Since its launch in 2020, Shiba Inu has created one of the most famous 'get rich quick' stories in the cryptocurrency market. Initially born as a joke inspired by Dogecoin (which was also a joke about Bitcoin), Shiba Inu started at a price of just $0.00000000051.
If you had invested $100 at that time, this amount would now have turned into $2.35 million - a figure that surprises anyone. So what has helped this meme coin achieve such a miracle? And can SHIB continue to 'mint' new millionaires in the coming years?
The Distinctiveness of Shiba Inu
The anonymous founder known as Ryoshi created a total supply of 1 quadrillion (1 million trillion) tokens before officially launching it. SHIB has a deflationary characteristic - meaning it can be burned to reduce supply, but cannot be mined like Bitcoin or Dogecoin.
Right from the start, Ryoshi gifted 500 trillion tokens to Vitalik Buterin – co-founder of Ethereum. Vitalik later burned more than 40% of these tokens, contributing to the scarcity story for SHIB.
Currently, SHIB still has 589 trillion tokens in circulation, corresponding to a market cap of about 7.2 billion USD.
Shiba Inu runs on Ethereum, so it does not have its own blockchain. When Ethereum transitioned from a Proof-of-Work mechanism to Proof-of-Stake in 2022, the network supported smart contracts, opening up opportunities for SHIB to develop its ecosystem of applications, NFTs, staking...
However, SHIB is still limited by high gas fees and slow processing speeds of Ethereum.
To address this, in 2023 the development team launched Shibarium - a Layer-2 blockchain that enables cheaper fees, faster transactions, and supports the expansion of the ShibaSwap ecosystem.
Why Did Shiba Inu Once 'Soar High'?
The main factors driving SHIB's strong increase include:
Meme coin effect: Associating images with Dogecoin and meme trends helps SHIB quickly gain attention.
Listings on major exchanges: Coinbase, Binance... bring SHIB closer to global investors.
Attraction from social media: Posts and tweets from Elon Musk about Shiba Inu dogs have caused the price of this coin to explode multiple times.
Launching new products: ShibaSwap (DEX) and Shibarium lay the foundation for long-term development.
Token burn strategy: The community and project actively reduce supply.
Expanding into the Metaverse: Launching over 100,000 virtual plots, SHIB is the default payment currency.
Prospects and Challenges
Speculators expect Shibarium to attract more developers, increase the demand for SHIB, BONE, LEASH, while also expanding practical applications.
In addition, if interest rates decrease and a crypto-friendly policy from the US government (especially under Trump) is implemented, the inflow of money into the meme coin market could increase again.
However, the expectation that SHIB will multiply by millions of % again is almost impossible. If it repeats the increase of 2,352,841% like in the past 5 years, SHIB's market cap would reach 169.4 trillion USD - far exceeding gold (22.8 trillion USD) or Bitcoin (2.3 trillion USD), which is unrealistic.
A more reasonable scenario: If SHIB increases by 5,900% to reach a market cap equivalent to the current Ethereum (427 billion USD), a $1,000 investment would turn into $60,800. This is a very impressive increase, but not enough to turn a small amount into a million-dollar fortune.
Conclusion
Shiba Inu has proven the power of community and media effects in the cryptocurrency world. However, to continue breaking through, SHIB needs:
Expanding the practical ecosystem on Shibarium.
Maintaining a strong token burn strategy to reduce supply.
Increasing usability in payments, DeFi, metaverse.
Attracting long-term capital flows instead of just relying on 'meme waves'.
SHIB will still be a high-risk investment – high returns, suitable for investors willing to accept high volatility and believe in the power of the meme coin community.