After a rough few months of slipping down the ranks, Shiba Inu is back in the top 15 cryptocurrencies by market cap. In the last 24 hours, the price of Shiba Inu has spiked in excess of 5%, allowing it to overtake cryptocurrencies like Wrapped Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to reach the 14th spot with a market cap of $4.8 billion.
Shiba Inu Jumps 5% In 24 Hours, Reclaiming 14th Spot
The price of the majority of cryptocurrencies seems to be plateauing in the past week, with some even losing some of their market cap. However, meme coins like Shiba Inu and Dogecoin seem to be doing slightly well, with DOGE leading the pack with a 7.02% gain in the past seven days.
In the case of Shiba Inu (SHIB), the altcoin has found a bit of momentum, amassing an increase of 293.16% in trading volume in the past 24 hours.
As usual with volatile meme coins, it’s hard to pin down an exact catalyst of the spike. However, the price jump seems to have come after Shiba Inu’s developers announced the release of a testnet bridge between Shibarium and Ethereum.
Shibarium to Ethereum Testnet Bridge Pushes SHIB’s Price by 5%
Shiba Inu has come a long way since its creation as a meme coin made just to challenge the popular Dogecoin (DOGE). However, the Shiba Inu ecosystem now has a lot of following, investors, developers, and an active community.
Shiba Inu developers are now working on a Layer-2 upgrade with the aim of developing the ecosystem and becoming a serious blockchain contender. The network, which will operate on top of Ethereum, is called Shibarium and was announced earlier in March. When Shibarium is launched, it is expected to help minimize costs and increase transaction speeds.
🔥 Shibarium Beta Bridge has gone live for public testing! 🎉
Be among the first to try out this revolutionary cross-chain solution.
Remember, always exercise caution and verify authenticity before connecting your wallet to any website.
PLEASE DO NOT USE YOUR REAL ASSETS!… pic.twitter.com/7yfhX8gQc6
— 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐄 (@LucieSHIB) July 26, 2023
On July 28, SHIB devs began testing a bridge that allows tokens to be easily transferred between the Shibarium and Ethereum. The testnet release is an important step toward making Shibarium a reality. This cross-chain solution seems to have sparked the interest of SHIB investors, as the price of the token spiked in the hours after.
How High Can The Price Go?
Shiba Inu is the second-largest meme coin in terms of market cap. Although the price is now nearly 80% from its all-time high in October 2021, current upgrades show momentum seems to be turning positive.
The coming months and the progress of the Shibarium Layer-2 will be crucial in determining whether Shiba Inu can build on this momentum to retest previous highs or whether it continues to plateau.
At the time of writing, SHIB is trading at $0.000008191.
SHIB price recovers above $0.000008 | Source: SHIBUSD on Tradingview.com
Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com