The cryptocurrency market has seen the introduction of several Dogecoin-inspired tokens, many of which don't have an identifiable founder or development team.
Several of these coins have been launched only this year. Some operate in similar ways to one another, issuing a fee on transactions which is then partially redistributed to the community of holders.
Kishu Inu is a token launched just last month that uses a dog as its mascot, like Dogecoin does. It states that two percent of every transaction on the KISHU network is redistributed to existing holders of the token—a mechanism also used this year by the SafeMoon token which has faced much criticism.
Purchasing newly launched cryptocurrency is a risky endeavor and users should perform their own research and calculate their risk before jumping in on a trending token. The process of making a purchase incurs fees, as does wtihdrawal, and often withdrawals are complicated by network load and price slippage.
To purchase KISHU, users will have to deposit funds into a supported wallet or one using WalletConnect, such as Metamask, TrustWallet, Coinbase Wallet, or similar.
Using Kishu Inu's exchange, which is powered by UniSwap, users can currently buy KISHU with Etheruem, Dai, USDC, USDT, Wrapped BTC, or Wrapped Ether.
Kishu Inu Cryptocurrency Risks
Kishu Inu has seen a sharp price rise in the past 24 hours, up more than 250 percent on the day to a price of $0.00000001 at around 10:00 GMT, May 11.
Twitter users reported struggling to sell the tokens once they had purchased them, or complained of high fees.
Adrian Zduńczyk is the co-founder of blockchain analysis group YellowBlock and CEO of The Birb Nest crypto educational platform. They warned a number of cryptocurrencies, such as Kishu Inu, Shiba Inu, and Underdog are "hype-riders" and that bubbles in the market may appear, particularly in the realm of decentralized finance, or DeFi, tokens—currencies that operate without a central authority.
Zduńczyk told Newsweek: "The space has recorded an increase in the number of over-hyped coins which brought a lot of suffering to the investors due to so-called "rug pulls" or bubble bursts.
"Shiba Inu, Kishu Inu, and UnderDog seem to have been created as another edition of hype-riders which are supposed to use the demand for already over-hyped Dogecoin.
"Anonymous founders in such cases may mean that there are chances of potential ponzi schemes or rug pulls. No matter [if] it's true or not, traders should always take special caution against anonymous projects.
"The current state of DeFi market as a part of the entire cryptocurrency market reminds me a lot of a large bubble which is being inflated by over-hyped demand and high returns expectations."
The FTC warns consumers about the risks of the lure of quick gains on cryptocurrency trading and of other cryptocurrency scams in its guide: What To Know About Cryptocurrency and Scams.
UnderDog is described as a "Doge clone" by market analysis site Benzinga and also operates a reward mechanism for its holders. It was introduced this year and Newsweek was unable to find information about its founders on its website.
And Shiba Inu is a token, launched August 2020, that directly compares itself to Dogecoin and dubs itself the "Dogecoin Killer." Its founder simply goes by an online pseudonym.
Investopedia warns that investors looking to avoid cryptocurrency scams should research the team members behind a project before investing, and states that it is a "bad sign" if there is no information available about them.
