Shiba inu coin skyrockets 65% after an Elon Musk tweet supercharges the token – taking weekly gains to 220% | Currency News | Financial and Business News

• Shiba inu coin’s price jumped 65% on Wednesday, taking its weekly gain to more than 220%.
• The meme token has skyrocketed after Elon Musk tweeted a picture of his Shiba Inu dog Monday.
• Shiba inu’s rise comes during a broad upswing in the cryptocurrency market that saw bitcoin top $50,000.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Shiba inu coin’s breakneck rally has showed no signs of slowing down, with the dogecoin-inspired token soaring by 60% on Wednesday.

The three-day run higher was sparked by Elon Musk tweeting about his Shiba Inu dog on Monday, demonstrating the influence the Tesla boss has in crypto markets.

Shiba inu coin was up 65% to $0.00002223 on Wednesday as of 5.55 a.m. ET, according to Coingecko data, having earlier risen as much as 80%. The token has gained around 220% over the last seven days.

The token was founded in 2020, with its anonymous creator dubbing it a “meme token.” It explicitly mimicked dogecoin, a cryptocurrency started in 2013 as a joke that captured the imagination of crypto retail traders.

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Shiba inu has gained during an upswing in the broader cryptocurrency market, which saw bitcoin top $50,000 for the first time in a month on Tuesday.

Yet shiba inu has beaten the rest of the market handsomely, with analysts pointing to Musk’s post to Twitter as a catalyst. Musk on Monday tweeted a picture of his pet Shiba Inu with the caption “Floki Frunkpuppy.”

The Tesla boss is hugely influential in crypto markets and has been a key player in the digital-asset boom in 2021. Even his minor interventions have triggered big moves in the crypto markets.

The Musk-driven rally has seen shiba inu’s market capitalization – the total value of the existing coins – top $11 billion. It is now in the top 20 biggest cryptocurrencies, according to Coinmarketcap.

Shiba’s rise appeared to be lifting dogecoin, the token that inspired it. Doge was up slightly to $0.24590 on Wednesday, having risen 25% over the last seven days.

“A number of market participants see a rotation back into memecoins/dogcoins as being inevitable,” analysts at the Kraken exchange said in a note.

“While one could expect capital to flow back into these names should 4Q prove to be as promising as many expect it to be, there’s no guarantee the momentum holds up in the short term.”