Shiba Inu cryptocurrency holder makes $6.5 million from tokens bought for $17

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A cryptocurrency enthusiast who bought 200 billion tokens of the meme currency Shiba Inu (SHIB) in October 2020 for $17, is now the owner of $6.5 million worth of tokens, The Block, a cryptocurrency news website reported.

With the rapidly increasing crypto craze in the country, several people are jumping on the crypto bandwagon. SHIB, the self-proclaimed "dogecoin killer" was created in August 2020 by someone who uses the name Ryoshi. It is modelled after Dogecoin and has achieved a significant market capitalisation.

The coin has been named after the Japanese dog breed, Shiba Inu. The mascot of Shiba Inu, which is based on the Shiba pup, was claimed to be the ‘Dogecoin Killer’ when it was launched.

Reportedly, several SHIB owners who invested in these tokens early, are now worth millions on paper.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

Since May this year, the value of these tokens have shot up. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's announced burning 90 percent of his Shiba Inu holdings and donating the rest.

On May 17, Shibu Inu rose by over 40 percent to $0.00001953 after Buterin's statement. The coin was last up 0.6 percent in the 24 hours to 08:17 ET, trading at $0.0000161, according to CoinMarketCap data.