Crypto Shiba Inu May Need Elon Musk’s Support

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The widely followed Shiba Inu (CCC: SHIB-USD) meme token has been a roller coaster ride.

Source: Shutterstock

SHIB started gaining the attention of investors in April, when it was trading around 0.00000065. Yes, those are a lot of zeros.

Shiba Inu hit an all-time high of $ 0.000038 on May 10, but since then it has fallen. Now, SHIB is currently trading at around $ 0.0000075, down around 80% from the record high.

Nonetheless, the token is still up over 1000% since April.

Since the start of 2021, altcoins have increased their importance in the crypto market vis-à-vis Bitcoin (CCC: BTC-USD).

There are well over 10,000 crypto assets, including altcoins in several categories, such as Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms like Ethereum (CCC: ETH-USD), stablecoins linked to assets like Tether (CCC : USDT-USD) and same currencies like Dogecoin (CCC: DOGE-USD).

Investing in cryptocurrencies generally means more volatility and higher risk compared to stocks. Yet cryptos also offer greater reward potential.

For example, so far this year Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin have returned 54%, 317% and 5.146% respectively. Meanwhile, the NASDAQ 100 index is up 16% year-to-date (YTD) and the S&P 100 index is up 18% YTD.

Considering the lucrative returns that have already been made, I think the hype over SHIB may well be over for now. Nonetheless, long-term investors who could tolerate the choppy water and whose risk / reward profiles allow buying cryptos might still consider buying Shiba Inu troughs. Here’s why…

Could the “Dogecoin Killer” become a real deal?

Meme tokens are speculative cryptocurrencies that move primarily as a result of the words of powerful individuals as well as the collective actions of retail investors.

We increasingly live in a world of FUD or FOMO investing (fear, uncertainty and doubt and fear of missing out, respectively).

We’re also seeing alternative assets like altcoins gaining public support from influencers like Tesla CEO Elon Musk (NASDAQ: TSLA). Such a combination could easily be enough to drive the prices of these double-digit digital assets up in a matter of days.

The Shiba Inu token, aka the “Dogecoin Killer”, was launched in August 2020 by an anonymous creator named “Ryoshi”. The SHIB coin features the Japanese hunting dog Shiba Inu, similar to Dogecoin’s mascot.

For readers who might have missed the incredible increase in the price of DOGE since the start of the year, Dogecoin bills itself as an “open source peer-to-peer digital currency, favored by Shiba Inus around the world.”

It was created in late 2013 by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. They wanted to highlight the investor hype in the cryptocurrency markets at the time. Then, 2021 became the Year of Dogecoin Wealth.

SHIB’s white paper, known as the Woofpaper, defines the token as “a decentralized spontaneous community building experience.”

Shiba Inu started with an offer of 1 quadrillion coins. But he ceded 50% to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin for safekeeping while locking the remaining 50% on the decentralized funding platform Uniswap (CCC: UNI-USD).

In May, Buterin announced to “burn” most of the donated coins by transferring them to an inaccessible digital wallet. He would also do the rest for charity. The SHIB white paper has been updated accordingly after development.

Shiba Inu is more and more accepted

SHIB is currently in the top 40 cryptocurrency thanks to its market cap of $ 3.8 billion. In other words, despite the recent drop in prices, investor interest in altcoin is still intact.

Shiba Inu, inspired by Dogecoins, has gradually gained ground in the crypto space. He has also proven to be more than a ‘puppy’ coin by developing his own ecosystem differently from DOGE-USD.

For starters, SHIB, an ERC-20 token created on the Ethereum blockchain, can interact with popular DeFi projects that also run on the Ethereum blockchain. Shiba Inu has also launched its decentralized exchange (DEX) called ShibaSwap.

Additionally, the Shopping.io platform announced the integration of the SHIB token for purchases on Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Walmart (NYSE: WMT).

More interesting news came from Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN) which stated that the Shiba Inu token will be available for trading on Coinbase Pro. However, the launch has been delayed until further notice due to technical issues. For now, SHIB is listed on the trading platforms Binance, Capital.com and several others.

At the end of July, eToro, the online broker with over 20 million users, announced that SHIB was available for trading. Growing investor demand affected eToro’s decision.

The basics on Shiba Inu

All of these developments should strengthen Shiba Inu’s position in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, but it’s hard to say if SHIB could hit a new record anytime soon. Therefore, the question for now is whether or if you want to buy a lottery ticket. If so, you may want to consider investing in a SHIB token.

With enough luck on your side, you could potentially see your fortunes change, especially if the altcoin gets the backing of a celebrity like Elon Musk. However, you could also lose your entire investment in the lottery ticket.

Finally, long-term investors who don’t want to endure the daily turmoil of SHIB might consider investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Such funds would provide significant exposure to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

Examples include the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (NYSEARCA: BLOK), the First Trust Indxx Innovative Transaction & Process ETF (NASDAQ: LEGR), the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCMKTS: GBTC) and the ETF Innovation NextGen Protocol ( NYSEARCA: KOIN).

At the date of publication, Tezcan Gecgil had (directly or indirectly) no position in the securities mentioned in this article.

Tezcan Gecgil, Ph.D., has worked in investment management for over two decades in the US and UK. In addition to her formal graduate studies in the field, she has also passed all three levels of the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) exam. His passion is for options trading based on the technical analysis of fundamentally sound companies. She especially enjoys setting up weekly covered calls to generate income.

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