Shiba Inu coin price tumbles as Elon Musk admits he does not own any
Shiba Inu coin looked like it was on course for the moon this week until a shock revelation by Elon Musk brought it crashing back down to Earth.
Celebrity entrepreneur Elon Musk has confirmed that he does not own any SHIB causing its price to tumble by -11.4 per cent from its all time high of $0.00004432 (£0.000032) reached yesterday.
In a tweet, Mr Musk responded to repeated questioning about his stance on the coin and said he only owns Bitcoin, Ethereum and the meme-based currency which inspired Shiba Inu, Dogecoin.
Musk wrote: “I acquired some ascii hash strings called ‘Bitcoin, Ethereum & Doge.’ That’s it.
“As I’ve said before, don’t bet the farm on crypto! True value is building products & providing services to your fellow human beings, not money in any form,” Musk added, warning investors against betting too heavily on digital assets.
Background
Hype around Shiba Inu coin has seen the currency make wild gains over the past year, with price up by a breathtaking 45,133,885 per cent in twelve months.
While the original meme-based crypto Dogecoin styles itself as a currency Shiba Inu coin and its spinoff tokens BONE and LEASH can be used to power transactions and earn rewards on ShibaSwap, a decentralised exchange.
Earlier this month Shiba Inu surpassed 1m followers on Twitter, with a sharp growth in social media interest correlating strongly with a jump in price according to analysis by Lunar Crush. And yesterday, SHIB blasted its way into the top eleven crypto currencies after its market cap swelled to over $20bn.
Analysts say
Commenting on the impact of Musk’s comments on SHIB’s price dip Marcus Sotiriou, Sales Trader at UK based digital asset broker GlobalBlock, said: “Celebrities like Elon Musk with such a huge following are definitely able to affect crypto markets.
“I think this is particularly the case when the market is being dominated by retail,” he added, stressing that as institutions become more prolific in the crypto space the impact of celebrity influencers on crypto is likely to decline.
“This is part of the natural progression towards a more mature asset class with less volatility,” Sotiriou explained.
Read more: Bitcoin hits highest levels since May while SHIBA continues to run riot