A beginner's guide to Shiba Inu coin, the ERC-20 token based on Dogecoin.
Shiba Inu coin is yet another Dog themed meme coin, based on the highly successful model employed by Dogecoin.
Meme coins like Shiba Inu are designed to be relatable and fun to talk about, generating hype in social circles outside the traditional crypto investing community.
When Shiba Inu coin was launched, the founder famously allocated 50% of the entire token supply to Ethereum creator, Vitalik Buterin.
While Vitalik was expected to HODL his SHIB, he ended up selling 10% to donate to an Indian COVID-19 relief fund and burning the rest.
This Shiba Inu guide is a no holds barred, in-depth look at the popular meme coin that has seen its price crash just as rapid as its rise.
Introduction to Shiba Inu coin (SHIB)
Let’s introduce the various aspects of Shiba Inu coin and including its coin and decentralised exchange.
While Shiba Inu started as nothing more than a meme coin without a lot of utility past having a logo based on a cute breed of Japanese dog, they have now launched a decentralised exchange.
Before getting into the real meat of this guide, let’s first take a look at the SHIB coin and associated DEX in a little more detail.
SHIB Token
The part of the project that 99% of people will want to understand is the SHIB coin, or token itself.
Launched in 2020, the Shiba Inu coin (SHIB) is an ERC-20 token that has experienced a heck of a rollercoaster ride since inception.
Take a look at the SHIB token price on the CoinGecko chart below:
You can see that the price SHIB rallied hard from its low of $0.000000000056, to an all-time high of $0.0000379.
If you look past all of those zeros, the math worked out to be a 140,000 X increase on the back of a fun logo alone.
Wild right?
But without a lot of substance other than a cute dog image when investors click the buy button on their exchange, the SHIB token price dropped just as hard.
ShibaSwap
Speaking of adding substance to the project, the team has since launched the ShibaSwap decentralised exchange.
It allows traders to buy and sell the SHIB token for other cryptocurrencies, on its own decentralised platform.
ShibaSwap also saw 2 new tokens launched:
- LEASH: Featuring a low supply and used to offer incentives to HODL.
- BONE: The platform’s governance token used for voting.
While the ShibaSwap decentralised exchange sounds promising, the risk of a rug pull from the anonymous team remains.
A number of independent DeFi safety reviews have given ShibaSwap scores as low as 3% on the back of concerns around ShibaSwap's transparency and security.
Buy SHIB and use ShibaSwap at your own peril.
How does Shiba Inu coin work?
Let's investigate how Shiba Inu coin works (SHIB), as part of the ShibaSwap decentralised exchange.
As we’ve discussed above, the primary utility token associated with the Shiba Inu ecosystem, is SHIB.
In this subsection of our Shiba Inu guide, we investigate how this token works and what utility it offers via the ShibaSwap platform.
How does each SHIB coin work on ShibaSwap?
To start with, we need to re-establish the fact that SHIB is an ERC-20 token and as such, the consensus mechanism of Shiba Inu is identical to that of Ethereum.
Currently, the consensus mechanism for Shiba Inu is Proof of Work (PoW) but with the advent of Ethereum 2.0, this mechanism will be transforming into Proof of Stake (PoS).
Shiba Inu's ecosystem consists of the following three tokens: SHIB; BONE; and, LEASH.
We discuss each of these individually in more detail below:
SHIB
This is the system's main utility token.
It is used for such things as paying fees and receiving rewards.
It may also be used as a method of payment (which according to Shiba Inu is secure and reliable as the system is Ethereum based).
There were originally 100,000,000,000 tokens minted at launch.
LEASH
LEASH is the second token within the Shiba Inu protocol.
Originally, the goal of LEASH is to offer a synth to hedge the price of DOGE on the ETH blockchain.
This token was also meant to include scarcity as one of its core protocols.
LEASH was designed so that every day at 6.30 AM UTC, the price of LEASH would rebase to 1000/1 the price of DOGE.
The developers intended to only launch 100,000 LEASH tokens over the life of the project.
However, this rebase structure was shut off by Shiba Inu and now LEASH is an ordinary ERC-20 token with a limited supply of only 107,647 tokens minted.
