The entire cryptocurrency market is worth $3.8 trillion, as of this writing on the morning of July 16. Despite that scale, critics rightfully view the industry with a bit of skepticism. Several crypto scams still exist, and crypto's utility is questioned by many.
However, some tokens have emerged as huge winners for risk-seeking investors, thanks to their ability to draw a large community of supporters. This is exactly what Shiba Inu (SHIB 4.58%) has done. It's trading 84% below its peak but has still skyrocketed since its launch in 2020.
Maybe the momentum will continue through the rest of this decade. Can Shiba Inu reach $1 per token in 2030?
Image source: Getty Images.
Hype and speculation
Shiba Inu's historical price chart resembles a roller-coaster ride because there have been short periods of massive price upswings. This happened in late 2021, when Shiba Inu's price hit a record in October that year during a raging bull market. It also occurred twice in 2024, but the price tanked in the months that followed as the demand wasn't sustainable.
This tells me that the token's price is influenced by short-term hype cycles. Those who can correctly time these, buying and selling at the right moments, will see big gains. But that's impossible to do consistently without a tremendous amount of luck.
Shiba Inu's path to $1
Shiba Inu's token currently trades at $0.0000139. For the price to reach $1 in five years, it would need to rise 72,000-fold. This translates to a monster compound annual growth rate of 836%. In comparison, Bitcoin, the world's most valuable digital asset, has seen its price increase at a yearly clip of 67% in the past five years.
There are 590 trillion Shiba Inu tokens in circulation. Keeping the supply constant, this implies an illogical $590 trillion market cap at the end of the decade.
The U.S. economy, which is the largest in the world, reported an annualized gross domestic product (GDP) of $30 trillion in Q1 2025. Nvidia, the most valuable company on Earth and the champion of the artificial intelligence (AI) race, has a market cap of over $4 trillion. It's not realistic for Shiba Inu to reach $1 per token at the current supply.
However, the network is trying to improve the situation. Shiba Inu is in the process of burning coins. This could introduce an element of scarcity that might drive interest.
The current pace of this activity won't put a meaningful dent in the supply, as only 180,000 coins were burned in the past 24 hours. Even if the token supply were reduced significantly to help the price grow, the entire network wouldn't necessarily be worth more. Holders would simply have fewer tokens that have a higher nominal price.
Hanging on
The fact that Shiba Inu trades 84% below its peak indicates the market's waning interest. Yes, there will likely be random occurrences when the price spikes, only to come crashing back down. Unless there are real-world use cases that support broad user and developer adoption, I think Shiba Inu will likely just hang on and survive in the years ahead.
The supporters will point to things like the layer-2 Shibarium that's meant to lower fees and speed transaction times. There's also ShibaSwap, a decentralized exchange, and a metaverse. However, I don't see any value here.
Making things more difficult is the competition Shiba Inu faces. There are so many tokens out there that speculators can play with and some are surely more volatile. For those true investors seeking a safer long-term opportunity in the crypto space, nothing beats Bitcoin.
