Shiba inu cryptocurrency surges after two words from Elon Musk

A single tweet from Elon Musk containing just two words which had absolutely nothing to do with cryptocurrency led to a huge spike.

A single tweet containing two words in total which had absolutely nothing to do with cryptocurrency has seen Shiba Inu skyrocket in price.

Over the last 24 hours SHIB has soared by a whopping 45 per cent.

It’s all thanks to a tweet by Tesla CEO and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who has been colloquially called “the crypto king” and “the dogefather” because of his ability to so easily sway the crypto market.

Although the Shiba Inu coin is still selling for less than a dollar, now standing at $US0.00001688 ($A0.000023), crypto enthusiasts pointed out on social media that it “deleted a zero” after Mr Musk’s tweet. An entire decimal disappeared in the excitement.

All he did was say “Floki Frunkpuppy” accompanied with a picture of his new puppy.

Floki Frunkpuppy pic.twitter.com/xAr8T0Jfdf

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2021

Mr Musk bought a puppy shiba inu in September and named him Floki.

The dog purchase could be a nod to cryptocurrency. Whatever the reason for his post, it was enough to send his supporters scrambling to buy the coin, thereby boosting the price.

Shiba inu originally started off as a joke which could explain why this seemingly unrelated tweet buoyed the market so much.

The shiba inu coin was created in August 2020 by an anonymous person who called themselves “Ryoshi”.

The mystery founder created the coin as a spin-off of dogecoin.

In late 2013, US software engineer Billy Markus and Australian entrepreneur Jackson Palmer created dogecoin as a joke to make fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies at the time.

They used a Japanese dog, a shiba inu, as a mascot for their coin.

Mr Musk was one of the earliest crypto celebrities to throw his weight behind both joke cryptocurrencies.

Shiba inu (SHIB) now has a market capitalisation of $US6,941,686,368 ($A9.5 billion) according to CoinMarketCap.

Elon Musk is the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and also a crypto enthusiast. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

Shiba inu’s price over the last 24 hours. Picture: CoinMarketCap

It’s not the first time Mr Musk’s pet dog has had an influence over the world’s crypto market.

In June, Mr Musk tweeted “My Shiba Inu will be named Floki” and it caused the coin to rise by a staggering 75 per cent, Stockhead reported at the time.

Then last month, on September 12, Mr Musk actually bought the pup – and tweeted a picture of his shiba inu, saying “Floki has arrived.”

This one prompted possibly the biggest rise to date.

Shiba inu rose by a breathtaking 958 per cent after the first picture of Floki, according to NDTV.

My Shiba Inu will be named Floki

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 25, 2021

Floki has arrived pic.twitter.com/2MiUKb91FT

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 12, 2021

Musk is a huge believer in dogecoin.

A few months ago, he said dogecoin could easily “become the currency of Earth” and beat other cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin, “hands down”.

Bitcoin is soon going to update its system with the taproot update in November.

Dogecoin was first created in 2013 as a joke payment system, but many, including Musk, believe it will make lots of money in the future.

Musk has previously said that anything he says about doge should not be taken seriously.