The price of the cryptocurrency based on the famous internet meme broke its price decline in early November 2022, as people started buying the coin after FTX's collapse. This rally only lasted for a few days, however, as a Dogecoin was worth roughly 0.24 U.S. dollars on July 20, 2025. This is a different development than in 2021, when the crypto became very popular in a short amount of time. Between January 28 and January 29, 2021, Dogecoin's value grew by around 216 percent to 0.023535 U.S. dollars after comments from Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The digital coin quickly grew to become the most talked-about cryptocurrency available, not necessarily for its price - the prices of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), and several other virtual currencies were much higher than those of DOGE - but for its growth.

Dogecoin's market cap grew six-fold in January 2021 after tweets from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and has kept on growing since. By February 2021, the market cap of the cryptocurrency based on the famous internet meme had already doubled again. Compared to both the Bitcoin market capitalization as well as the Ethereum market cap, Dogecoin was not as popular.

Memecoin Shiba Inu saw its price grow by more than 300 percent within one and the same month, marking a trading fury reminiscent of Dogecoin in early 2021. Indeed, the SHIB coin ranked as one of the biggest crypto in the world based on 24h trading volume in October 2021 - with trading activity being almost as high as that of Ethereum. Originally starting out as a fun token based on the famous Japanese dog breed, the digital currency grabbed mainstream attention in 2021 probably due to its low barrier of entry: Even after its price spikes, Shiba Inu was one of the cheapest coins available, especially when compared to the price of 99 other cryptocurrencies. Combine this with survey information that most consumers in the U.S. and the UK invest in crypto either for growth or fun, and Shiba Inu is probably seen by many as a relatively simple, "quick win" investment. As of May 19, 2025, the price of one million Shiba Inu is 14.08.

Somewhat resembling developments of Dogecoin in early 2021, the market cap of Shiba Inu (SHIB) more than tripled in only a few weeks. This rapid growth especially occurred since September 2021, with the cryptocurrency breaking the ** billion U.S. dollar barrier multiple in the following month. Whilst no exact reason was given why the memecoin grew so fast during this time, the digital currency did become available on Coinbase, one of the world's most well-known crypto exchanges, on September 17. This move, and the fact that consumers in the U.S. and the UK overall tend to invest in crypto for fun or as a potential growth investment, might explain the popularity of the dog-themed coin. Indeed, Shiba Inu ranked as the number ** cryptocurrency in the world based on market cap in late October 2021 - closely behind DeFi-affilated like Uniswap (UNI) and Terra (LUNA).

How many cryptocurrencies are there? In short, there were over ***** as of June 2025, although there were many more digital coins in the early months of 2022. Note, however, that a large portion of cryptocurrencies might not be that significant. There are other estimates of roughly ****** cryptocurrencies existing, but most of these are either inactive or discontinued. Due to how open the creation process of a cryptocurrency is, it is relatively easy to make one. Indeed, the top 20 cryptocurrencies make up nearly ** percent of the total market. Why are there thousands of cryptocurrencies? Any private individual or company that knows how to write a program on a blockchain can technically create a cryptocurrency. That blockchain can be an existing one. Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain are popular blockchain platforms for such ends, including smart contracts within Decentralized Finance (DeFi). The ease of crypto creation allows some individuals to find solutions to real-world payment problems while others hope to make a quick profit. This explains why some crypto lack utility. Meme coins such as Dogecoin - named after a Japanese dog species - are an infamous example, with Dogecoin's creator coming out and stating the coin started as a joke. The many types of cryptocurrency Meme coins are but one group of cryptocurrencies. Other types include altcoins, utility tokens, governance tokens, and stablecoins. Altcoins are often measured against Bitcoin, as this refers to all crypto that followed Bitcoin - the first digital currency ever created. Utility tokens and governance tokens are somewhat connected to NFTs and the metaverse. A specific example is the MANA cryptocurrency, which allows real estate purchases in the Decentraland metaverse. Stablecoins refer to the likes of Tether, which are pegged to a real-world asset like the U.S. dollar. Such coins are meant to be less volatile than regular cryptocurrency.