BONE
Bone is the DeFi token for Shiba Inu's ShibaSwap.
There are 250,000,000 minted BONE tokens and this token serves as the governance token for the ecosystem.
These tokens may all then be staked in the Shiba Inu decentralised exchange (ShibaSwap), earning the investor the following rewards:
- xSHIB for staking SHIB tokens.
- tBONE for staking BONE tokens.
- xLEASH for staking LEASH tokens.
For more details, the Shiba Inu whitepaper, of which they refer to as the woofpaper (get it?), has some excellent flowcharts showing exactly how these reward tokens work.
The team is purposefully vague about how Shiba Inu works
According to Shiba Inu's 'Woofpaper' (their version of a white paper), the goal of Shiba Inu is to engage in an “experiment in decentralized spontaneous community building.”
The 'Woofpaper' explains this as follows:
Projects built on the foundation of community involvement are the untamed wilderness of our future. As we move further away from rigid financial structures and traditional mindsets, we become free to discover new ways to solve problems and relate to one another.
In a world ruled by the commodification of time, community-run projects are more than just a change of pace, they are a way to practice the radical acceptance of others.
When success depends on the shared strength of the individuals who make up a collective, we are forced to shift our perspectives to align with those around us. The Shiba Inu Ecosystem is our way of recognizing the importance of tearing down this long-established paradigm.
Shiba Inu is built upon the concept of 'decentralisation'.
Quoting Ryoshi (the anonymous founder of Shiba Inu):
"We believe through the power of collective decentralization we can build something stronger than a centralized team ever could create. A community-run token is nothing without the united individuals who give it purpose.”
Unfortunately, not much else can be said about the working of Shiba Inu.
One reason rests in the lack of a definitive roadmap for the project.
Interestingly, this lack of a roadmap is discussed in the 'woofpaper':
Our roadmap will remain top secret to ensure our continued advantage in this highly competitive space, but releasing a basic overview will allow our holders to understand the intentions of the core development team.
We will standardize Shiba Inu products and integrate them into the global marketplace for long term success.
This will look like launching our Artist Incubator and upcoming NFT project, releasing ShibaSwag, and even potentially actualizing real-world applications that move us beyond the digital landscape.
The fact that only four articles have been added to the official Shiba Inu Medium blog is quite telling.
The best is yet to come
Or so one of their team’s taglines will tell you.
"The best is yet to come!"
Beyond what has been said above, there is very little information concerning the working of the Shiba Inu token.
And in crypto, mystery is certainly not a good thing.
Shiba Inu (SHIB) versus Dogecoin (DOGE)
A comparison between the most popular dog themed meme coins, Shiba Inu and Dogecoin
Although Dogecoin has had its imitators over the years, its reputation has skyrocketed due to the success of DOGE in recent years.
Among the imitators is Shiba Inu, an ERC-20 token which bills itself as "the Dogecoin killer."
But just how different is Shiba Inu from Dogecoin?
What similarities do they share?
A tale of the tape format will be used to see how Shiba Inu and Dogecoin do against each other in head-to-head comparisons.
1. Basic Information
Shiba Inu | Item | Dogecoin |
|---|---|---|
| August 2020 | Release Date | 6 December 2013 |
| Ethereum | Ancestry | Bitcoin (via Litecoin) |
| SHIB | Symbol(s) | DOGE, XDG, Ã |
| ERC-20 Token | Asset Type | Coin |
| "Ryoshi" | Developer(s) | Billy Markus (a.k.a. "Shibetoshi Nakamoto") and Jackson Palmer |
| Tipping, Payments | Main Use Cases | Tipping, Payments |
| No | Mineable | Yes |
| Proof of Work (PoW) | Consensus | Proof of Work (PoW) |
| None | Smart Contracts | None |
| Yes | Open Source | Yes |
| Yes | Ecosystem | No |
| Yes | Upgrades | Yes |
Similarities
Both Shiba Inu and Dogecoin feature the famed Japanese breed canine.
Despite their ages and age difference, both Shiba Inu and Dogecoin are used primarily for tipping and for payments.
