Dogecoin Pup Owner’s New Shiba Inu Ends Up in NEIRO Memecoin Drama

• Kabosu's owner announced her new Shiba Inu dog, Neiro, on X, sparking the creation of numerous NEIRO tokens on Solana.
• Two prominent NEIRO tokens emerged, with the most popular initially amassing a $100 million market cap but seeing a sell-off later as communities started to argue among each other on which was the actual NEIRO token.
• The trading frenzy propelled Solana's on-chain volumes to surpass Ethereum's, with the NEIRO deployer profiting $5.4 million from the token's popularity.
• Neiro's actual owner has distanced herself from the drama and cautioned users to be on the lookout for "token scams."

Little did Kabosu’s owner know what was in store when she took to X on Sunday to announce her new Shiba Inu pet, Neiro.

Kabosu was the pet dog whose photo birthed the dogecoin (DOGE) memecoin and, subsequently, the $37 billion dog-themed memecoin sector that includes shiba inu (SHIB), floki (FLOKI) and others. Kabosu passed away in May at the age of 17, leaving a legacy that includes a statue and a memecoin worth $18 billion.

But @Kabosumama, the X account of Kabosu's human owner, adopted a ten-year-old Shiba Inu dog named Neiro last week, calling her a “new family member.”

Initial replies to that announcement were filled with support for the new pet, but it soon turned into a shill fest as people quickly launched tokens on Solana using Neiro’s liking.

Hundreds of Neiro, or Neiro-themed tokens, were issued on Solana token generator Pump Fun, with one quickly running to tens of millions in market capitalization. Later, some traders discovered that while the token at a $100 million capitalization was the most popular, another one was actually the first one to exist – shifting dynamics and causing a brief sell-off.

The discovery resulted in traders quickly allocating capital to or trading both tokens, resulting in two Solana tokens themed after Neiro—both amassing a cumulative trading volume of $340 million.

Such trading behavior pushed Solana to the forefront of total blockchain activity on Monday, with on-chain volumes surpassing those of Ethereum, the usual leader. DefiLlama data shows that Solana racked up $1.8 billion in trading volumes each on Sunday and Monday, while Ethereum did under $1 billion.

As such, the price pump for the NEIRO deemed more popular pocketed its deployer at least $5.4 million in profits, on-chain analysis tool Bubblemaps said in an X post. The deployer bought up a large chunk of the initial supply shortly after the token went live using several wallets, and sold as it went viral.

Both NEIRO tokens are actively traded and listed on exchanges as of Tuesday. Each community crowns itself as the real one and aims to replicate Dogecoin’s success.

However, as far as Neiro’s owner @Kabosumama is concerned, none of the tokens are legitimate.

“I see many tokens related to Kabosu and Neiro. To clarify, I do not endorse any crypto project except @ownthedog $dog because they own the original Doge photo and IP,” she said in an X post. “They are committed to doing only good every day, charitable works, and Doge culture.”

“Please watch out for token scams.”