Key Insights:
Shiba Inu is an extremely popular memecoin with a high user number and a high growth rate.
Further, the crypto has a high burn rate that keeps its users engaged with its ecosystem.
The token has its own L2 blockchain and has a highly developed ecosystem.
Future plans to integrate dApps, NFTs, and Metaverse could be highly beneficial for it in the future.
However, the high token supply and the whale domination in it worries investors.
Shiba Inu was launched on 22 August 2024 after a failed attempt on 16 August. In a little over one year of its operation, the blockchain has completed 416 million transactions, achieved a block speed of 23 seconds, and reached a total address count of 1.8 million.
Though it may not be a comparable as other layer-2 blockchains, yet it is one of the highest achievements among all memecoins.
Further, the Shibarium blockchain supports dApps, DeFi, and NFTs, unlike the Dogecoin blockchain which remains an L1 chain for DOGE transfers only.
Also, a high frequency of on-chain burns have kept the ecosystem engaged. However, it has little real benefit unless burns are in the order of billions.
Market Cap: Shiba Inu is the second largest memecoin with a market cap of almost $10 billion. This makes it a more trustable investment.
Community: The Shiba Inu community is so strong that on the day of its blockchain's launch, it got 1.6 million visitors and this crashed its website.
Memecoin Appeal: Memecoins were the most profitable crypto narrative in 2024, making it a lucrative investment.
Low Transaction Fee: The launch of its Layer-2 blockchain, Shibarium, gave a helping hand to small-time investors who were previously unable to buy Shiba Inu due to Ethereum's high transaction fee.
Low Network Activity: Oftentimes, the Shibarium blockchain witnesses low network activity because of dry spells in memecoin markets. Also, the network activity comes in ripples, indicating that the blockchain is only being used for Shiba Inu.
Ultra High Token Supply: Despite all the efforts, Shiba Inu has a circulating supply of 589 trillion.
Speculation-Driven Volatility: Most investments in Shiba Inu are related to speculation and hope that someday it will reach $1 and make people millionaires. This causes the token to be extremely volatile which can be seen in its 2024 high of $0.000045 and low of $$0.000006688, a 68x difference.
DeFi: Shiba Inu could easily become a defi-friendly blockchain and this has been on the roadmap since the launch of its blockchain.
dApps: The dApps on Shiba Inu's blockchain are very similar to Ethereum dApps and this could help in the easy migration of those dApps which are looking to reduce their fee.
Layer-2 Chain: If Shiba Inu extends its blockchain support for other memecoins, it may see a surge in adoption as a specific-purpose memecoin blockchain.
Market Saturation: The memecoin markets have been oversaturated since the boom in Solana memecoins. Further, as the trend shifts, buyers change their memecoin preferences. For example, political memecoins became popular before the 2024 US elections.
Regulatory Uncertainty: Though much regulatory attention has not yet shifted towards Shiba Inu, the risk of regulatory shocks remains large.
Scope for Price Manipulation: Data from Intotheblock shows that 73% of Shiba Inu is held by large investors and whales, which leaves ample scope for price manipulation.
Shytoshi Kusama, the lead developer of Shiba Inu once said that the project was open to a 99% burn of its token supply. Though it could give a strong boost to the token price, yet, the implementation largely remains uncertain.
Further, Shiba Inu is soon expected to integrate dApps and NFTs on its blockchain. The fees generated by dApps could provide a boost to its on-chain revenue.
Earlier this year, Shiba Inu's marketing lead Lucie announced that the blockchain is looking to onboard 1000 new projects into its ecosystem. Since it wouldn't require much effort to migrate Ethereum-based dApps to Shibarium, this could help users diversify their dependence on Ethereum.
Finally, the largest project that Shiba Inu will launch is a virtual reality project called "Shib The Metaverse". This project could provide a new life to the almost dead metaverse sector in the entire Ethereum ecosystem.
Shiba Inu has a high community engagement. Its X handle has 3.8 million followers. Further, the Reddit page has 520k followers.
When Shibarium was launched, the project received 16 million visitors in a single day causing its website to crash. The event proved that the hype around Shiba Inu was real.
Shiba Inu's current tokenomics is a bit skewed which makes it difficult for investors to achieve sustained growth but makes it easy for whales to manipulate the price.
With over 589 trillion SHIB tokens in supply, the project has already achieved an over supply. This causes the market to flood with SHIB whenever there is a correction in broad markets.
Further, as about 73% of the tokens are with whales, they find it easy to dump SHIB on the markets everytime there is a better opportunity in any other cryptocurrency.
Shiba Inu's ecosystem also has two other tokens: BONE and LEASH. LEASH is a utility and reward token while BONE is the governance token of Shiba Inu.
Shiba Inu Last One Year Price History
CoinMarketCap
The price target of $0.01 is 58,800% away from current levels. Even if we assume that Shiba Inu would achieve the growth rate of BONK, yet it is not enough to achieve this target.
On the basis of fundamental factors and technical charts, Shiba Inu is expected to reach $0.0008 by the end of the current alt season. The factors supporting its high growth are its blockchain, high popularity, on-chain growth, and future projects.
However, to reach the target of $0.01, Shiba Inu needs a supportive regulatory environment and a strong alt season both in 2025 and 2029. If all these factors align together, they may take Shiba Inu towards $0.01 by 2030.
Shiba Inu vs Dogecoin
CoinMarketCap
Shiba Inu could soon cross Dogecoin in its market cap because the latter has almost stagnated at the price level of $0.1. This leaves a $5.7 billion gap between the market caps of both coins.
If Shiba Inu makes a 300% rally by the end of the year or even by early 2025, it could easily outrank Dogecoin.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.