Shiba Inu and Dogecoin use Proof of Work as their consensus algorithm in order to add blocks to their respective blockchains.
In the case of Shiba Inu, however, that may change after Ethereum 2.0 is released and switches from PoW to Proof of Stake (PoS).
Despite being an ERC-20 token, Shiba Inu doesn't have smart contract functionality.
Since Dogecoin was released years before Ethereum, it lacks smart contract functionality as well.
Both Shiba Inu and Dogecoin are famous for the communities which support and promote them, so it makes sense that both cryptocurrencies are based on open source code.
Shiba Inu and Dogecoin are in the process of undergoing upgrades, and in the case of Dogecoin they are much needed.
Differences
Age for One, Experience for the Other
Shiba Inu has youth on its side, while experience is on the side of Dogecoin.
Closing in on 8 years, Dogecoin is the established veteran.
Approaching its 1st anniversary from its release, Shiba Inu looks to be an up-and-coming challenger.
Ancestry
Since Shiba Inu is an ERC-20 token, by definition it's compatible with Ethereum.
Dogecoin was released before Ethereum, and its ancestry is closer to that of Bitcoin.
"Developer" versus Developers
Taking a page out of Bitcoin, the developer is an entity known as "Ryoshi" (a single person or a group of people, no one knows).
The developers of Dogecoin are real and known people, one of whom has a nickname as a modification of Satoshi Nakamoto.
Mineable
Shiba Inu isn't mineable, and it wasn't designed to be mined.
On the other hand, Dogecoin is mined and hashed using the Scrypt algorithm.
Additionally, Dogecoin can be merged-mined with other Scrypt-hashed altcoins such as its ancestor Litecoin.
Merged-mining lets a low-hash cryptocurrency take advantage of the higher hash rate of its partner cryptocurrency so that more of the low-hash cryptocurrency can be mined.
Shiba Inu, on the other hand, is an ERC-20 token, which can be stored in any wallet which accepts ETH.
Ecosystem
Shiba Inu was designed to permit the growth of an ecosystem of dApps.
Dogecoin pre-dates dApp development, and for much of its history it hasn't been much of a concern.
The ShibArmy (more details below) is handling dApp development for Shiba Inu.
Dogecoin, with an assist from Elon Musk, is currently undergoing upgrades to be able to make dApps as well as to make the network more efficient and to keep the network secure.
Scorecard for Basic Information
| Shiba Inu | Dogecoin | Ties |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 5+5 |
- Shiba Inu has the edge over Dogecoin in Ecosystem;
- Dogecoin has the edge over Shiba Inu in Mineable;
- Both Shiba Inu and Dogecoin push in 5 items (Main Use Cases, Consensus, Smart Contracts, Open Source, and Upgrades);
- The remaining items are immutable characteristics, so they can't be scored.
ADVANTAGE: Push
2. Market-Related Information
| Shiba Inu | Item | Dogecoin |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Quadrillion SHIB | Max Supply | 5B extra DOGE each year until reaching 200B DOGE |
| 497.73T SHIB | Circulating Supply | 130,653,034,157 DOGE |
| USD 3.11B | Market Cap | USD 27,640,050,440 |
| 66 | Exchanges Where Traded | 194 |
| Binance, Lbank, EXX | Top Exchanges | Bit-Z, Binance, Upbit |
| USD 0.001937 (October 2020) | All-Time High (Date) | USD 0.737600 (May 2021) |
| ShibaSwap | DEX | DogeDEX |
| SHIB, LEASH, BONE | DEX Tokens | DOGE |
| BURY | Staking | Stake |
| 586,824 | Unique Addresses | 4,205,602 |
Similarities
Shiba Inu and Dogecoin can both be found at Binance.
Both Shiba Inu and Dogecoin have a decentralized exchange (DEX).
Also, both Shiba Inu and Dogecoin permit the staking of their respective cryptocurrencies.
The two cryptocurrencies reached all-time highs within the last 12 months.
Differences
Max Supply
Technically, Shiba Inu has a maximum supply of 1 quadrillion SHIB:
- 1Q = 1,000 Trillion;
- 1Q = 1,000T = 1 million Billion
- 1Q = 1,000T = 1,000,000B
However, Ryoshi gave to Vitalik Buterin (creator of Ethereum) half of that supply.
