After an astronomical return in 2021, Shiba Inu (SHIB) is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world – surging by over 600% in the latter half of 2021. Many investors benefited greatly, with dreams of rags to riches coming true for speculators who got in on the action early.
However, general weakness in the overall crypto market in 2022 and bearish macro headwinds have caused SHIB to lose over 80% of its value. The mania seems to have faded, which has resulted in declining prices and increasingly pessimistic sentiment within the Shiba Inu community.
The following article will discuss whether Shiba Inu can reclaim the spotlight once market sentiment reverses and momentum begins to build. Will Shiba Inu reach $1 in the long term? Continue reading to find out.
What is Shiba Inu?
Shiba Inu is a decentralized cryptocurrency created in 2020 by an anonymous entity under the pseudonym Ryoshi. The project explicitly refers to itself as a meme coin and was created as a direct competitor to Dogecoin – aka doge-killer. SHIB is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token named after the Shiba Inu dog, which serves as the project’s symbol currency.
Unlike many other meme coins such as DOGE, SHIB is constructing an entire ecosystem around itself named ShibSwap – a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that provides a safe place to trade cryptocurrencies while remaining decentralized. This mission differentiates SHIB from other meme coins that are generally considered parodies or inside jokes rather than digital assets with real utility and value.
Shiba Inu was created with the intention of merely being another meme coin, but over time it has developed a lively community. Shiba Inu helps the members of the #ShibArmy by cultivating an atmosphere that promotes activity and advancement. The Shiba Inu Incubator was created to help people find the tools required to achieve their artistic ambitions.
Shiba Inu Market Position
At the time of writing, Shiba Inu has a market cap of roughly $5 billion, which places it in the top 20 cryptocurrencies by total market capitalization. In terms of meme coins, Shiba Inu is the second largest, trailing Dogecoin which has a market capitalization of roughly $10 billion.
Compared to other top 15 altcoins such as Ethereum, both Shiba Inu and Dogecoin have inferior infrastructure, use case and levels of adoption. However, they make up for it in terms of their social popularity – often dominating social media feeds during euphoric times in the market.
In this sense, Shiba Inu’s growth is largely predicated on market sentiment. During fearful times, Shiba Inu underperforms, as money flows out of riskier projects into projects with strong fundamentals; however, during euphoric times, Shiba Inu has the potential to explode in popularity.
Factors That Could Push Shiba Inu to $1
Three specific catalysts could help push Shiba Inu’s price to the $1 mark. The first catalyst is token burning. Burning tokens means removing coins from the overall supply of the cryptocurrency by sending tokens to wallets that cannot be used for transactions other than receiving tokens.
Although burning doesn’t always mean that price will increase, it enhances SHIB’s value by limiting the supply. At the time of writing, over 70 billion SHIB have been burned, which is over 40% of the total SHIB.
Another key catalyst for SHIB is the development of the Shiba Inu network. A notable piece of infrastructure scheduled to be built down the pipeline is Shibarium – a Layer 2 solution that will reduce fees and increase the functionality of the Shiba Inu network. Shiba Inu metaverses and ShibaSwap 2.0, an upgraded decentralized exchange, are also in development. Together, further developments in Shiba Inu’s infrastructure are likely to attract more users and drive up demand.
The final and most significant potential catalyst for Shiba Inu is the overall growth of the meme coin trend heading into 2023. Shiba Inu’s price is largely driven by meme coin hype cycles in the media, which typically arise during euphoric times in the market. If Elon Musk continues to support Dogecoin, and more celebrities fuel the flames, the price appreciation potential for Shiba Inu could be boundless.
Why a Shiba Inu $1 Price Target is Unlikely
Despite these price catalysts for Shiba Inu, a $1 price target is extremely unlikely. This prediction comes down to supply and demand, and the absurd amount of trading volume that would be required to reach $1 from current prices.
A common mistake new crypto investors make is focusing too much on the price of a coin. The price of a cryptocurrency doesn’t matter when determining growth potential. Instead, it is better to analyze the market capitalization of a coin, which is calculated by multiplying the total circulating supply of coins by the current market price of a single coin. Market capitalization measures the total value of a cryptocurrency on the open market and can be useful for determining growth potential.
Shiba Inu’s low price per token (less than $0.00001 on Jan. 12, 2023) can deceive new investors and cause them to inaccurately gauge SHIB’s future price potential. They fail to take into account the corresponding supply and overall market cap of Shiba Inu.
If SHIB were to reach $1, investors would experience a return of 100,000x. However, more importantly, to reach $1 Shiba Inu would need to reach a market value north of $400 trillion – this value is greater than the value of the entire global economy! As a result, it is more or less impossible for Shiba Inu to ever reach $1.
Where to Buy Shiba Inu
Shiba Inu can be traded on major exchanges such as Uphold, Gemini and eToro. Many of these platforms allow you to purchase Shiba Inu using your credit card, through swapping features or through different trading pairs such as SHIB/USDT.
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Is Shiba Inu a Good Investment?
Overall, if you are a long-term investor, then it may be a good time to start accumulating Shiba Inu over the coming months. Shiba Inu is a risky investment opportunity with a possible payoff that could change your life. It has one of the strongest social presences in the whole Web3 sector, is the second-largest meme coin and is in the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market valuation. However, given both the speculative nature of Shiba Inu and the inherently volatile nature of cryptocurrency, prudent investors will only invest money they are willing to lose.
