Bonk vs. Shiba Inu: 2024’s Greatest Meme Coin Clash

BONK vs SHIB is shaping up as one of the biggest meme coin dogfights on the 2024 calendar. 

With over three years of experience, a functional Layer 2 blockchain, and over one million holders, Shiba Inu is the biggest pooch in the pound. But that doesn’t mean the Solana (SOL) blockchain’s fierce young upstart can’t continue its rags-to-riches fairytale.

Bonk’s meteoric rise from shady airdrop to ecosystem stalwart has been astounding. Beyond delivering parabolic returns for early supporters, BONK is the gift that keeps on giving, with generous airdrops raining down on the Solana faithful even over a year after its initial launch.

Which canine meme coin will come out on top in 2024?

Bonk vs SHIB: Quick Facts

Before diving into the nitty-gritty details, let’s quickly review the key metrics of these digital assets. Shiba Inu and Bonk are both cryptocurrency meme coins. Lighthearted and fun, these digital assets thrive in a passionate community.

While Shiba Inu was originally launched in the Ethereum blockchain, Bonk found its home on the Solana network. Let’s recap the quick facts at press time:

Naturally, there’s a lot more that needs to be considered. While you could argue the only thing expected of meme coins is a good laugh and some price appreciation, what tangible results have both Shiba Inu and Bonk achieved?

Comparing Shiba Inu and Bonk

Fortunately, for both Shiba Inu and Bonk, these crypto assets have transcended meme coin status and become functional and impressive cryptocurrency projects in their own right. Each dog has successfully rolled out a suite of products and services that have brought intrinsic value to their base asset.

To better understand SHIB and BONK, let’s explore in what ways they’re superior to each other and what they’ve achieved.

Why Is Shiba Inu Better Than Bonk?

Shiba Inu needs no introduction. The meme coin exploded in 2021, netting early supporters unbelievable profits and establishing SHIB as the second biggest meme coin in the crypto market, trailing only Dogecoin (DOGE).

As time went on, Shiba Inu has gone from strength to strength. Led by Shytoshi Kusama following the disappearance of Ryoshi, SHIB’s founder, the Shiba Inu team has launched a wealth of great protocols, including ShibaSwap, the Shiboshi NFT collections, and an ecosystem of tokens like BONE and LEASH.

Beyond that, Shiba Inu’s greatest achievement is undoubtedly Shibarium. A Layer 2 EVM network, Shibarium is an Ethereum scaling solution that functions as the dedicated blockchain of the Shiba Inu ecosystem.

Regarding adoption and recognition, Shiba Inu outperforms Bonk by a landslide. Thanks to listings on traditional financial platforms like Etoro and Robinhood, it catapulted it into the limelight and made the digital asset well-known even outside the crypto industry.

Looking to the future, the Shiba Inu has more grand plans in store. Next up on Shytoshi’s to-do list, the SHIB Army can expect further updates on Shiba Inu’s metaverse project, crypto wallet software, and a decentralized identity protocol.

SHIB has also proved its dominance by attracting more than twice the number of holders and a market capitalization nearly 9x larger than its Solana-based rival. 

Why Is Bonk Better Than Shiba Inu?

Not content with being left behind, Bonk has its own list of stunning achievements completed within just over a year. 

First of all, let’s discuss the narrative. Like most meme coins, Bonk claims to be a cryptocurrency created by the people, for the people. This is certainly true compared with most other meme coins in the crypto market. Here’s why:

Meme coins like SHIB and PEPE were quietly and stealthily launched through liquidity pools on a decentralized exchange, allowing insiders and early buyers to load up on tokens at dirt-cheap prices. 

On the other hand, BONK began its life as a completely unexpected, stealthy airdrop that was given to Solana supporters. BONK was fairly distributed amongst Solana network contributors and users, meaning that most of the Solana community was given BONK for free.

Fulfilling its destiny as the community coin of the Solana ecosystem, Bonk has been deeply integrated into almost all Solana dApps. Bonk’s product suite is less developed than Shiba Inu’s; however, this is to be expected given Shiba’s two-year headstart. 

Despite this, some of Bonk’s services are outperforming Shiba Inu’s in adoption. According to Shibariumscan, the Shiba Inu Layer 2 Ethereum (ETH) scaling solution has around 1,000 unique active accounts. On the other hand, BonkBot, one of Bonk’s main products, hosts over 23,000 active users, performing 378,000 average trades per day.

