Shiba Inu locked horns with Bitcoin in January 2022 and this happened

Sahana Kiran
Shiba Inu
Source – Pixabay

2021, a year that accelerated the world’s shift into the digital verse. Shiba Inu [SHIB] wasn’t a mere spectator, the meme coin opened the doors of the crypto market to an array of investors. Now, the meme coin has taken over the OG cryptocurrency, Bitcoin itself in terms of popularity.

NFTs, Metaverse, and Meme coins are what ruled the world throughout 2021. As the globe traverses into 2022, the topics of interest continue to remain the same. While the pandemic was harsh on mankind, it provided momentum to the digital metamorphosis the world was undergoing. The crypto industry, in particular, got a massive boost. As the industry became more valuable, people flocked into the market. With this, came a multitude of new digital assets and Shiba Inu was one among them.

Bitcoin [BTC] has remained an undefeated cryptocurrency for the longest time. The price and market cap of the king coin hasn’t been tethered by any other crypto. Despite the arrival of several coins, BTC’s popularity wasn’t tarnished either. However now, the meme coin revolution seemed to be taking a toll on the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

As per a report curated by CryptoDiffer, it was revealed that Shiba Inu was the most popular coin on CoinMarketCap in the month of January. The meme coin took over prominent cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum which hoards a market cap of $789 billion and $364 billion, respectively.

Source – CryptoDiffer

Shiba Inu’s market cap, at press time, was around $12 billion while it was priced at $0.000023. The disparity in the price and market cap and price was incredibly high.

Where did all the trading volume go?

Not just popularity, did meme coins like Shiba Inu steal all the trading volume as well? Online analytics firm, Santiment revealed that the coveted top cryptocurrencies were enduring a decrease in their trading volume compared to 2021.

The volatility in the price of Bitcoin certainly impacted this graph. But, the interest in meme coins is speculated to have drawn the trading volume from these assets with bigger market cap.

Shiba Inu and Bitcoin’s social engagement dips this week

Despite an array of developments in its market, the social volume of Shiba Inu took a massive hit. The meme coin’s social engagement was further down by over 17.46% since the last week.

Source – LunarCrush

Bitcoin, however, endured an even bigger fall. Similar to SHIB, Bitcoin was widely spoken about throughout Crytpo Twitter. From India regulating cryptocurrencies to Arizona’s State Senator pushing to make BTC a legal tender, it was all over the news. Yet, the largest cryptocurrency’s social engagement was down by 29%.

Source – LunarCrush

Furthermore, it’s no doubt that Bitcoin paved the way for the arrival of thousands of cryptocurrencies. However, the new-gen seemed to be slightly more inclined towards meme coins.