What makes Shiba Inu (SHIB) stronger than other meme tokens?

Despite having no real utility, 4 major memecoins are currently ranked in the top-50 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. One of them — Shiba Inu — became the epicenter of the memecoin frenzy and one of the most recognizable digital assets, even though it started as nothing more than a parody of the first memecoin, Dogecoin.

However, Shiba Inu is far from the only favorite among crypto investors. It faces intense competition from other serious memecoins such as Dogecoin, Pepe, FLOKI, and new players.

SHIB vs DOGE, PEPE, and others — who's leading?

As of August 2025, Dogecoin (DOGE) remains the leader by market capitalization: the figure for the first and foremost memecoin stands at $33.16 billion. Shiba Inu holds second place with a market cap of $7.44 billion and ranks 22nd among all cryptocurrencies, according to CoinMarketCap.

By market capitalization, SHIB significantly outpaces other major memecoins:

• Pepe (PEPE) — $4.52 billion (30th place on CMC ranking);
• Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) — $2.03 billion (48th place);
• Bonk (BONK) — $1.82 billion (52nd place);
• Official Trump (TRUMP) — $1.8 billion (54th place).

However, in terms of daily trading volume, Shiba Inu is only in seventh place: as of August 2025, this figure is just $182 million. This is even lower than BONK and dogwifhat (WIF), whose daily volumes reach $224 million and $198 million, respectively. The trading volume leaders are:

• DOGE — $2.84 billion;
• PEPE — $498 million;
• TRUMP — $298 million.

Development of Shiba Inu and comparison with other memecoin ecosystems

Initially, Shiba Inu was simply an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, with its unique feature being a huge supply: one quadrillion SHIB tokens were initially issued. Because of this, SHIB had an extremely low price — under $0.00000001.

Over time, a large community formed around Shiba Inu, and the project's ecosystem began to expand rapidly. Shiba Inu is one of the record holders in terms of Twitter (X) followers, exceeding 4.3 million — significantly more than leading altcoin Ethereum. By follower count, Shiba Inu is second only to Dogecoin, which has over 5 million.

Today, Shiba Inu has one of the most developed ecosystems among memecoins, something that even Dogecoin cannot boast. The Shiba Inu ecosystem includes:

• Decentralized exchange (DEX) ShibaSwap;
• Its own Layer-2 network, Shibarium, built on Ethereum;
• The Shibaverse metaverse and NFT collections;
• Utility tokens LEASH and BONE.

Among competitors, only FLOKI has a comparably developed ecosystem, including DeFi tools, the Valhalla blockchain game, an NFT marketplace, and a metaverse.

Shiba Inu also has strong partners, including well-known brands such as Walmart and Travala. The SHIB logo has appeared in basketball arenas, for example, in Los Angeles. Moreover, Shiba Inu has been mentioned multiple times in major outlets such as Forbes, Bloomberg, and The Guardian.

Unlike PEPE or BONK, SHIB has a clear roadmap through 2027, which includes launching a decentralized autonomous organization (Shiba DAO) and integrating with IoT devices.

According to analysts, for memecoins to "survive," at least five factors are necessary:

• A developed DeFi and NFT ecosystem (experts note that 8 out of 10 "surviving" memecoins have this);
• An active community of at least half a million users;
• Real-world use cases in projects (e.g., DeFi liquidity or collateral in lending);
• Decentralized governance (DAO);
• Strong media presence and cultural relevance through frequent mentions in social networks.

Shiba Inu, like FLOKI, meets all these criteria, unlike DOGE, which only meets two. For instance, BONK meets 4 out of 5 criteria but heavily depends on the Solana ecosystem, making it vulnerable if SOL crashes. PEPE meets at least three, but lacks its ecosystem.

Still, SHIB cannot boast high trading activity, even compared to PEPE, BONK, and PENGU. Analysts attribute this to several factors:

• Intensified competition and the emergence of new strong players attracting investors (PENGU, TRUMP, SPX, FARTCOIN, BRETT, and others);
• Increased speculative activity amid the overall crypto market rise;
• Rapid development of Solana, Toncoin, and BNB Chain ecosystems in 2024–2025, as well as the launch of token-issuing platforms like Pump.fun and Four.meme;
• Decreased whale activity and declining institutional investor interest, as they shifted to other crypto projects.

On the other hand, relatively low trading volumes combined with large capitalization may indicate high interest from long-term holders — similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum, which lag behind Solana and BNB Chain in network activity despite far larger capitalization.

Advantages of Shiba Inu compared to other major memecoins

Shiba Inu, with its strong ecosystem, stands out among even the largest memecoins because it:

• It is built on Ethereum, the leading blockchain platform, unlike the technically outdated Dogecoin;
• It is not dependent on famous individuals, unlike DOGE and FLOKI (heavily influenced by Elon Musk's tweets);
• Has a strong ecosystem and a clear roadmap, which DOGE and PEPE lack;
• It is not tied to a single ecosystem (SHIB operates on Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Base).

Shiba Inu has a strong technological foundation and has become something of a crypto-community icon — all of which can ensure long-term demand for the asset.

However, analysts note that Shiba Inu must keep pace with Web3 innovations, such as the integration of AI technologies and tokenization (RWA), as competition in the crypto market continues to intensify. Much of SHIB's future will depend on this.