Shiba Inu (SHIB) – Complete Guide

Launched in August 2020, the Shiba Inu (SHIB) coin is the brainchild of Ryoshi. Although very little is known of the creator, this crypto coin has turned quite a few heads in the last two years. 

After the mind-blowing success of the Dogecoin last year, crypto investors began searching for the next viral meme coin and came along with the Shiba Inu coin.

If you are interested in investing in SHIB, here is all you need to know about the coin.

What is the Shiba Inu coin?

Shiba Inu coin (SHIB) is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token with the Shiba Inu dog as its emblem. Its rise occurred mainly due to the dog-themed ecosystem, robust community engagement and massive price speculations by retail investors.

This crypto meme coin comes with a 2.3 million Twitter followers base, far more than many other cryptos. 

The events following the coin’s release were quite interesting. This coin has a total supply of 1 quadrillion. Furthermore, 50% of the stock was locked in its Uniswap SHIB/ETH liquidity pool. This was done so that users could deposit pairs of assets in the liquidity pools of this decentralised exchange, and other investors could trade against it. This unique feature is called an automated market maker system.

The rest was donated to Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin. He donated tokens worth $ 1.2 billion (at that time) to charities. 

Shiba Inu uses the AMM system. Now, what exactly is it?

This protocol uses smart contracts to set the price of digital assets and provide liquidity. Technically, the users are not trading against counterparties but exchanging their assets against the liquidity locked inside these pools. The users who provide liquidity get rewarded with a share of the transaction fees and free tokens. 

Due to the ingenious integration of smart contracts, this system provides a secure user experience without the hindrance of any third party.

About ShibaSwap

ShibaSwap is a decentralised crypto exchange (DEX) that enables you to trade on a peer-to-peer basis. Compared to centralised exchanges (CEXs), they provide a much more secure and private environment for trading your crypto assets.

Like Uniswap, ShibaSwap allows you to trade SHIB and other cryptocurrencies (ERC-20 tokens, stablecoins, and much more) without any third-party hindrance. Apart from this, you also get liquidity pools, governance, staking, yield farming, and an NFT marketplace. Using various functions to earn passive income in cryptocurrency, you can also task your assets. 

In ShibaSwap, if you deposit in liquidity pools and stake tokens, you can earn interest in the form of SHIB tokens and two other ERC-20 tokens, the Bone ShibaSwap token (BONE) and the Doge Killer token (LEASH).

ShibaSwap has the following features:

• Dig

This function allows you to deposit your crypto asset in existing liquidity pools or create your own. You will get ShibaSwap liquidity pool tokens (SSLP) as rewards. They represent your share of the liquidity and let you get free BONE tokens in case of redemption. 

• Bury

This feature enables you to stake your SHIB, LEASH and BONE tokens to earn high-interest yields, which you will receive in BONE tokens. Upon staking, you will receive a token representing your staked amount in xSHIB, xLEASH or xBONE. 

However, you only get 33% of the BONE rewards in hand while the rest is locked up for six months. 

• Woof

With the help of this function, you can redeem your BONE rewards with SSLP tokens on the ShibaSwap platform.

• Swap

The Swap function enables you to change between many assets within the ShibaSwap platform. 

• NFTs

This feature allows you to trade 10,000 unique NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) called Shiboshis. They are pixelated Shiba Inu dog cartoons with different traits. The rarer the NFT, the more will be its value. 

• Bonefolio

Bonefolio is an analytics dashboard that you can use to track current interest rates and yield returns. 

How to trade with ShibaSwap?

ShibaSwap has a user-friendly interface that will be a breeze for you to understand and operate. However, you have to set up a compatible crypto wallet before starting. They are:

• Coinbase Wallet
• WalletConnect
• Metamask

After this, you will receive a seed or recovery phrase that you must make multiple copies of and store in different locations. It is a master key that every application on your Ledger device uses to calculate their private keys. 

In the next step, you have to fund your wallet with Ether to cover transaction fees and convert your assets into SHIB, BONE, or LEASH tokens based on your investment strategy. 

Once the funding process is complete, the final step is to click on the “Connect” icon in the top-right corner of the official ShibaSwap website and select the particular wallet service. You can begin trading after this. 

Other places to buy Shiba Inu coins

Apart from ShibaSwap, you can also buy Shiba Inu coins on Uniswap. It supports a wider range of Ethereum-based wallets compared to ShibaSwap, and you can also link your wallet in the same way. 

A wide range of mobile trading apps will allow you to buy Shiba Inu coins from your phone. They are:

• OKEx
• Binance
• eToroX
• FTX
• Coinbase
• Crypto.com
• Huobi Global
• KuCoin
• MEXC Global

You can also buy Shiba Inu coins on centralised exchanges. They are:

• Gemini
• KuCoin
• Huobi Global
• FTX
• Binance
• Coinbase Pro

Follow the steps mentioned below to buy Shiba Inu coins from a centralised exchange of your choice. For your convenience, let’s take the example of Binance. 

1. Go to the official Binance website and sign up or log in to your account
2. Click on “Identification” and complete the KYC process
3. Go to the “Buy Crypto” page and select your payment method
4. Put in your desired amount and check the disclaimer button (if any)
5. Complete the rest of the process (it will vary depending on your payment method)

The time the cryptocurrency takes to reach your wallet depends on the payment method and exchange guidelines.  

Things to remember

Here are some crucial factors to remember while investing or trading with Shiba Inu coins:

• Unlike other cryptocurrencies, you cannot mine Shiba Inu coins as the total number of coins in the market was minted and ready to be traded from its release. 
• The high number of coins available in the market makes its price comparatively lower than the other players. However, with its rising popularity, it can be a good investment option in the future. 
• Being an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency, Shiba Inu coins will give you more liquidation and investment options to help you diversify your investments. 

Although Shiba Inu is a relatively new player in the crypto market, the impact it has created is worth noting. However, before investing, you should consider the risks involved and conduct thorough research on the market trends. In addition, consulting a tax professional before starting any investment is always a good idea.