SHIB, a meme cryptocurrency driven by community participation, has garnered a huge following since its launch in late 2020. The Ethereum-based SHIB token has achieved widespread recognition, and as of 2023, it was approved by HSCB for specific payments.
Created by an anonymous developer by the name of “Ryoshi” in August 2020, the Shiba Inu coin gained momentum, especially due to activities by notable figures such as Vitalik Buterin, and Elon Musk. Vitalik burned $6 billion worth last year and said that he would send the rest to a chosen charity organization.
In May 2021, Musk posted a picture of his Shiba Inu puppy, sparking speculation about his interest in the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency. A month later, while he responded negatively to a suggestion of Tesla accepting Shiba Inu as payment, by October, he tweeted a meme identifying himself as Shiba Inu.
In a bull market, anything can happen. Currently, SHIB has a market capitalization of just over $17 billion and a price of $0.00002922. To reach $1, the market capitalization would need to increase by 34,300 times. The question arises: could such a substantial price increase be feasible in this unpredictable market? While the answer will lean toward the negative, here are some reasons why the SHIB token might travel north of the $1 mark during this bull run:
From a playful memecoin to a ‘legitimate’ project
Originally a meme coin, the Shiba Inu project has transformed into a comprehensive Web3 endeavor. For instance, it introduced its blockchain, Shibarium, an Ethereum layer-2 network that leverages SHIB tokens for transactions starting on August 16, 2023.
Shibarium is dedicated to financial services, gaming applications, and decentralized finance (DeFi), utilizing tokens such as BONE, TREAT, SHIB, and LEASH for diverse blockchain applications.
Additionally, Shib the metaverse offers a virtual world where members of the SHIB Army can interact, create, socialize, shop, and participate in various activities within a three-dimensional environment mirroring reality.
It also introduced Shibaswap, which serves as the official swapping platform for the Shiba Inu project, offering swapping services. It is a derivative of Sushiswap and supports a range of ERC-20 tokens while integrating with the Shibarium Layer 2 network.
Top ten memecoin
In May 2021, Shiba Inu (SHIB) made its first surge into the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, and it has since repeated this achievement multiple times.
Moreover, in March 2024, Forbes featured the cryptocurrency in its list of the top ten projects for the month. Since then, its price has exceeded its highest point in the last 19 months. It should be noted that at the time of writing this piece, the token stands at the 11th position by market capitalization.
Community engagement
The Shiba Inu community, known as ShibArmy, is renowned for its robust social presence and active engagement. It has consistently ranked among the top 10 most active communities in the cryptocurrency sphere.
The community’s impact is palpable in the swift ascent of Shiba Inu on various social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit, where members actively participate in discussions and attract new investors.
Acknowledging the community’s strong support, the lead developer, who remains pseudonymous, recently dedicated an award to the community for its pivotal role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
The community now boasts a Twitter following exceeding 3.8 million (up from 791,000 in October 2023), with over 146,000 members on Discord and more than 135,000 on Telegram.
Burn rate
Another catalyst for the rise of a $1 Shiba Inu (SHIB) is its burn rate strategy. Shiba Inu has integrated various token burn mechanisms to decrease its circulating supply, potentially boosting the value of its tokens.
On March 9, 2024, as part of this continuous process, 13.4 billion SHIB tokens were destroyed. Furthermore, other ecosystem tokens such as BONE and LEASH have also been burned to diminish the circulating supply, aiming to impact the token’s value positively.
ShibBurn, a burning portal created in partnership with Ryoshi, enables users to burn their SHIB coins in exchange for a unique token. The inception of ShibBurn drew inspiration from Vitalik Buterin’s act of burning $6.7 billion worth of SHIB tokens in May 2021, underscoring the project’s dedication to reducing supply.
Since its inception in 2020, Shiba Inu has incinerated over 410 trillion SHIB tokens, accounting for approximately 41% of the total supply. The objective is to instill scarcity and influence the token’s value favorably.
The burning initiatives continue, with the community and developers actively engaging in burning programs like Play to Burn games and other community-led endeavors.
Other recent news
Recently, Kaiko, a web3 data service provider, revealed that meme-inspired crypto tokens have experienced significant growth in the past few weeks, with weekly trade volume reaching $80 billion, a valuation not seen in years.
Among these meme tokens, Shiba Inu stands out as particularly influential, driving this market trend. With a market capitalization exceeding $19 billion, it is second only to Dogecoin, which boasts over $25 billion.
Furthermore, Bitcoin continues to lead the crypto market, setting an all-time high of $73,650. Speculation abounds regarding its potential to reach $100,000 by the end of 2024, suggesting a possibility for Shiba Inu to also achieve a new peak.
