The Shiba Inu cryptocurrency token has jumped in price to an all-time high despite a lack of backing from Elon Musk.
The meme token was worth $0.000059 at around 3 a.m. EDT on Wednesday morning according to CoinMarketCap—a fraction of a dollar, but the highest price it had fetched so far.
At around the same time, the token was up more than 30 percent over the previous 24 hours, while its market cap—the total value of all Shiba Inu coins in circulation—was $22.6 billion.
These figures are likely to change rapidly due to the volatile nature of asset trading and cryptocurrency trading in particular. Experts have previously told Newsweek about the risks and dangers associated with investing in the technology.
Shiba Inu's current rise comes after the cryptocurrency's community, known among themselves as the SHIB Army, faced ridicule over the past few days with Elon Musk snubbing the token on Twitter.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is seen as a popular and influential figure in cryptocurrency circles with many crypto enthusiasts vying for his attention. He has publicly supported Bitcoin and particularly Dogecoin in the past.
On October 24, a popular Shiba Inu fan account tweeted Musk to ask: "Hey Elon Musk, how much SHIB [are you] holding?" Musk replied: "None."
None
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2021
Immediately after Musk's tweet the price of Shiba Inu dived, though it's unclear if that was the sole cause.
The price ended up recovering by October 26, but not before Twitter users joked about the situation.
A screenshot of Musk's curt reply, along with the subsequent Shiba Inu price drop, was posted by the 'Crypto Bros Taking Ls' account designed to tease the cryptocurrency community. It had gained over 170,000 likes by Wednesday.
Following a pushback by the Shiba Inu community—one popular tweet by a fan account read "we don't need Elon Musk"—the price jumped over Tuesday and Wednesday.
In a subsequent tweet, Musk said he had invested in only three cryptocurrencies "out of curiosity" and that they were Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin.
"As I've said before, don't bet the farm on crypto," he warned.
Out of curiosity, I acquired some ascii hash strings called “Bitcoin, Ethereum & Doge”. That’s it.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2021
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.
It's not the first time that Musk's apparent influence on the cryptocurrency world has caused a stir.
His tweets or public appearances have coincided with market activity in the past, such as his announcement that Tesla would suspend Bitcoin payments or his appearance on Saturday Night Live in which he mentioned Dogecoin, after which its price plummeted.
Shiba Inu is one of many dog-themed cryptocurrencies to have come into existence following the mainstream success of Dogecoin, which was created in 2013 as a joke but ended up amassing an active community and becoming one of the highest-valued cryptocurrency tokens.
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