Shiba Inu’s Metaverse, DeFi-Focussed Shibarium Blockchain Goes Live, Sees Snags: Everything to Know

A total of 956 ETH worth around $1.7 million (roughly Rs. 14 crore) are stuck on the Shibarium bridge.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by Manas Mitul | Updated: 17 August 2023 14:56 IST

Shiba Inu’s Metaverse, DeFi-Focussed Shibarium Blockchain Goes Live, Sees Snags: Everything to Know

Photo Credit: Twitter/ Shiba Inu

The Shibarium blockchain went live on the mainnet on August 16

Highlights

Shibarium is built on Ethereum
The blockchain’s governance token is BONE
Shibarium’s beta phase saw a total of 21 million wallets on the L2

Shiba Inu developers launched Shibarium, a layer-2 blockchain, this week, sending the SHIB community in a frenzy. With this new blockchain, the Shiba Inu team wishes to separate the cryptocurrency from its ‘meme coin' image. They aim to onboard promising Web3 projects onto its ecosystem, that would push more SHIB tokens into circulation. SHIB developers had been working on developing the Shibarium blockchain since earlier this year.

Layer-2 blockchain networks like Shibarium act as secondary platforms that can increase the scalability of the main blockchain by supporting a wide array of customised dApps and protocols, while maintaining the same security standards offered by the mother chain.

The Shibarium blockchain went live on the mainnet on August 16. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, the Shibarium ecosystem will accept the SHIB token as service fee. Its governance token will be the BONE cryptocurrency.

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The new Shibarium blockchain has been launched to reportedly attract players from the metaverse sector and the Decentralised Finance (DeFi) sector to the Shiba Inu ecosystem.

Why DeFi?

DeFi is among some of the most used elements of the crypto and Web3 sector. DeFi apps remove the need for a third party, a bank, or any other intermediary from traditional borrowing and lending of assets. Instead of these intermediaries, smart contracts with pre-agreed terms are used to facilitate lending and borrowing of crypto assets.

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As per market research firm Zion, DeFi's market share is projected to reach around $232.2 billion (roughly Rs. 19,30,499 crore) by 2030.

Meanwhile, the growth rate for DeFi is estimated to be recorded at around 42.6 percent in the next seven years.

Why Metaverse?

The metaverse has been touted as the next big destination for the global gaming community. In 2022, the valuation of the Metaverse market reached $61.8 billion (roughly Rs. 5,13,805 crore) and is projected to increase up to $426.9 billion (roughly Rs. 35,49,248 crore) by 2027.

It, hence, does not come as quite the surprise, that Shiba Inu developers chose to attract players working in the metaverse sector, to operate using the Shibarium blockchain.

In a bid to establish Shiba Inu as a strong name in the metaverse community, its developers launched its own metaverse ecosystem last year.

Frenzy in SHIB community

Shibarium's beta phase saw a total of 21 million wallets on the L2 blockchain, CoinTelegraph reported.

With the launch of the Shibarium, the Shiba Inu team expects to upgrade its speed of transactions, allow the unification of gaming and NFTs with its ecosystem, while also support up and coming blockchain projects.

Members of the SHIB community, who popularly refer to themselves as the #ShibArmy, have bombarded X (formerly Twitter) with reactions to the Shibarium launch.

Projects building on #shibarium! :fire::handshake: pic.twitter.com/EFGwaFunBc
— Whale.Guru (@Whale_Guru) August 16, 2023

#SHIBARIUM MAINNET IS LIVE!!!!!!
MAKE SOME NOISE #SHIBARMY!!! :partying_face: pic.twitter.com/FIZmxNMyin
— Shib Dream * Shiba Inu News * Shib Army Social :gem: (@theshibdream) August 16, 2023

:rocket::fire: #Shibarium by Shiba Inu: Ethereum Layer-2 Blockchain is LIVE, sparking a new era of potential! :globe_with_meridians::star2: Faster transactions, gaming innovation, and community power await. :video_game::gem: #ShibaInu #BlockchainRevolution https://t.co/s52gYEDu8e pic.twitter.com/J1WvBIjCev
— Nft Girl:crown: (@nftgirlirene) August 17, 2023

Snags with Shibarium

Despite all the cheers from the community on the Shibarium launch, the blockchain has encountered snags after its mainnet launch. A total of 956 ETH worth around $1.7 million (roughly Rs. 14 crore) are stuck on the Shibarium bridge, PeckShield has confirmed on X.

#PeckShieldAlert #Shibariumbridge https://t.co/8VyzqRug0G
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) August 17, 2023

This has caused Shiba Inu-related cryptocurrencies like SHIB and BONE to see price dips.

The Shiba Inu team has not addressed this issue as yet.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, Shiba Inu, Metaverse, Shibarium

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More