The Shiba Inu coin (SHIB) is a major contender for the meme coin throne, often referred to as the “Dogecoin killer” by its supporters.
As the coin continues to grow, more people are becoming interested in the symbolic aspects of this project and wondering how many Shiba Inu coins are in circulation.
Understanding Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB)
Shiba Inu was created in August 2020 by pseudonymous developers. Unlike tokens that live on a dedicated network, (SHIB) is an ER-C20 token that exists on the Ethereum blockchain. As such, it has access to DeFi and related services, giving it an advantage over similar meme coins with less utility.
This utility, coupled with an unusually high token supply, which we will discuss in the next section, proved to be a distinctive factor that helped Shiba Inu stand out.
The ecosystem now includes projects like ShibaSwap (a decentralized exchange), NFTs, and play-to-earn Shiba Eternity.
Thanks to a dedicated community, the coin has exploded in popularity, today becoming one of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Total Shiba Inu Coin Supply
Shiba Inu’s supply when it launched in 2020 was 1 quadrillion SHIB tokens, or a trillion tokens. When SHIB launched, it had the largest token supply in the world. Unsurprisingly, the massive supply of Shiba Inu in circulation made headlines and helped the project gain worldwide attention.
It’s worth noting that a large bid doesn’t necessarily impact the project’s value or use case, and many in the space viewed the bid as a gimmick. For new crypto users unfamiliar with tokenomics, it may also seem that SHIB tokens were “cheaper” than other crypto tokens, and therefore more affordable.
Of course, the price of an individual crypto token should not be confused with the value of the crypto project itself! We’ll go into more detail about understanding the supply of a cryptocurrency later, but first let’s look at how many Shiba Inu coins are available today.
Current circulating supply of Shiba Inu
The SHIB crypto has not maintained its supply and it currently stands at 589 trillion SHIB. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent 410 trillion tokens to a dead wallet in 2021, effectively destroying or “burning” the tokens and declaring he would donate the rest to charity.
The SHIB community as a whole also burned or destroyed much of the initial supply in order to make SHIB deflationary, meaning it becomes scarcer over time. In true crypto fashion, the community decides when these burns will take place democratically, with those who own the most SHIB tokens having the most voting power.
Although it is likely that the development team is a major shareholder, their identity is unknown and it is unclear who the primary constituents of the community are.
This aims to reduce the total amount of Shiba Inu coins with the aim of making the tokens rarer and therefore, ideally, more valuable. Again, this comes down to the percentage of the supply held per investor. If an investor owns 10 tokens in a project with a supply of 100 tokens, they own 10% of the total supply.
If the community burns 50 tokens and leaves only 50 in the total supply, that same investor now owns 20% of the total supply instead of 10%, which can result in an increase in value for that investor .
Of the 589 trillion tokens remaining in supply, a portion remains in locked or burned wallets, further adding to the scarcity of the token supply.
Why supply matters to investors
The value of a cryptocurrency is the number of coins multiplied by the price of the coins.
Market capitalization = price x provide.
This is also true for ordinary corporations and their shares.
For example, Apple Inc. stock is worth $170 per sharewhile Berkshire Hathaway stock is worth $685,000 per share.
So, is Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway worth more than Apple Inc.?
No.
Apple is worth three and a half times more than Berkshire Hathaway, with a market cap of $3.45 trillion versus $984 billion.
That’s because Apple owns more shares than Berkshire Hathaway. The number of shares actually has no impact on the price or value of the company, it is just a fairly arbitrary way of dividing shares for sale.
Likewise, when someone buys SHIB tokens, they buy a percentage of the overall supply.
So a project could have an even lower token price than SHIB, but be worth more due to a higher market capitalization.
Investors don’t care about how many units of a stock or cryptocurrency they have, but how much value those units represent.
In short, investors should consider the token price and total supply when calculating the market cap, and the market cap is the actual value of the project, not the token price.
The Future of Shiba Inu Sourcing
The future of SHIB supply will play a major role in the price of the project.
Although burns are not usually announced in advance, they occur regularly and can be tracked online through tools such as the Shibburn account on x.com.
It is unclear how many SHIB tokens will be burned in the future, and the project team will likely use the burning mechanism in response to price headwinds as they see fit. Other pricing factors to watch out for include community initiatives and staking activities as well as any strategic partnerships obtained by Shiba Inu.
Comparison of Shiba Inu supply with other cryptocurrencies
As we now know, the supply of Shiba Inu is unusually high.
We also know that this supply alone does not dictate the value of a cryptocurrency, but must be considered alongside the token’s price and market capitalization.
Shiba Inu vs. Dogecoin (DOGE): Dogecoin has a circulating supply of approximately 141 billion DOGE. Unlike SHIB, which has an active combustion mechanism, Dogecoin has an unlimited supply with annual inflation.
Shiba Inu vs. Bitcoin (BTC): Bitcoin is known for its supply capped at 21 million BTC, with over 19 million BTC already in circulation. Bitcoin also has a halving mechanism whereby the number of bitcoins issued each year is halved every four years, making Bitcoin an increasingly scarce and deflationary asset. Unlike SHIB, the Bitcoin halving is programmatic and predetermined.
Bitcoin will halve its supply every four years and stop minting new tokens altogether in 2140. The certainty of this deflationary mechanism is one of the aspects of the Bitcoin project that has made it so valuable.
FAQs
How many Shiba Inu coins were originally issued?
Initially, 1 quadrillion Shiba Inu coins were issued when SHIB launched in August 2020.
How many Shiba Inu coins are left?
After the Vitalik Buterin burn and ongoing community-led burns, the total circulating Shiba Inu supply is approximately 589 trillion SHIB.
How many Shiba Inu coins are burned daily?
The number of SHIB tokens burned daily varies, as it is often community-driven. At the time of writing, over two billion tokens have been burned in the past week.
How many Shiba Inu coins are mined per day?
Unlike Bitcoin, Shiba Inu cannot be mined. The entire offering was created and released at launch, and no new tokens will be created.
Who owns the most Shiba Inu?
Currently, the largest holders of Shiba Inu include decentralized exchanges (DEX) and wallets linked to community initiatives. Vitalik Buterin remains a major starter, and the other starters are unknown.
