Meme coins surge 50 per cent while Bitcoin, Ethereum also gain ground

A type of cryptocurrency that started out as a joke is outperforming the biggest players in the market during a horror few weeks.

Cryptocurrency Shiba Inu has rocketed 50 per cent in just a day as dog-themed tokens were the top gainers over the last 24 hours.

The surge comes amid a broad recovery in crypto with Bitcoin‘s value going up to just under US$44,000 (A$61,000) and Ether’s price now at US$3,100 (A$4300), The Sun reports.

SHIB tokens surged to $0.0000342 from the $0.000022 over the last day while Dogecoin jumped to $0.1661 from $0.145.

The move caused nearly $10 million in losses to liquidations for traders of SHIB-tracked futures products, according to Coin Desk.

After becoming one of the dominant meme currencies of 2021, Shiba Inu’s value had been on a downward trend for the most part since late October.

On October 28 last year, Shiba hit an all-time high of $0.00008845.

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Shiba Inu jumped by a whopping 49 per cent.

Some of this can be attributed to countries threatening or enacting a ban on cryptocurrencies in general.

Moreover, another reason is inflation. In efforts to combat it, the US Federal Reserve is now planning on hiking interest rates in March.

Meanwhile, Shiba’s price collapse wasn’t stopped by its listing on crypto exchange CoinDCX in November.

Up until then, Shiba was only available on the platform in trade-only mode on CoinDCX Pro.

Shiba Inu in the last day. Source: CoinDesk

Shiba Inu in the past year. Source: CoinDesk

Last year Shiba Inu became the first cryptocurrency firm in India to reach a valuation of over US$1 billion, earning it coveted unicorn status.

And now traders are wondering whether its price will reach $0.10 this year.

Marie Tatibouet, chief marketing officer of crypto exchange Gate.io, told The Sun that it‘s tough to predict what the “community” will do next but sees the Shiba rally cooling off soon.

Meanwhile, experts claim Bitcoin will reach a peak of about $93,717 (A$130,000) in 2022.

However, the experts added that the cryptocurrency value will drop to $76,360 (A$106,000) by the end of the year.

The year-end prediction is roughly 60 per cent higher than the price of Bitcoin at the beginning of 2022.

This article originally appeared onThe Sun and was reproduced here with permission.