Analysts say these reasons were behind Shiba Inu's (SHIB) 300% rise last month

Shiba Inu (SHIB) price saw another impressive recovery on Monday, as Elon Musk tweeted dog text art and whale transactions stacked up.

Is another dramatic spike, similar to the one in May, in the stars for the Dogecoin killer?

The handler

“This week shows that retail fervor is returning to the market, which could bode well for price action across the entire space in Q4. It could be an explosive end to 2021,” according to Ryan Wilkinson, co-founder of athlete NFT platform Blockasset.co.

While Bitcoin (BTC) started the week trading above $62,000, approaching its ATH, Elon Musk once again blessed the dog-meme crypto pack with his tweets.

Tesla CEO’s ability to have Shiba Inu-inspired cryptos’ prices jumping with his tweets is reminiscent of a dog agility show.

In these competitions, a handler, whose authority is limited to voice and body signals, navigates the dog through a complex obstacle course while racing against time.

On Monday, Musk tweeted a text art image of a pup with a rocket ship.

(_/)
( •_•)
/ >🚀

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 17, 2021

“I’ve thought about and … I’m not sorry for party rocking,” he followed up. Despite Musk’s text art remaining open to interpretation, his tweet drove SHIB’s price up 21%.

BREAKING: Shiba Inu Coin $SHIB has now surged over 21% after Elon Musks Tweet. pic.twitter.com/VlB8B2fuWh

— Mr. Whale (@CryptoWhale) October 17, 2021

Meanwhile, Santiment detected an increase in Shiba Inu whale transactions over $100,000.

🐳 #ShibaInu is back up to $0.00002885 while the spotlight is back on #Bitcoin and its close-in on its new #AllTimeHigh. But keep an eye on $SHIB‘s whale transactions exceeding $100k. When these transactions come in bunches, price rises generally follow. https://t.co/oeGN85BpXS pic.twitter.com/G9kJopNTHE

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) October 18, 2021

The crypto market intelligence platform tweeted on Monday morning that “when these transactions come in bunches, price rises generally follow.”

Gen Z investors

Branded as a “Dogecoin killer,” Shiba Inu (SHIB) launched last year as a Dogecoin (DOGE) spinoff token, ready to capitalize on the meme coin hype. Since, SHIB won over an army of retail investors, with currently more than 742,500 holding the coin.

In line with early October’s dog-meme crypto hysteria, spurred by Elon Musk’s tweets, SHIB’s price gained 250% over the course of three days.

Meanwhile, the project’s NFT collection consisting of 10,000 “lovable creatures,” called Shiboshis, sold out in 35 minutes.

“This year’s events – from GameStop to Dogecoin – have shown us that younger investors are happy to invest in a meme, and they’re interested in having fun when they invest, Wilkinson pointed out.

While commenting on SHIB’s recent price performance, he argued that the October rally was “helped in no small part by a coveted Coinbase listing last month.”

The Coinbase listing in September ensured SHIB’s exposure to a big retail market, as ShibArmy, the community behind the self-proclaimed “Dogecoin killer,” continued growth in both numbers and strength.

“The Dogecoin clone is yet to reach the highs it hit in May when dog tokens collectively spiked,” Wilkinson continued, noting that data from Santiment suggests that crowd hype could have played a major role in SHIB’s success.

“Mentions of SHIB and Shiba Inu surged around the time it started to run. Moreover, several TikTok ‘influencers’ with large followings have shared price targets for the coin, giving it further exposure to Gen Z investors,” he said, concluding that “it wouldn’t be a surprise to see another dramatic spike similar to the one in May.”