The Shiba Inu cryptocurrency token has soared to an all-time high despite a lack of support from Elon Musk.
The meme token was worth $ 0.000059 at around 3 a.m. EDT on Wednesday morning, according to CoinMarketCap – a fraction of a dollar but the highest price it had ever hit.
At about the same time, the token rose more than 30 percent in the past 24 hours while its market capitalization, the total value of all Shiba Inu coins in circulation, was $ 22.6 billion.
These numbers are likely to change quickly due to the volatility of asset trading and especially cryptocurrency trading. Experts have already briefed Newsweek on the risks and dangers involved in investing in technology.
Shiba Inu‘s current rise comes after the cryptocurrency community known among them as the SHIB Army was ridiculed in recent days when Elon Musk snubbed the token on Twitter.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is a popular and influential figure in cryptocurrency circles, with many cryptocurrency enthusiasts vying for his attention. He has publicly endorsed Bitcoin, and Dogecoin in particular, in the past.
On October 24, a popular Shiba Inu fan account tweeted Musk to ask: “Hey Elon Musk, how much SHIB [are you] holding?” Musk replied: “None.”
Immediately after Musk’s tweet, Shiba Inu’s price plummeted, though it’s unclear whether that was the only reason.
The price bounced back on October 26, not before Twitter users started joking about the situation.
A screenshot of Musk’s short answer, along with the subsequent drop in Shiba Inu’s price, was posted by the ‘Crypto Bros Taking Ls’ account, which was supposed to poke fun at the crypto community and had garnered over 170,000 likes by Wednesday.
After a pushback from the Shiba Inu community—one popular tweet by a fan account read “we don’t need Elon Musk”—the price jumped over Tuesday and Wednesday.
In a subsequent tweet, Musk said that “out of curiosity” he only invested in three cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin.
“As I’ve said before, don’t bet the farm on crypto,” he warned.
It’s not the first time Musk’s apparent influence has caused a stir in the cryptocurrency world.
His tweets or public appearances coincided with past market activity, such as his announcement that Tesla would suspend Bitcoin payments or his appearance on Saturday Night Live mentioning Dogecoin, causing the price to collapse.
Shiba Inu is one of many dog-themed cryptocurrencies that emerged after the widespread success of Dogecoin, which was founded as a joke in 2013 but ended up building an active community and becoming one of the highest quality cryptocurrency tokens out there.
