In 2023, the meme cryptocurrency economy has risen by 40% and is now worth $22.6 billion. The segment's initial coin, Dogecoin (DOGE), is up 29%, while Shiba Inu (SHIB) has gained 75%. The significant overtaking is associated with the upcoming launch of the second-level (L2) blockchain Shibarium.

Dogecoin is a self-sustaining first-level blockchain, while Shiba Inu is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum network. All 1 quadrillion Shiba Inu coins were issued at once by an anonymous user with the nickname Ryoshi. The developer's initial goal was to overtake DOGE in terms of market capitalisation, a goal that has already been achieved.

A lot of media attention is needed to promote and attract attention to DOGE clones, the number of which is approaching a hundred on CoinMarketCap alone. Whether intentionally or by accident, Elon Musk — nicknamed the Dogefather on social media — contributed to SHIB's success.

Two months later, the developers sent half of the created coins to Vitalik Buterin as a sign of gratitude for his contribution to the development of the crypto industry. At that time, the gift was worth $6.7 billion. The PR move could have greatly contributed to SHIB's growth, but Buterin simply burned 90% of the donated coins, asking not to do that again.

The cold shoulder from Buterin may have been driven in part by a desire to keep network costs from rising. SHIB's trading activity has skyrocketed, which has increased pressure on Ethereum and made it difficult to expand its own coin. In May, the average commission on some days exceeded $50.

Now, SHIB's developers want to reduce their dependence on Ethereum by running the Shibarium blockchain on top of the main network. This will allow them to reduce commission and increase transaction speeds.

On 15 January, the official Shiba Inu blog featured an entry about the imminent deployment of the L2 blockchain. The developers expect a significant increase in SHIB's use since the innovation will provide the ability to create NFTs, games, metaverses and other decentralised applications on Shibarium. Judging by SHIB's movement relative to DOGE, trades are definitely buying the rumour. 

StormGain Analytics Team 
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)