According to Shibburn, the surge in the value of Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens was primarily driven by demand, rather than the burn of 410.2 trillion SHIB tokens by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Although the burnt tokens are now valued at $3.1 billion, Shibburn claims that the burn did not directly impact the token's price.

The increase in demand in May 2021, along with the fact that Buterin owned half of the token's supply, is believed to have contributed to the price rally. Before Buterin's burn, SHIB had already surged by 29,151,160% from a low of $0.000000000119 on January 1, 2021, to a high of $0.00003469 on May 11, 2021. The burn occurred during a correction phase in May, causing SHIB's price to drop to $0.00000621 in June 2021.

Despite a temporary setback, SHIB made a strong comeback, rallying 1,324% to reach an all-time high of $0.00008845 in October 2021. Shibburn points out that while Shiba Inu has surged over 46 million percent since 2020, it has only increased 5 times since May 6, 2021, suggesting that the asset's rally occurred mainly before Buterin's burn. The project continues to develop, with the recent launch of its layer-two network called Shibarium.