Yes, one of the biggest coins on the market is that of Dogecoin, which as of writing is worth $1.08 billion and is the 12th biggest coin in the world. Shiba Inu and SuperDoge-
However, right behind DOGE, in 13th place is a similarly named Shiba Inu coin and further down is the SuperDoge coin i.e. Shiba Inu and SuperDoge. They are all based around the same concept: one of the biggest and longest lasting memes in internet history: doge.
Doge was famously created as a joke by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. The joke was to make fun of the idea of cryptocurrencies, so… that really landed.
Like any other hipster endeavour, people took part in the joke “ironically”, in this case by paying into it regularly, and before you knew it, it was a mainstream trend that posers liked but didn’t get, making a couple of software engineers and a lot of investors a massive amount of money in the process.
And that’s how we got here, with Dogecoin, with its regal shiba inu pup’s face stamped to the coin like the Queen’s and spoken in the same sentence frequently as Bitcoin.
But what about those two copycats we mentioned? Are they also just a joke? Or an attempt to piggyback off a lucrative business venture? In this guide, we’re asking the ultimate question: are the copycats going to catch up to Dogecoin?
No, this joke’s been told before
Beyond buying the odd Netflix subscription or comedy night ticket, people don’t tend to pay money for a joke. Dogecoin caught lightning in a bottle when they launched their “joke” coin and lightning rarely strikes twice. They tapped into a very niche demographic of people making fun of cryptocurrency while wanting to be part of the joke. That is some grade-A hipster behaviour. From there, others just wanted to coo at the cute doggo on the coin, laugh at the nostalgic meme or otherwise enjoy the joke that was the meme itself, and clapped with their wallets. As explained, soon there was enough of them to make Dogecoin a legitimate coin.
But the thing with comedy is that it is fickle, and the number one rule of it is that it should be original. Sure, you might laugh at some feline equivalent of a doge joke, but not quite as hard. That could be all the difference for a lot of people to decide not to donate to the stock – and then the joke dies. If you’re looking to keep the joke alive, one of the best ways to buy DOGE is with Robin Hood.
Yes, Shiba Inu is catching up
However, Shiba Inu is in fact catching up with Dogecoin. They are in 13th and 12th place respectively. Doge can probably feel the breath of Shiba Inu on its neck.
So perhaps you can, in fact, catch lightning in a bottle twice. It defies all logic in terms of what coin to donate to. The joke of Dogecoin is the doge meme, and here it is again, with no variation whatsoever. Except, perhaps, the initial idea of making fun of crypto. Without that, Shiba Inu is a genuine attempt to make money from people who just appreciate a good meme, with no irony attached.
No, Dogecoin is too big
And yet, it’s not Shiba Inu that people say when they think of the famed Japanese pup, it’s doge. Doge has been steadily gaining traction since its inception in 2013 and has recently gained a substantial boost with a tweet of endorsement from the king of crypto, Elon Musk.
With a market capital of $20.72 billion as of writing, Shiba Inu will have to work hard to become a rival household name, but perhaps not a capital competitor. History would say that you would need the former to get the latter.
Yes, the lifecycle of crypto demands it
Or maybe, like the lifecycle of so many things, memes, jokes, fashion, the cryptocurrency also ends with the population that was previously cheering it on simply moving on to something else. Maybe the Dogecoin joke has gotten old.
Not the cute pup, but the concept of making fun of crypto. Although it’s largely forgotten, it still gets brought up as a conversation starter whenever Dogecoin is mentioned. Maybe it’s as simple as the laughter dying for Dogecoin while Shiba Inu enjoys the applause. They’ll swap places over the 12th and 13th place back and forth until the horrifying day when another meme overtakes them.
Sometime soon, the joke will move on to the next funniest thing, and if we’re reaching into our bag of nostalgic memes, a good prediction would be a Harambe coin. And so, the cycle continues.
The thing that opposes this theory, is that there is no other joke crypto in the top 100 cryptocurrencies on the market. Dogecoin is 12th. The moment truly was lightning in a bottle, and so was Shiba Inu’s attempt, but the curtains are closing. These two sit at the top, and the rest of the joke coins out there peddle on, begging their audience to please clap.