A closer look
Software engineers created a cryptocurrency based on a popular internet meme of a shiba inu dog in 2013 purely to mock the rampant speculation in the digital asset market. Intended as a completely useless parody of Bitcoin, the creators literally coded it in a few hours and expected it to fade into digital obscurity almost immediately. Instead, the joke completely backfired when millions of retail investors and extremely bored billionaires started pumping real cash into the ecosystem, eventually pushing the total market capitalization of this fake internet money past eighty billion dollars. The fact that a coin explicitly designed to be worthless became more valuable than the Ford Motor Company highlights the absolute absurdity of modern financial markets. We now live in an era where fundamental analysis and corporate earnings mean absolutely nothing compared to the immense economic power of a well-timed tweet featuring a smiling cartoon dog
