By James Davis
Dog-themed cryptos have continued to gain popularity since Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, first tweeted about Dogecoin three years ago. In his 2019 tweet, the Tesla founder declared Dogecoin as his favorite crypto, and since then, several dog-themed tokens have craved similar attention.
While Shiba Inu and Dogecoin are evidently the top two tokens in the memecoin space, the recent rise of BONK, a Solana-based dog-themed coin, has grabbed the attention of several crypto traders as its price surged by 3,300% two weeks ago, boosting the Solana price as well.
According to CoinGecko, the three tokens, Shiba Inu, BONK, and Dogecoin, have recorded a trading volume totaling $24 billion over the past month. It is worth noting that BONK launched on December 25, 2022, and has so far generated $880 million.
Meanwhile, Dogecoin leads with a trading volume worth $16.2 billion, while Shiba Inu comes second with $7.1 billion. Also, DOGE and SHIB are currently down by 87% and 89%, respectively, from their all-time highs. BONK has fallen by 77% from its highest price set just a few days ago.
The Rise of Copycat Tokens
CoinGecko data shows over 160 tokens mimicking Dogecoin by including the word ‘Doge’ in their names. These tokens have recorded $323 million in trades over the past month. Also, 111 tokens have added Shiba to their names and generated a trading volume worth $221 million over the past month.
In addition, the launch of BONK has given birth to a number of copycats, including Catbonk, Shibonk, and Dogebonk. These three coins have generated nearly $250 million in trading volume since BONK launched, according to CoinGecko.
The copycat tokens tend to be more volatile than the actual meme tokens they are based on. However, in many cases, these tokens are usually scams. For example, Peckshiled, a blockchain security company, reported on Tuesday that BONK built on Polygon had crashed by 98% out of nowhere.
Shiba Inu Draws Inspiration From Dogecoin
Nonetheless, even the big two dog-themed tokens have copied each other in some aspects. For example, Shiba Inu adopted a similar dog breed to Dogecoin when it launched in 2020. The big difference between the two coins is that Dogecoin runs on its own blockchain while Shiba Inu is Ethereum-based.