Bitcoin (BTC 0.24%) has risen by around 60% in just the past three months. Hype and excitement ahead of the approval of the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has resulted in investors becoming incredibly bullish on crypto of late. At more than $40,000, the digital currency is now trading around the levels it was at two years ago. There's hope that it could hit the $100,000 mark.
Another popular coin, Shiba Inu (SHIB +1.50%) also has the potential to rise given the overall excitement around crypto these days. In the past, it has been a popular meme coin, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has often tweeted about it. Shiba Inu has been rising in value recently, and given its low token price -- around $0.0000096 on Tuesday -- getting to $0.01 would be a massive return for investors.
Which scenario looks more probable for 2024: Bitcoin getting to $100,000, or Shiba Inu rising to a value of $0.01?
CRYPTO: BTC
Key Data Points
Bitcoin has been falling but there's another catalyst that could be coming
In what could just be the latest example of investors and speculators buying the rumor and selling the news, Bitcoin's value has been falling in the wake of the Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of the first spot Bitcoin ETFs. On Jan. 10, the regulator approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs, but the value of the digital currency dipped to less than $42,000 by Jan. 13. Bitcoin has rallied since then but it definitely doesn't look to be skyrocketing on the news.
Over time, however, the momentum may build back up if the approval of the ETF has the desired effect -- getting a significantly larger number of more risk-averse investors and crypto novices to put Bitcoin into their portfolios. That's not something that investors should expect to happen overnight.
There's another catalyst that could help Bitcoin's value rise even further. Every four years or so, the rewards for validating each block of transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain (i.e., mining) are cut in half. These "halving" events, which are built into the Bitcoin protocol, reduce the rate of token supply growth. The next halving is expected to take place in April.
Prior halvings have been followed by surges in Bitcoin's price. Combine that with the possibility of more investors buying crypto due to spot Bitcoin ETFs now being available, and there could be an even stronger rally this time around.
CRYPTO: SHIB
Key Data Points
Is Shiba Inu getting to $0.01 too big of a dream?
Shiba Inu isn't nearly as popular as Bitcoin is, but as investors learned a few years ago, everyone loves a good underdog. And with the help of meme investors, Shiba Inu has the potential to rally as more people learn about crypto. While the spot Bitcoin ETFs could make it easier for some people to invest in Bitcoin, they may also lead them to get more interested in other cryptocurrencies.
Growth investors looking for the next big opportunity may be concerned that Bitcoin, which has a market cap of $840 billion, may simply be too expensive. A smaller coin such as Shiba Inu, which has the potential to captivate meme investors, could be seen as possessing more potential upside. At around $5.7 billion, its market cap is much smaller than Bitcoin's.
The big question, however, is whether $0.01 is simply too high of a target for the coin to reach. For it to get to $0.01, Shibu Inu's price would need to grow by about 1,100 times. By comparison, Bitcoin would need to grow by 2.5 times to get to $100,000. And if Shiba Inu achieved such a gain, its market cap would be $5.9 trillion, giving it a higher market cap than Bitcoin.
Bitcoin getting to $100,000 is much more probable
Bitcoin is already the larger and more popular coin, and there are no compelling reasons to believe Shiba Inu could skyrocket past it. It might go along for the ride with other cryptocurrencies as they increase in value, but it's highly unlikely that Shiba Inu will lead the charge.
There are now thousands of cryptocurrencies to choose from and the benefit Bitcoin has is that it has become synonymous with crypto and it's the most popular coin. If someone is going to invest in crypto, it'll likely be with Bitcoin.
Bitcoin may not reach $100,000 this year, but that outcome is much more probable than Shiba Inu getting anywhere near $0.01. Crypto remains risky, but Bitcoin is the safest option compared to all other coins.
