The Shiba Inu team has launched a community campaign to promote SHIB as a payment method for flight tickets via a new Emirates partnership with Crypto.com. The initiative coincides with preparations for the meme coin’s sixth birthday on August 1st. Some community members plan to use the feature, while others avoid it, citing the cautionary tale of a Bitcoin user who spent 10,000 BTC on pizza in 2010. SHIB experienced a 35% daily price surge last weekend, followed by a partial pullback to current levels near $0.000004702.
The team behind the second-largest meme coin introduced a challenge for its community aimed at increasing the token’s global popularity. The campaign was rolled out just a day before the meme coin project turns six years old.
Earlier this week, the major international airline Emirates shook hands with Crypto.com, allowing UAE residents to book flights using the digital payment solution on the exchange’s website and application. Shiba Inu’s official X account shared the update, reminding that SHIB is among the numerous tokens supported by the platform.
Many users applauded the news, and some asserted that they will use the meme coin as a payment method in the coming days. Others said they will never part with their coins, reminding the case of the programmer Laszlo Hanyecs.
“Never using my SHIB for paying for anything, I don’t wanna end up being like that guy that bought pizza with his Bitcoin,” CryptoKing stated. 16 years ago, Hanyecs spent 10,000 BTC to buy two pizzas, a stash worth around $40 at the time but over $630 million at current rates.
Alongside promoting the idea of purchasing flight tickets with SHIB, the team has kicked off preparations for its sixth birthday, set for August 1. The community is already speculating whether the celebration will come with a major ecosystem update, but so far there are no signs that this will happen.
Last weekend, the self-proclaimed Dogecoin killer posted a sudden daily increase of 35%. Catalysts included a mysterious whale who resumed accumulating after more than half a year of inactivity, as well as a resurgence of the burning mechanism.
The bears later stepped in and erased most of the gains, with SHIB currently trading at around $0.000004702. This still represents a 12% jump on a weekly scale.
According to Santiment, there were 52 whale transactions amid the rally, suggesting that large holders took profits. Retail investors joined the party too late, giving whales the liquidity to reduce their exposure.
