Unveiling the Top Holders of Shiba Inu (SHIB) Coins

• Ethereum Creator Vitalik Buterin: The Foremost Shiba Inu Token Holder
• Gift and Token Burn
• Impact on Shiba Inu's Circulation and Price
• Who Controls the Second-Largest Shiba Inu Wallet?
• Resulting Scarcity and Price Increase

Ethereum Creator Vitalik Buterin: The Foremost Shiba Inu Token Holder

Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum$2,315 -2.42%, is unparalleled in his holdings of the Shiba Inu$0.000010 -2.05% token. This is largely due to a substantial token present from SHIB creator, Ryoshi. Buterin has over 500 trillion tokens in his possession-equivalent to half of the total supply-stored in a dead wallet under his control. This considerable holding surpasses even the most significant individual SHIB investors.

Gift and Token Burn

Ryoshi reportedly granted 50% of the total SHIB supply to Buterin soon after the token's inception. In a significant event in May 2021, Buterin took most of these tokens out of circulation. He achieved this by sending 410 trillion SHIB to a dead address in an enormous burn event. Additionally, in the same month, he donated 10 trillion SHIB to an Indian COVID relief fund.

Impact on Shiba Inu's Circulation and Price

Given that these hundreds of trillions of tokens can never return to circulation or be accessed by anyone, Buterin's dead wallet stays as the unrivalled top SHIB holder by a considerable margin. Coincarp reports indicate that the dead wallet contains 41% of the SHIB supply. This significant SHIB burn event by Buterin, coupled with the India donation, has greatly influenced the meme token's circulating supply and price history in the past couple of years.

Who Controls the Second-Largest Shiba Inu Wallet?

Excluding Buterin's billions which have essentially been removed from the circulating supply, the subsequent largest SHIB holder(s) owns a comparably modest 42 trillion tokens. The owner of this second-largest wallet is kept unknown. There are assumptions that it might belong to a private investor or a group of investors who were involved with SHIB at an early stage.

Resulting Scarcity and Price Increase

Instantly removing over 400 trillion tokens in May 2021 resulted in exceptional scarcity for remaining SHIB investors. This most likely played a critical role in the retail frenzy that led to a sharp rise in SHIB's price, going up by more than 8,600% later in the year. CoinMarketCap's data indicates that SHIB is trading at $0.00001061 at the time of publishing this article.

Edited by Jonathan Stoker