The latest data from the cryptocurrency tracking service, Shibburn shows that in March 2022 alone, the popular dog-themed meme currency, Shiba Inu saw a substantial amount of SHIB being burned. Over six billion SHIB tokens were disposed of by the community, consisting of 433 separate burns.
Marking a record-breaking burn month for the cryptocurrency that is named after the same breed of Japanese dog featured in Dogecoin (DOGE), SHIB saw its burn rate climb by an astonishing 400% from February 2022 when only 1.48 billion tokens were burnt.
The biggest single transaction occurred on March 22 when one billion SHIB tokens were destroyed. The momentum continued until the end of March as over 460 million SHIB tokens were taken out of circulation forever through 11 separate burns.
The escalated burn rate could be due to the recent partnership with NOWPayments that assisted in a controlled SHIB burn. Per the partnership, NOWPayments will help merchants who accept SHIB, to dedicate portions of sales to token burning. This will enable retailers and web-store owners alike to contribute to supply reduction.
The burn process for Shiba Inu caught the community’s attention when half of its total supply of 50 trillion coins was sent to Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin. Following this gesture, Buterin burned 90% of the SHIB, which amounted to a total sum of $6 billion, according to data from Ethereum. He also donated the remaining coins to a Covid-19 relief fund in India.
As an ERC-20 altcoin created on the Ethereum blockchain, Shiba Inu is rooted in community involvement and the project may serve to alter rigid traditional financial structures through the power of collective decentralization.
According to its white paper, Shiba Inu is a community-run token led by 120,000 members who participate in spontaneous community building within an ecosystem that is run by its own decentralized exchange (DEX).
At time of writing, SHIB currently ranks 15th in the list of cryptocurrencies by market capitalization at $13.9 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Cryptwerk shows that 652 merchants worldwide currently accept SHIB as a payment.