Shiba Inu (SHIB), probably the second most popular ‘meme-coin’ after DogeCoin, has attracted a lot of attention and rumours since its inception in August 2020. The creator of this crypto token still remains a mystery, they go by the name of ‘Ryoshi’ but no one knows their real identity, Originally it was perceived to be a creation of Vitalik Buterin, the famous co-founder of Ethereum who later denied being a part of the SHIB project.
SHIB currently trades at a market price of $0.00001159 (As on 19th May, 2022) and even at this price it has a market capitalisation of almost USD 6.4 Billion! just because of the enormous amount of coins in circulation – 549 Trillion coins in total. So, with this amount of supply is it possible for SHIB to ever touch the milestone of $0.1? A staggering return of 9,000 times from its current price? You might be having this question already – Should I buy Shiba Inu? Let’s try to find that out!
SHIBA INU (SHIB) Use Case
For a crypto to have any value in the long term, it has to have a potential use case scenario as merel hype cannot sustain prices. SHIB attracted a lot of hype as being the potential ‘Dogecoin Killer’ but that alone cannot drive prices for long. So what exactly is SHIB for? Is it merely a social hype or something which can actually be used in the real world?
SHIB runs on the Ethereum blockchain and has smart contract capabilities which allows for a lot of potential use-case scenarios unlike its closest competitor DogeCoin which is based on its own distinct blockchain. By being an Ethereum based coin, SHIB is compatible with a huge chunk of the ETH ecosystem. SHIB already supports NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and a Decentralised-Finance (DeFi) platform ShibaSwap, which allows for trading of crypto in a decentralised environment. SHIB can also be integrated with various DeFi applications that are related to lending and staking/saving based on the ETH blockchain.
SHIBA INU (SHIB) – The Hype and The News
A return of 9,000 times from the current price to $0.1 sounds unlikely but we have seen a lot of ‘Unlikely’ things happening in this volatile market space of cryptos. With SHIB it has been no different. Recently in October 2021, SHIB prices increased by 10x making it one of the top 10 cryptos by market capitalisation during that month. By being at such a high market-cap SHIB attracted further attention from traders and investors alike. The prices of SHIB just like Doge have been in the news since long, due to one or the other activity from a major personality in the crypto space.
Last year, in 2021, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the second largest crypto Ethereum donated 50 Trillion of SHIB tokens to a fund setup by the Indian crypto Polygon’s founder, Sandeep Nailwal. Vitalik had received almost half of the total supply of SHIB from no one else but ‘Ryoshi’, the anonymous founder of SHIB. But, Vitalik said he does not want that ‘Power’ and hence proceeded to burn the 90% of all of his SHIB holding by sending them to a dead blockchain address, thus permanently removing them from the supply and surging the prices in effect.
Similarly, Elon Musk, the self-proclaimed ‘Dogefather’ and the most famous supporter of DogeCoin, has also at times fueled the hype around SHIB. In October 2021, he tweeted a photo of his Shiba Inu breed puppy Floki which drew a lot of attention around SHIB and helped fuel the prices.
SHIBA INU (SHIB) – The Pipeline of Major Events
But, what is in store next for SHIB? As per the SHIBA Inu team, there are multiple big developments in the pipeline, which has the potential to start a price rally for SHIB to the levels of $0.0001, almost a tenfold increase from the current levels. These developments include two major things –
1. Shibarium:
A scaling protocol designed to scale up ETH, which will help curb the cost of transaction on ETH platform commonly known as the ‘gas’ which users have to pay. With reduced fee/gas and higher speed of transaction, prices of SHIB will only increase after the implementation of Shibarium.
2. Shiberse:
Announced in January 2022, Shiberse is the metaverse project of SHIB, through which the team behind SHIB wants to venture into the digital world of metaverse. With the project to Shiberse, The team intends to provide ‘an immersive experience for the SHIB ecosystem and metaverse space’.
Takeaway
But, even after these developments and the ones which are yet to be announced, the question still remains – Will Shiba Inu reach 1 Cent? With the current supply, it will mean a market capitalisation of more than USD 57 Trillion!! A market capitalisation of around 100 times that of Bitcoin, which seems unrealistic. To attain such a price, the SHIB team will probably have to burn a huge portion of the circulating supply to ensure the market capitalisation is realistic at the price level of $0.1. But, in the world of cryptocurrencies, it is difficult to do Shiba Inu coin price prediction or any other coin too! However, if you also plan to invest in Shiba Inu, come and start trading on Zebpay, India’s largest crypto exchange!
