How many Shiba Inu coins are there? Current supply & future outlook

The Shiba Inu (SHIB) coin is a major contender for the meme coin throne, often referred to as the ‘Dogecoin killer’ by its supporters.

As the coin continues to grow, more people are interested in the tokenomics of this project and find themselves wondering how many Shiba Inu coins are in circulation.

Understanding Shiba Inu money (SHIB)

Shiba Inu was created by pseudonymous developers in August 2020. It is an ER-C20 token that resides on the Ethereum blockchain, unlike tokens that live on a private network (SHIB). Therefore, it has access to DeFi and related services, giving it an advantage over similar meme coins that provide fewer benefits.

This utility, combined with the unusually high supply of tokens, which we will discuss in the next section, has proven to be a differentiating factor that helps Shiba Inu stand out.

The ecosystem now includes projects like ShibaSwap (a decentralized exchange), NFTs, and the win-win game Shiba Eternity.

With a dedicated community, the cryptocurrency has rapidly grown in popularity and has become one of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap today.

Total supply of Shiba Inu coins

Shiba Inu’s supply at launch in 2020 was 1 quadrillion SHIB tokens, or one thousand trillion tokens. At launch, SHIB had the largest token supply in the world. Unsurprisingly, the huge supply of Shiba Inu in circulation made news headlines and helped the project attract worldwide attention.

Shiba Inu price page with TradingView chart widget | Source: crypto.news

It’s worth noting that a large supply does not necessarily impact the value or use case of the project, and many in the space view the supply as a gimmick. For new crypto users unfamiliar with the tokenomics, SHIB tokens can also be considered ‘cheaper’ and therefore more affordable than other crypto tokens.

Of course, the price of an individual crypto token should not be confused with the value of the actual crypto project! We’ll dive into more detail on how to understand a cryptocurrency’s supply later, but first let’s take a look at how many Shiba Inu coins are available today.

Current circulating supply of Shiba Inu

SHIB crypto has not maintained its supply and currently stands at 589 trillion SHIB. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent 410 trillion tokens to a dead wallet in 2021, effectively destroying or ‘burning’ the tokens and stating that he would donate the rest to charity.

The SHIB community as a whole burned or destroyed much of the initial supply to make SHIB deflationary, meaning it became scarce over time. In true crypto style, the community decides when these burns will occur democratically, with those holding the most SHIB tokens having the most voting power.

While it is possible that the dev team are major shareholders, their identities are unknown and it is unclear who the main voters in the community are.

This aims to reduce the total amount of Shiba Inu coins to make the tokens less available and therefore ideally worth more money. This again depends on the percentage of supply owned per investor. If an investor owns 10 tokens in a project with a supply of 100 tokens, they own 10% of the total supply.

If the community burns 50 tokens, leaving only 50 tokens in the total supply, that same investor now owns 20% of the total supply instead of 10%, which could mean an increase in value for that investor.

Some of the 589 trillion tokens remaining in supply remain in locked or burned wallets, further exacerbating the shortage in token supply.

Why is supply important for investors?

The value of a cryptocurrency is the number of coins multiplied by the price of the coins.

Market value = price x supply.

This also applies to ordinary companies and their stocks.

For example, shares of Apple Inc. are worth $170 per share, while shares of Berkshire Hathaway are worth $685,000 per share.

So, is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway worth more than Apple Inc.?

NO.

Apple is three and a half times more valuable than Berkshire Hathaway, with a market cap of $3.45 trillion versus $984 billion.

This is because Apple owns more shares than Berkshire Hathaway. The number of shares does not actually affect the price or value of the company at all; it’s just a rather arbitrary way of dividing shares for sale.

Similarly, when someone buys SHIB tokens, they are purchasing a percentage of the total supply.

So a project’s token price may be lower than SHIB, but it may be more valuable due to its higher market cap.

Investors are not interested in how many units of a stock or cryptocurrency they own, but what value those units represent.

In short, investors need to look at the token price and total supply when calculating the market value, and the market value is the actual value of the project, not the token price.

The future of Shiba Inu supply

The future of SHIB supply will play an important role in the price of the project.

Burns occur regularly, although often without advance notice, and can be tracked online through tools such as the Shibburn account on x.com.

HOURLY SHIB UPDATE$SHIB Price: $0.00001623 (1 hour 1.50% ▲ | 24 hours -2.06% ▼ )
Market Value: $9,517,223,488 (-2.64% ▼)
Total Supply: 589,269,152,127,483

COINS BURNED
Last 24 Hours: 2,633,223 (%226.54 ▲)
Last 7 Days: 2,006,818,487 (▲6121.99%)

— Shibburn (@shibburn) October 3, 2024

It is unclear how many SHIB tokens will be burned in the future, and the project team will likely use the burn mechanism as they see fit in response to price headwinds. Other price factors to watch include community initiatives and staking activities, as well as strategic partnerships secured by Shiba Inu.

Comparing the supply of Shiba Inu with other cryptocurrencies

As we now know, the supply of Shiba Inu is unusually high.

We also know that this supply alone does not determine the value of a cryptocurrency, but must be taken into account alongside the token price and market cap.

Shiba Inu and Dogecoin (DOGE): Dogecoin has a circulating supply of approximately 141 billion DOGE. Unlike SHIB, which has an active burn mechanism, Dogecoin has an unlimited supply with annual inflation.

Shiba Inu and Bitcoin (BTC): Bitcoin is known for its limited supply of 21 million BTC, with more than 19 million BTC currently in circulation. Bitcoin also has a halving mechanism where the number of bitcoins minted each year is halved every four years, making Bitcoin an increasingly scarce and deflationary asset. Unlike SHIB, the Bitcoin halving is a scheduled and predetermined event.

It will halve the Bitcoin supply every four years and completely stop issuing new tokens in 2140. The certainty of this deflationary mechanism is one of the aspects of the Bitcoin project that makes it so valuable.

FAQ How many Shiba Inu coins were initially released?

Initially, 1 quadrillion Shiba Inu coins were released when SHIB was launched in August 2020.

How many Shiba Inu coins are left?

Following Vitalik Buterin’s burn and ongoing community-led burns, the total supply of Shiba Inu in circulation is around 589 trillion SHIB.

How many Shiba Inu coins are burned per day?

The number of SHIB tokens burned daily varies as it is generally driven by the community. At the time of this writing, more than two billion tokens were burned last week.

How many Shiba Inu coins are mined per day?

Unlike Bitcoin, Shiba Inu cannot be mined. The entire supply has been minted and released at launch and no new tokens will be created.

Who has the most Shiba Inu?

Currently, the largest holders of Shiba Inu include decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and wallets associated with community initiatives. Vitalik Buterin remains the main shareholder and other owners are unknown.