With Binance and Coinbase working rapidly to list the small-cap altcoin SHIB, created as a knowing gesture to the meme coin DOGE, it immediately gained popularity among investors. However, following the frenzy, SHIB is now 85% below its all-time high value of $0.000086. Will the Shiba Inu coin ever reach $1? Is such an accomplishment even possible?
Shiba Inu: The “Dogecoin Killer”
SHIB witnessed its first parabolic surge in value in early May 2021, which is unsurprising. This period was marked by the creation of countless meme tokens intended to replicate Dogecoin’s success and rally like GameStop and AMC Entertainment did on Wall Street.
During this period, there was a downpour of Dogecoin-themed tributes and imitations on the market, with many makers adding, including DOGE cheerleader Elon Musk in their newly made coins.
We have seen the growth of assets such as Dogelon Mars (ELON), Baby DogeCoin (BabyDoge), Samoyedcoin (SAMO), and Shiba Predator (QOM) in a short period; investors have plenty of options when it comes to investing in meme-based assets. One year later, the only coin that has come close to Dogecoin’s staying power is Shiba Inu, which currently ranks 14th in cryptocurrencies by market value. Aside from DOGE and SHIB, no other meme coin ranks in the top 100.
Shiba Inu was founded on the Ethereum blockchain in August 2020, despite first being famous in May 2021. The asset’s developer is completely unknown, and the terms of its creation are unknown. The only purpose SHIB was thought to serve was to become the “Dogecoin killer”; however, this was most likely a joke rather than a threat. Even so, that has yet to stop many from wondering if Shiba Inu will ever reach $1.
The SHIB Ecosystem Explained
Surprisingly, the Shiba Inu ecosystem includes cryptocurrencies such as LEASH and BONE in addition to SHIB. While LEASH has only 107,000 tokens in circulation, BONE, Shiba Inu’s governance token, has a much bigger number of 250,000,000 tokens.
SHIB, on the other hand, has a total supply of 999.99 trillion tokens, making it significantly more common than DOGE’s present circulation of around 133 billion tokens. It is worth mentioning, however, that in May 2021, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, received half of Shiba Inu’s supply of tokens. Unfortunately, Buterin chose to burn 90% of his tokens and give the rest, forcing SHIB’s circulating supply to fall to about 589 trillion.
Shiba Inu’s price history demonstrates that the cryptocurrency has never been close to one cent, let alone one dollar. This low price is mostly determined by circulating supply. Because there are trillions of SHIB in circulation, there is simply no scarcity to give a higher USD value for the asset, despite the coin ranking higher than more expensive tokens such as AVAX, ATOM, and LINK.
Shiba Inu is practically useless in terms of practical utility. The asset exists to be the world’s most visible meme token, which means it is purely fuelled by market emotion and pre-existing crypto cycles.
However, SHIB’s popularity cannot be overstated, and positive feeling around the coin has already seen a tremendous increase beginning in 2021 and continuing through 2022. Not only did the cryptocurrency perform an unlikely recovery to surge in late October 2022, but SHIB was also adopted by various retail outlets, such as GameStop, allowing us to make in-store transactions using SHIB.
Such accomplishments are unusual for meme tokens established in the aftermath of Dogecoin, and they serve as a warning that it is not always prudent to dismiss this specific meme coin entirely.=
Will Shiba Inu Coin Reach $1?
So, can Shiba Inu make it to one dollar? Unfortunately, the answer is almost definitely no—at least not at the current circulation rate.
Bitcoin’s current market value, which normally ranges between $10,000 and $20,000, is driven by the coin’s fixed scarcity, with a maximum supply of 21,000,000 tokens that can ever be created. SHIB’s market capitalization would need to be $589 trillion at roughly 589 trillion tokens for SHIB to reach a coin value of $1. The Motley Fool estimates that total global wealth is over $500 trillion, so this amount is difficult to put into terms.
However, if the circulation of Shiba Inu falls dramatically like it did when Vitalik Buterin burnt half of the coin’s total supply, more scarcity may impact the coin’s value.
There are a couple more encouraging indicators for investors. First, because SHIB was created on the Ethereum blockchain, it is far more accessible than other small-cap meme tokens, and it has cleared the road for the likes of Binance and Coinbase to add the asset to their respective offerings easily.
SHIB Adoption May Increase Despite Low Value
With such high levels of acceptance, investor sentiment has boosted SHIB’s usability. Furthermore, the fact that stores are starting to accept the cryptocurrency indicates that some utility has been forged for the coin.
Regarding Shiba Inu’s road to $1, let’s look closer at a more sensible circulation level. Polygon (MATIC), which has a value of $0.85 at the time of writing, is the closest asset to Shiba Inu regarding market capitalization and proximity to a $1 value. The circulating supply of this coin is $7.44 billion. Using this as an indicator, the circulating supply of SHIB would need to fall to about 100,000th of its present level to experience the same price in the current crypto market.
Investors who believe in the potential of cryptocurrencies are mostly convinced that a fresh bull crypto market will assist in building a significant market-wide rally that will drive more prices upwards. However, in terms of growth, an established asset rallying 100,000% in this manner is highly rare.
Will Shiba Inu ever hit $1? Never say never, but given SHIB’s tokenomics, it appears quite unlikely.
SHIB Remains a Coin to Watch Out For
Although Shiba Inu is an excellent example of a meme coin success story, SHIB’s 589 trillion tokens circulating supply has made SHIB to $1 all but impossible—barring a significant decrease in the number of coins in circulation.
Regardless, good enthusiasm has forged a utility layer for the coin. As a result, SHIB may continue to gain traction in the future, making it one of the most viable and sustainable meme-based investment choices.
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