To say that Shiba Inu has been on a wildly volatile journey would probably be putting it lightly. The meme cryptocurrency, inspired by its predecessor Dogecoin, absolutely skyrocketed in late 2021 to hit its peak in October that year.
But it's been a bumpy downward trend since. As of April 25, this token trades 84% below its record, although it has had short-lived price bursts. Maybe this cryptocurrency is drawing the attention of risk-tolerant speculators who believe a monster run is in the cards throughout the rest of the decade.
Can Shiba Inu rise 7,112,276% from its current price of $0.00001406 to reach $1 per token in 2030? Here's what investors need to know about this truly ambitious target.
Figuring out the value proposition
I believe the long-term viability of any cryptocurrency depends on its ability to introduce real-world utility to the mix. Otherwise, a project might become irrelevant.
Shiba Inu is trying to add more functionality to its blockchain. There's a layer-2 scaling solution called Shibarium that's meant to speed up transactions and lower costs. Users can interact with a Shiba Inu metaverse. And there are related tokens, like BONE for governance and LEASH for loyalty benefits, that can cater to more people.
It's easy to argue, like I have in the past, that Shiba Inu doesn't solve a legitimate problem and provides no real-world value. I stand behind this view, which I think many others would agree with.
However, it's not necessarily fair to say that Shiba Inu is worthless. We're almost five years past its launch, and the cryptocurrency is currently worth $8.3 billion, making it the 16th most valuable blockchain network on Earth. Despite the extreme volatility, there is some nominal monetary value here.
Consequently, I believe it's best to look at Shiba as a type of new-age digital collectible. And this plays to the idea that cryptocurrencies are about community as well. The so-called SHIB army, Shiba Inu's supporters, have contributed to something that's worth more than companies like Sweetgreen, Hims & Hers Health, and Etsy, which is crazy to think.
CRYPTO: SHIB
Key Data Points
The path to $1
Since its launch in August 2020, Shiba Inu's price has catapulted almost 14,000-fold higher, even though it's trading significantly off its peak from late 2021. In order for the token to get to $1 by 2030, it would need to climb at an annualized rate of 834%. I don't think this is even remotely possible.
The current token supply is 589 trillion. Based on a $1 price tag, this implies the entire blockchain network will be worth $589 trillion in five years. That would be about 20 times larger than the U.S. economy. This is an outrageously big number.
There is a coin-burning mechanism in place to reduce the supply. According to shibburn.com, 15.2 million tokens were burned in the past 24 hours. At this rate, it would take a whopping 66,000 days (or 180 years) to burn just 1 trillion tokens. That's hardly making a dent.
Shiba Inu has found interest among speculators looking to gamble on its price movements. In theory, this seems pretty simple. Buy low and sell high, as they say. And then just repeat that process on the road to riches.
The issue, though, is that this will undoubtedly end up badly. Investing is done right when there's an intense focus on the long term. And for long-term investors who want to own the highest-quality assets, it's best to avoid Shiba Inu at all costs. This strategy will work wonders for your portfolio, as well as your peace of mind.