At the time, that was considered questionable due to the potential price manipulations which would take place.
Later events (discussed later) explain why the circulating supply is where it is.
Meanwhile, Dogecoin had exceeded its max supply of 100 billion DOGE in the middle of 2015.
So each year since, an additional 5 billion DOGE gets added to the circulating supply until it reaches 200 billion DOGE.
Circulating Supply
Currently there are nearly 498T SHIB in circulation, compared to roughly 130.64 billion DOGE.
Market Cap
However, Shiba Inu has a market cap of USD 3.11 billion.
This is dwarfed by the USD 27.64 billion market cap of Dogecoin.
While both figures are amazing for what are considered memecoins, it's even more astounding for Dogecoin given where the price of DOGE had at the start of 2020.
Exchanges Where Traded
While Shiba Inu is listed at "only" 66 exchanges compared to the 194 for Dogecoin, Shiba Inu had only been released less than a year ago in October 2020.
Dogecoin hit the big leagues in January 2021 when it broke USD 0.01, and by the time it reached its ATH in May 2021 it had become a Top 10 market cap cryptocurrency.
Before January 2021, how many exchanges listed DOGE?
Top Exchanges
As noted earlier, both Shiba Inu and Dogecoin are listed at Binance.
Among the top exchanges where SHIB is listed at Lbank and EXX.
Among the top exchanges where DOGE is listed are Bit-Z and Upbit.
All-Time High
Shiba Inu reached its ATH of SHIB 0.001937 in October 2020, while Dogecoin reached its ATH of DOGE 0.737600 in May 2021.
Left unsaid is that Shiba Inu reached its ATH less than one year after it was released.
It took Dogecoin over 7 years to reach its ATH; however, it's expected to reach a new ATH later in 2021 or in early 2022.
DEX Tokens
Like Hive cryptocurrency, Shiba Inu uses 3 tokens:
- SHIB, the liquid cryptocurrency;
- LEASH, the savings token which rewards HODLers;
- BONE, the governance token used by members of the ShibArmy.
Dogecoin, on the other hand, just has DOGE.
Staking
SHIB isn't staked, it's BURY'd.
Staked DOGE is just staked DOGE.
Both cryptocurrencies are made illiquid for the purpose of earning greater gains.
Unique Addresses
While Shiba Inu has 586,824 unique addresses, Dogecoin has nearly 7.17 times as many with 4,205,602.
Scorecard for Market Information
| Shiba Inu | Dogecoin | Ties |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 4 | 3 |
- Shiba Inu has the edge over Dogecoin in Max Supply, Circulating Supply, and DEX Tokens;
- Dogecoin has he edge over Shiba Inu in Market Cap, Exchanges Where Traded, All-Time High, and Unique Addresses;
- Both Shiba Inu and Dogecoin push in 3 items (Top Exchanges, DEX, and Staking).
ADVANTAGE: Dogecoin
3. Other Information
| Shiba Inu | Item | Dogecoin |
|---|---|---|
| "the Dogecoin killer" | Tagline/Claim | "fun and friendly internet currency" |
| The community known as ShibArmy | Drivers of Price | Celebrities, Influencers |
| Vitalik Buterin | Famous Billionaire(s) | Elon Musk, Mark Cuban |
| India COVID-19 Relief Fund followed by the VB Burn | Largest Transaction | SpaceX 2022 Moon Mission |
| No | In Andrei Jikh's Portfolio | No |
| Maybe | Loved by Twitter | Absolutely |
Similarities
Neither Shiba Inu nor Dogecoin is part of Andrei Jikh's portfolio, but both have highly motivated communities.
This is where the similarities end.
Differences
Tagline/Claim
Shiba Inu claims to be "the Dogecoin killer" while Dogecoin just wants to have fun and be a "fun and friendly internet currency."
One tag line sounds threatening while another sounds inviting.
No edge to either Shiba Inu or Dogecoin.
From the beginning, Dogecoin was meant as a way for cryptocurrency enthusiasts to have fun and to bring comic relief to the head-pounding volatility cryptocurrencies are known for.
