For years, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has lived on big promises: “0.01 soon,” “$1 one day,” “burns will change everything.” The charts and on‑chain data tell a different story. SHIB still has a multi billion dollar market cap and millions of holders, but its token structure now works more like a trap than a lottery ticket.
This article walks through the numbers in plain language so any holder can see what is realistic—and what is not.
1. The Simple Facts Everyone Should Know
Let’s start with where
$SHIB stands today:
Circulating supply: about 589 trillion SHIB.Market cap: roughly 3.3–3.6 billion dollars.Price: around 0.000005–0.000006 dollars per SHIB.Holders: about 2.8–2.9 million addresses.Concentration: one wallet (the “dead/whale” address) holds about 410 trillion SHIB, roughly 41% of the total supply.
So SHIB is not a tiny micro cap anymore. It is a huge pool of tokens spread across a very large community, with a big chunk sitting in one address.
2. What $0.01 Really Means in Dollars
Many people repeat the dream: “If SHIB reaches one cent, I’ll be rich.” The math behind that dream is where the problem starts.
Scenario 1: SHIB goes to $0.01 with no burns
Supply = 589T SHIBPrice = $0.01
Market cap = 589T × 0.01 = $5.89 trillion
To compare:
That is more than double the entire crypto market at its peak.It is larger than any single company on earth.It is bigger than the GDP of most countries.
In other words, for SHIB to hit $0.01 without burning supply, it would have to become the most valuable asset in the world. That is not a price prediction; it is a simple consequence of multiplying price by supply.
Scenario 2: Try to keep the market cap realistic
Let’s say we are generous and assume SHIB could one day justify a $60B market cap (which would put it among the biggest coins on the market).
To get $0.01 with a $60B market cap:
Target market cap = $60BTarget price = $0.01
Target supply = 60B ÷ 0.01 = 6B SHIB
So supply would have to fall from 589T to 6B. That means about 99% of all current SHIB must be destroyed.
And if you want $0.01 with today’s $3.3B value, the target supply is:
3.3B ÷ 0.01 ≈ 330B SHIB
Now the burn needed is even more extreme: from 589T to 0.33T, or about 99.94% of supply gone.
That is the core message: the price dream depends on killing almost the entire token supply.
3. How Current Burns Compare to What’s Needed
The project and community have introduced burns:
Manual community burns.Automated burns linked to Shibarium gas fees.Occasional big “burn events” that destroy billions of tokens.
Those efforts are real and they do reduce supply—but on the wrong scale.
We are talking about burning billions of tokens per month in a system that needs to burn hundreds of trillions just to make the math for $0.01 reasonable. It is like trying to empty an Olympic swimming pool with a teaspoon.
Even optimistic projections that assume 5–10 trillion SHIB burned per year still require decades to cut supply by 90%, and you would still be far away from the extreme 99–99.9% cuts needed for the popular price targets.
Burns can help price at the margin if demand is healthy. They cannot magically fix a supply that is this oversized.
4. The 41% Wallet: Decentralization Problem on Top of Tokenomics
Another important piece of the puzzle is concentration.
On‑chain data shows one address holds around 410 trillion
$SHIB —about 41% of total supply. Many people treat this as a “dead” or burn address, and it may in practice function that way. But from an investor’s perspective, two things are true:
If the wallet is genuinely inaccessible, that means SHIB is effectively already heavily pre‑burned—and even after that, you still have 589T circulating. The tokenomics problem remains.If there is any doubt about the status of that wallet, holders live with permanent whale risk on top of everything else: one entity can influence the market just by moving or selling.
So the project either has:
A huge centralization issue, orAlready “used up” a massive burn and still faces an oversupply problem.
Neither version fits the dream scenario.
5. What This Means for $1, $0.01 and Even $0.001
Let’s translate the hype into numbers:
$1 requires such an extreme supply cut and market cap that serious analysts simply call it a mathematical impossibility under current rules.$0.01 demands burning roughly 99–99.9% of supply, plus huge real demand on top.Even $0.001 (one tenth of a cent) likely needs large burns and a much bigger crypto market than today to be sustainable.
The important point is not that price can never move up. SHIB can still pump in meme cycles and in risk‑on markets. The point is that the most popular long term targets are completely out of line with what the numbers allow.
6. A Professional View: The Cost of Waiting
Looking at this as a finance professional, the key concept is opportunity cost.
Every dollar locked in SHIB is a dollar:
Not in BTC or ETH, which have capped or clearly declining supplies.Not in projects with real cash flows, fees or strong token sinks.Not in new narratives (L2s, RWAs, AI linked tokens) that could actually compound if they succeed.
SHIB already did its 100x+ move for early entrants in 2021. Today it is a large, heavy asset with:
An oversupply problem that burns cannot realistically solve.A highly concentrated holder structure.A price path that depends more on fresh speculation than on fundamental value.
Continuing to hold only because of $0.01 or $1 dreams is, in my view, choosing time wastage and stress over a rational allocation.
That doesn’t mean no one should ever hold SHIB. People may choose to keep a small position because they enjoy the community, want exposure to meme coin cycles, or simply like the brand. But it should be a conscious decision, with eyes open to the math—not blind faith in slogans.
7. A Respectful Message to Holders
If you are a SHIB holder, ask yourself three simple questions:
Why am I still holding?
Is it because of realistic scenarios, or only because I once heard “0.01” and never re‑checked the numbers?What role does SHIB play in my portfolio?
Is it a small, speculative slice—or is it taking up space that could be used for assets with better token design?Would I buy the same amount today if I had all my money in cash?
If the answer is “no,” that is a sign your position sizing may no longer match your own view.
You may decide to keep some
$SHIB , to exit, or to do nothing. The key is to decide based on clear math and honest self assessment, not old promises.
This article is for educational discussion only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Every investor must evaluate their own risk tolerance, time horizon and goals before making any decision.
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