The Shiba Inu (SHIB), seen by many as a giant joke since its creation, continues to entice and is gaining popularity. According to a WhaleStats analysis, over 200,000 new SHIB members have joined since the beginning of the year.

Its popularity on social media platforms is growing. As evidence, the number of Twitter followers has more than doubled since the beginning of the year, with 2.9 million followers now and a Discord account with 175,000 users.

More and more businesses are considering incorporating it into their payment methods. Today, there are even entire countries that are debating whether or not to embrace it. Like Turkey, which appears to be taking the issue seriously. A mania that makes one question whether the SHIB isn’t becoming a more serious enterprise than it appears.

The Origins of Shiba Inu

A developer going by the alias Ryoshi launched the dog-headed coin in the summer of 2020. From the start, the latter emphasized that his project, like Bitcoin, would be community-based and without a leader at the helm.

SHIB, unlike Dogecoin, does not have its own blockchain: it is an ERC-20 token based on the Ethereum network.

The “Dogecoin killer” has capitalized on the hype surrounding its DOGE cousin to appreciate disproportionately, with a growth of more than 20 million percent over the year 2021.

In the wake of Elon Musk’s tweets, the dog-faced meme has gone from $0.00000000016 to $0.000033 in the past year.

Turkey to Adopt SHIB Soon?

With its expanding popularity, more and more businesses are beginning to recognize it as a legitimate form of payment. This is especially true for AMC Entertainment, whose CEO Adam Aron recently stated that the company’s theatres, like Bitcoin and Dogecoin before it, will now allow SHIB to pay for their seats.

In addition to AMC, which has adopted Shiba Inu, Turkey appears to wish to meet with project participants.

Turkish Economy Minister Mustafa Elitas did, in fact, meet with a member of the “ShibArmy.” A developer, Shytoshi Kusama, has also appreciated the meeting between the minister and Shiba Inu Türkiye, his Twitter handle.

Is Shiba Inu Evolving Into A Serious Project?

Despite being derisively referred to as “shitcoin” by many in its early days, the SHIB has already amassed a market valuation of $12 billion and has risen to the top 15 of the cryptocurrency rankings.

The coin is currently one of the DeFi participants, with its Shibaswap exchange launched in 2021. Certik, the auditing firm, recently complimented this protocol. Shibaswap was the most secure site on its list, with a security score of 91 out of 100, according to the latter.

Shibaswap is a traditional DEX that lets you swap and farm tokens. It also provides staking and a market for NFTs.