What to know about the Dog meme coin: Shiba Inu

Shiba Inu (SHIB) coin was one of the latest coins to hit the crypto market. It made headlines in January 2021 and got a lot of buyers.

The crypto coin was created in August 2020 by an anonymous person or group called “Ryoshi”. It is named after a Japanese breed of dog, Shiba Inu, which originates from the Chūbu region. It is the same dog breed found on the meme dogecoin, a satirical cryptocurrency.

Shiba Inu has been referred to as a “meme coin” and a pump and dump scheme, unlike its counterparts – bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. There have been growing concerns about the being concentrated in a single “whale” wallet that controls billions of dollars worth of the token and frenzy buying by investors driven by the fear of missing out (FOMO).

“It features the same dog which became a meme, and aims to replicate Dogecoin’s success of turning a joke into a money-making machine,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves.

According to Shiba Inu’s website, users are allowed to hold trillions of the meme tokens which are listed and incentivized on the ShibaSwap – its decentralized exchange. It also claims to have locked 50% of its total supply in Uniswap, with the remaining supply burned to Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin.  

The meme coin is currently worth $0.00002869, compared to an October high of $0.0000826, according to CoinMarketCap. The coin’s value has steadily fallen since late last year, after a huge rally in October 2021 which jumped its value to more than 430%.

The rally was stirred by Elon Musk who posted a picture of his Shiba Inu puppy on Twitter. The rally also extended to Dogecoin and other look-alike coins.

It's almost difficult to say now if Shiba Inu’s price will increase this year and what the exact price would be. The same applies to many other coins due to the volatility cryptocurrencies are bound to face in the coming months. Shiba Inu’s highest value in year-to-date has been $0.0000342 at the beginning of January, but has dropped.

However, some investors are optimistic that the value of the coin will rise to $0.000053 this year, according to crypto website Wallet Investor. Others like Coin Price Forecast expects Shiba to reach $0.00008819 by mid-2022.

Should you invest in cryptocurrency?

Generally, investing in cryptocurrencies is as good as gambling because there are no guarantees that the price will go up in value as you expect. This type of investment is a very high risk, a speculative investment with little track record and no underlying value, according to TheSun.UK.

While cryptocurrencies hold a lot of promising returns, there is no guarantee that you will convert your crypto assets back into cash depending on the demand and supply in the market.

“Investors should treat trading in cryptocurrencies with extreme caution, and dabble at the edges of their investment portfolio, only with money they can afford to lose,” Streeter said.

Nigel Green, chief executive of deVere Group also warned that “extreme caution” should be applied before investing in "un-tested cryptocurrencies” and that the price swings of such currencies can be wild which may lead to a high risk that could affect investors.

“There are major differences between the likes of Bitcoin, which runs on cutting edge tech and has a limited supply giving it scarcity value like gold, amongst other valuable attributes; and unknown digital tokens which seemingly have no inherent value,” Green said.

‘Bigger Entertainment set to burn 1 billion Shiba Inu tokens’

World’s first crypto label Bigger Entertainment has announced plans to organize the largest Shiba burn party on February 14. This move could wipe out 1 billion Shiba Inu coins from circulation which could cause the cryptocurrency price to hit bullish levels. The entertainment company previously burned 240 million Shiba Inu tokens during Christmas and hopes to do even more on Valentine’s Day.

Owner of Bigger Entertainment, Steven Cooper, has called on 4,000 community members to join in the movement to burn 1 billion tokens.

Several businesses have joined in the movement of burning Shiba Inu tokens. Last month, Brick Buster, a game on Google Play Store, burned 232 million tokens. The Shiba Inu launched Shiboshi NFT collection has also burned 109 million tokens in 58 transactions.

Significantly, the Shiba token burns could jump the Dogecoin-killer’s price higher than it already is.  Crypto analysts at Vision Pulse Traders have evaluated Shiba’s price trend and concluded that the mem coin is currently in a downtrend. However, there could be an explosive rally if the Shiba Inu price hits $0.0000245.