What are Shiba Inu coins and why did their price go up?

Shiba Inu coins were founded in August 2020 by an anonymous person going by the name of Ryoshi, believed to be based in China.
According to the coin's website, it's “a decentralized meme token that evolved into a vibrant ecosystem.”
The token began as a spin-off from Dogecoin, the more mainstream memecoin which was created as a satirical take on bitcoin.
Shiba Inu, named after the Japanese dog bred, started off trading low but picked up pretty quickly. It even surpassed Dogecoin, earning it the nickname of ‘Dogecoin killer’.
It was listed on the major crypto exchange platform Coinbase on September 16 2020, and is now used for payments by some sports teams and theatres.