Dogecoin (DOGE) has shown the world that even a joke project can grow in value and reputation in the cryptocurrency space. This phenomenon paved the way for a slew of ‘meme’ cryptocurrencies to emerge. A simple glance at CoinMarketCap’s popular tokens list reveals that the meme effect has taken hold.
A New Meme Currency
Shiba Inu (SHIB) is the newest meme currency to catch investors’ attention. SHIB sprang to popularity after Ethereum (ETH) founder Vitalik Buterin donated more than $1 billion worth of SHIB to the India Covid relief fund.
While many experts expected Shiba Inu to fade away like the other meme coins that rose to fame, it has instead emerged as a successful project with its swap interface, yield farm, and blooming DAO structure.
Total Value Locked In Shibaswap Surpasses $1 Billion
While other networks have been accused of utilizing spam transactions to boost on-chain activity, Shiba Inu has exceeded $1 billion in total value locked on the platform just one day after its inception.
According to data from Defi Llama, this shows much-needed solidarity for the newly launched interface. This currently ranks in the top 30 in terms of total value locked.
At the moment, the project is worth more than Quickswap (QUICK) and Mdex (MDX). The early enthusiasm around the Shibaswap launch resulted in a 14% rise of SHIB value on July 6. However, the price has fallen to $0.00000867, which is 78% lower than the all-time high of $0.0000388.
Shibaswap Defi Launch Raises Gas Costs
The unveiling of ShibaSwap, a newly designed swap interface for token holders, sparked excitement in the Shiba Inu community on July 6.
Since the Berlin upgrade, Ethereum gas prices had been around record lows. Still, the debut of ShibaSwap resulted in a significant increase in gas costs, as crypto Twitter trader Joe McCann pointed out.