Moreover, the Bonk team continues to ply the Solana faithful with airdrops. In December, every Solana Saga owner could claim 30M BONK tokens valued at around $575 USD, with further airdrops released throughout their BONKmas campaign.

Bonk vs. Shib: Flaws

Both BONK and SHIB have provided their loyal communities with a wealth of products and services, but they’re far from perfect. Where have these crypto meme coins gone wrong in the past, and what’s still holding them back? 

Shiba Inu’s Flaws

In the eyes of the SHIB Army, SHIB’s greatest success was its astronomical price action in 2021. At the time, Shiba’s biggest claim to fame was that Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, burned his unwanted allocation of SHIB tokens given to him at the project’s launch. At the time of the burn, Buterin’s holdings were worth around $6 Billion USD.

The burn permanently destroyed almost half of SHIB’s total supply, artificially spiking the value of the remaining tokens in May 2021 and helping the coin get listed on leading cryptocurrency exchanges.

Without Buterin’s involvement (or attempt to avoid involvement), SHIB might have never been able to reach its lofty heights. 

Beyond that, activity remains low in the Shiba Inu ecosystem. Despite the hype and excitement around Shibarium, the network has struggled to attract users and funds, managing less than $1M in TVL and sitting outside the top 150 blockchains ranked by this metric.

Looking ahead, it’s difficult to predict where SHIB will go next. Utility for many of its early products, like the LEASH token and Shiboshi NFT collection, has all but dried up, and the development of SHIB: The Metaverse has been sluggish.

Shiba Inu’s decentralized identity protocol is a unique and novel idea that can bring renewed attention to the cryptocurrency, but other plans seem a little underwhelming. For example, is an official Shiba Inu crypto wallet really going to bring new utility to the Shiba Inu ecosystem when great wallets like Rabby already exist?

Of course, that’s not to say that Shiba Inu’s best days are behind them. Shytoshi Kusama and the team have proven that they can overcome the odds and deliver success for the SHIB Army. Maybe the Shiba Inu developers have some tricks up their sleeve that they’re not telling us?

Bonk’s Flaws

The end of 2023 signaled the climax of a magnificent run for BONK. The Solana-based meme coin had looked unstoppable, breaking new all-time highs weekly for months on end. As we know, what goes up must come down.

Now that the dust has settled and BONK’s euphoric run has ended, it’s time to assess the damage. BONK has dropped over 69% from its all-time high in less than a month. This kind of volatility is expected in meme coins, but that doesn’t make those losses easier to bear for BONK bulls who entered in December.

On top of that, BONK has been criticized for having a predatory tokenomic design. It’s easy to see why. Despite being pushed as a fair airdrop for the Solana community, a hefty 21% of all BONK tokens were given to ‘Early Contributors,’ and a further 15.8% was distributed amongst the BONK DAO.

In short, 36.8% of the BONK supply was immediately thrust into the hands of insiders and early supporters, giving them a significantly large piece of the pie right from the start.

Beyond that, none of BONK’s products are pushing the limits of blockchain technology and the Web3 world. Telegram bots and clever token-burning mechanics are a fun way of providing value, but they’re not exactly a game-changer in the crypto world.

The Final Verdict

All things considered, both BONK and SHIB have established themselves as two of the largest and most popular meme coins in the crypto market. 

While Shiba Inu has been able to somewhat distance itself from the Ethereum network by launching its own blockchain, BONK is still reliant on Solana’s performance. If Solana performs well, BONK is likely to follow it. The same is true in the opposite direction; if Solana fails, we can expect BONK to suffer.

Given that BONK has a dramatically smaller market cap than SHIB, one could expect the price action of the digital asset to be far more volatile.

At this stage, Shiba Inu coin has proven itself to be one of the key pillars of the crypto market. SHIB boasts enormous liquidity and trading volumes, making it less volatile than its smaller rivals.

However, the scope and potential of operating your own blockchain cannot be understated. Shibarium may be quiet now, but if the network attracts more users and sends the SHIB Burn rate through the ceiling, there’s no saying how far the Shiba Inu ecosystem, including BONE and LEASH, could go.

On the Flipside

• The BONK vs SHIB debate is fierce, but there’s no reason why the two can’t co-exist peacefully. While they’re both dog-themed meme coins, the fact they exist on completely different networks implies that the success of one can only come at the detriment of the other.

Why This Matters

Love or hate them, meme coins are one of the most popular corners of the crypto market and serve as a great tool for bringing newcomers into the cryptocurrency world. It’s important to clearly understand what meme coins are and what to expect from them before making any dramatic decisions.

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