Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger breaks down what is driving the move behind Shiba Inu.

Video Transcript

KARINA MITCHELL: Well, just when you thought the frenzy may have fizzled a little after the launch of a futures exchange for Bitcoin, think again. The new crypto darling is meme coin, Shiba Inu. Here to tell us what it's all about and all the hype and what it is, is Yahoo Finance's Jennifer Schonberger. Seems like it came out of nowhere, and now right up there with the likes of the most sought after meme coins with Doge.

JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: Hey, there, Yeah, good afternoon. Crypto enthusiasts rallying around another dog inspired coin as you said, called Shiba Inu. Take a look at a seven-day chart here. The Shiba Inu token has surged over the past week to a market cap of nearly $40 billion. That's up from nearly $14 billion just seven days ago, with $47 billion in trading volume in just the past 24 hours. It's now surpassed Dogecoin and Robinhood in market capitalization. It is now the ninth largest coin measured by market capitalization.

So what exactly is the Shiba Inu? Well, it was created back in August 2020, and it shares the same Shiba Inu dog mascot that Dogecoin has, but it uses a different technology. Dogecoin uses a technology similar to that of Bitcoin, whereas Shiba Inu uses a technology similar to that of Ethereum. As for what's driving this move, well, analysts point to FOMO, fear of missing out. Perhaps if you missed that rally in the run-up in Dogecoin, you can get in here on this dog mascot coin.

Some have assimilated this to the crypto version of meme stocks that we saw with GameStop and the like on Wall Street. For those who maybe don't feel comfortable getting direct exposure here, BTIG fintech analyst Mark Palmer tells me that they may consider investing in the platforms that offer trading in Shiba Inu, like Coinbase or Canada's Voyage Digital. Both of those, he say, poised to benefit from the surge in Shiba Inu's trading volume. And as for good old Elon Musk and whether he owns any Shiba Inu, well, he doesn't. He sticking with Dogecoin, even though he does own that Shiba Inu dog. Back to you.

JARED BLIKRE: Well, Jennifer, I got a follow-up question here. We talk about, we were talking about the demand just now, a little bit of FOMO there. What about the supply? As I understand, there were one quadrillion tokens initially. Excuse me, I guess initially created. And then the owners, the founders, decided that they would burn half of them. And so that created less supply. I'm just wondering how the supply dynamics work, because it's a little bit different than Bitcoin, for instance.

JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: Yeah, exactly. There is technically actually no cap based on this. We know that Bitcoin is supposed to have a cap at 21 million units. That not really the case here. But like you said, perhaps some of that burning off is creating a bit of a supply and demand dynamic right now. But it's also kind of you see one person pile in and then another person piles in after that. So it seems to be sort of that effect of OK, well, let me get in, I don't want to miss the rip higher here.

KARINA MITCHELL: And let me tell you, ask you, there's been so much sort of excitement over this Shiba Inu and everyone wants to seem to be able to get in on it, but they can't. So there's a lot of pressure on Robinhood to add it as something that's available to people. Is that something that's in the works? What do we know about that?

JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: Yeah, great question. So it's actually not available on Robinhood. And customers have been clamoring for access to more coins on Robinhood's trading platform through their trading app. The executives were asked on an earnings call last night actually what the prospect is of adding more coins, and executives from Robinhood said they're doing their due diligence. They're aware of the customers' demands, but they want to make sure that they're complying with regulations and that these are not unregistered securities.

JARED BLIKRE: Well, Jennifer, I have to ask an important follow-up question to something you said a little bit earlier. You disclose that Elon Musk has said that he doesn't own any Shiba coin. I'm wondering if you do. Are you just talking your book here?

JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: No, I'm not talking my book. I don't own any of this. Clearly, I've missed the move, so maybe I should have owned some. And I don't own a Shiba Inu either, for the record.

KARINA MITCHELL: I think we may have all missed the boat, because it just exploded over the last week. And I myself was like, where do you get it? There's no way to get it. At least I don't know of any way.

JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: Yeah, exactly. It's hard to define the exposure. So we'll see. We'll keep an eye on the space. There is, as the analyst Mark Palmer told me, other ways to bet here, whether it's getting in on Coinbase or some alternative plays.