Shiba Inu, a dogecoin spin-off, is close to surpassing Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency dogecoin. The digital token has surged 28% in the last 24 hours and hit a record high above $0.00005. It has more than doubled in price in the last week. With a market capitalization of over $28 billion, shiba inu is now the 11th largest cryptocurrency. Dogecoin is the 10th with a market cap of $31 billion. Dogecoin was down 12% in the last 24 hours. Shiba Inu is a so-called ‘mem token’ that bills itself as a ‘dogecoin killer'. It takes its branding from the same internet meme dogecoin is based upon, using the image of a Japanese Shiba Inu dog. The token was anonymously created in August 2020 as an experiment in decentralized spontaneous community building. Shiba Inu is based on the Ethereum blockchain, which has become a go-to for numerous new token projects. It’s all part of the fast-growing trend known as decentralized finance, which aims to replicate traditional financial products like lending and trading. The rise of meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu mimic the GameStop ($GME@US) saga that took place earlier this year, when a flood of retail traders inspired by a Reddit forum piled into the video game retailer’s stock, leading to wild swings in the price.