Assuming you invest 100 USD evenly, 50 USD each in Shiba Inu (SHIB) and PEPE (PEPE). At the current price (early July 2025), SHIB is trading around $0.000011, so 50 USD will buy about 4.5 million SHIB tokens. Similarly, PEPE is around $0.00001008, so 50 USD is equivalent to 4.9 million PEPE tokens.
In an unrealistic scenario, if SHIB and PEPE both reach $1 per token, this investment would become ~4.5 million USD (from SHIB) and ~4.9 million USD (from PEPE), totaling over 9 million USD. However, this is just a hypothetical calculation. The reality shows that the path for SHIB or PEPE to reach 1 USD is still very distant in terms of supply-demand and market capitalization.
Massive Supply – Market Cap Barrier
Massive supply: SHIBA INU currently has ~589.25 trillion circulating tokens. At a price of ~$0.000013, SHIB's market cap has just reached ~7.5 billion USD. To reach $1, SHIB's market cap would have to become 589.25 trillion USD – roughly ~12 times the total value of the 500 largest companies in the S&P 500 and about ~20 times the GDP of the entire United States. This number is unrealistic in today's financial market.
PEPE is no better: The total supply of PEPE is designed at 420.69 trillion tokens. At the current price of ~$0.00001 (market cap ~4.25 billion USD), to reach $1, PEPE's market cap would need to rise to 420.69 trillion USD – equivalent to more than the market cap of all currencies in the world combined. This is an incredible challenge, even with the strongest community boost.
The difference between the current price and the $1 mark of SHIB/PEPE corresponds to a gigantic maximum market cap – over 10^14 to 10^14 USD. This proves that the $1 mark is mathematically very difficult to achieve. As Binance notes, for PEPE to reach $1, it would require burning up to 99.9999% of the current token supply and maximum global acceptance. In summary, high supply and the requirement for a gigantic market cap are the main barriers preventing SHIB and PEPE from hitting the $1 mark.
Efforts to Reduce Supply and Realistic Prospects
Token burning strategy: Both communities are implementing token burning to reduce supply. For example, the Shibarium system (Layer 2 of SHIB) has integrated real-time burning mechanisms, having burned over 56 billion SHIB since its launch. However, to push SHIB to $1, investors would need to burn up to 99.99998% of the supply (only retaining ~7.5 billion tokens). At the current burning rate, it would take 143,717 years to achieve this goal – clearly not feasible. PEPE is similar: to reach $1, the community estimates, according to Binance, that it would need to burn nearly all of its supply, an unimaginable task.
Exchange listings and applications: Both SHIB and PEPE have been listed on major exchanges. For instance, SHIB can be traded on Binance, Huobi, Coinbase, Gate.io…; PEPE is also listed on Binance, KuCoin, Huobi, Gate.io, along with many decentralized exchanges like Uniswap. Both of these coins are developing their own ecosystems: SHIB has Shibarium (L2 enhancing scalability and security), a metaverse project, and NFT applications; PEPE comes with meme campaigns and a large community. However, SHIB has only been accepted for payment in about 1,056 stores, while PEPE is primarily speculative trading. This indicates that their practical applications and network influence are still limited.
Price outlook: Most experts and market analyses assess the likelihood of SHIB/PEPE hitting $1 as Very Low. Many forecasts only expect SHIB to rise by a few percent (around $0.00003–$0.0001) and not achieve $1. For example, Crypto Henry believes SHIB could bounce up to ~$0.000033 (an increase of ~195%) if it breaks through the current price range, but it is unlikely to exceed $0.0001. Similarly, XMCaceres (Binance) states that the practical target for PEPE is currently around $0.00001–$0.0001 if strong cash flow continues. These price levels already represent an impressive increase, but are still far from $1.
Community and sentiment factors: SHIB and PEPE attract a large number of 'HODLers' thanks to community factors and meme trends. This helps these coins to potentially explode quickly in a short period. However, history shows that such explosions are often not sustainable: the meme coin market has previously dropped by dozens of percent just a few months after growth. Investing in meme coins does not rely much on fundamental factors, making it easy to be influenced by crowd psychology.
Advice and Conclusion
Investing in SHIB/PEPE carries high risks. These two coins are very volatile, largely driven by sentiment and rumors. A small investment (e.g., a few dozen USD) can yield significant profits if there is a sudden pump, but losing everything is also entirely possible. Calculations reaching millions of USD from a few dozen USD are just dream scenarios, not certain outcomes.
If deciding to participate, investors need to do thorough research (DYOR), understand the mechanism of operation, and accept the possibility of losses. It is advisable to only use a small portion of the portfolio for these coins, not to use borrowed funds or leverage.
Although the SHIB/PEPE community is very strong, experts emphasize that the $1 mark is far-fetched. According to Motley Fool and various analyses, with the current supply, SHIB cannot reach $1 in its current state, and PEPE is similar. Instead, one might expect more reasonable increases (e.g., surpassing old ATHs or increasing several dozen times compared to today's price), but one must always be cautious of the prospect of significant volatility.
In summary, SHIBA INU and PEPE may continue to rise in price during crypto market booms, thanks to a strong community and broad listing strategies. However, the dream of $1 for each coin is virtually impossible under current conditions. Investors should remain vigilant, viewing this as a speculative entertainment channel, and not place all their faith in 'billionaire' calculations. Always remember that the crypto market is very unpredictable, especially with meme coins – where high profits come with very high risks.