adoption and value.

Additionally, analysts believe many bearish traders have been displaced from the SHIB market due to its sustained price decline before the weekend gains. With the selling pressure eased, the market opened up for more bullish traders, resulting in the weekend price jump.

As the SHIB price increased, so did its burn rate. According to Shibburn, a social media platform that keeps tabs on the amount of SHIB shifted to dead wallets, the meme coin’s burn rate increased by 21.8% over the weekend.