Capitalizing on the success of Dogecoin, Shiba Inu positions itself as the meme crypto to dethrone Dogecoin.
While not on the same magnitude as the real flippening, this is the main goal of "the Dogecoin killer," among other goals it has.
Drivers of Price
According to the Woofpaper for Shiba Inu:
We were not founded from an existing community, let alone a preassembled team. The brilliant minds behind Shib had never collaborated before. They were a fresh team of developers, designers, moderators, marketers, and shillers.
This group, known as the ShibArmy, came together to achieve a common goal.
Given the inclusion of quotations by Miyamoto Musashi-- Japanese author of The Book of Five Rings and the most famous masterless samurai of his age-- it can be seen how focused this community is in its pursuit of supremacy over Dogecoin.
Whatever ATH is achieved by Shiba Inu, it will be due to hard work from the ShibArmy.
Meanwhile, the Dogecoin community has no focus (unless having fun and not taking the world of cryptocurrency seriously can be considered a point of focus).
However, it has gained a following of celebrities and social media influencers.
Some of these happen to be USD billionaires such as Elon Musk and Mark Cuban.
Both men make heavy use of Twitter to share their thoughts on cryptos in general and Dogecoin in particular (Musk more so than Cuban), so their tweets have an outsized impact on how the price of DOGE moves.
Famous Billionaires
Shiba Inu has in its corner Vitalik Buterin (a.k.a. "VB"), one of the co-founders of Ethereum blockchain.
After Shiba Inu was released, Ryoshi awarded VB half of the max supply of Shiba Inu - Around 500T SHIB.
This move was panned by many people in the crypto world due to the potential manipulation of the price of SHIB in the markets.
In his woofpaper Ryoshi declared VB to be a friend of Shiba Inu.
This sequence of events validated that declaration:
- Ryoshi gave to VB half the max supply of SHIB;
- VB donated nearly 100T SHIB-- 10% of the max supply-- to the COVID-19 Relief Fund for India.
- With the SHIB price being what it was, VB burned 400T SHIB-- 40% of the max supply. While this manipulation caused the SHIB price to increase, that increase greatly benefited the people of India in their time of great need.
For this act of self-interest in the service of charity, Ryoshi stated:
Thank you to the woofmeister for enabling true decentralization. Now we truly begin.
As for Dogecoin, most people in crypto and even many people outside crypto know about Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, and their involvement with Dogecoin.
Largest Transaction
Without a doubt, the Shiba Inu donated by VB to India's COVID-19 Relief Fund was the largest transaction made using SHIB.
For Dogecoin, the largest transaction using DOGE is the 2022 SpaceX mission to the moon.
About DOGE 129 million was used by Geometric Energy Corp, to share a ride aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
At 2:30pm on 12 May 2021 DOGE was at USD 0.48, so Dogecoin was used to pay USD 62 million for this mission.
Loved by Twitter
It's safe to say that anything related to Dogecoin is loved by Twitter, and that includes memecoins trying to capitalize on the success of Dogecoin.
Shiba Inu falls into this category.
However, as far as Twitter is concerned, there is Dogecoin, and then there's everything else.
While Shiba Inu has its share of social media influencers, they aren't the caliber of those connected with Dogecoin.
Twitter absolutely loves Dogecoin.
Scorecard for Other Information
| Shiba Inu | Dogecoin | Ties |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 2 |
- Shiba Inu has the edge over Dogecoin in Largest Transaction;
- Dogecoin has the edge over Shiba Inu in Drivers of Price, Famous Billionaire(s), and Loved by Twitter;
- Both Shiba Inu and Dogecoin push in 2 items (Tagline/Claim and in Andrei Jikh’s Portfolio).
ADVANTAGE: Dogecoin
Shiba Inu (SHIB) vs Dogecoin (DOGE) Final Score
| Item | Shiba Inu | Dogecoin | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Information | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| Market Information | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Other Information | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| TOTAL SCORE | 5 | 8 | 15 |
If Ethereum can overtake Bitcoin as the King of Cryptocurrency, Shiba Inu can overtake Dogecoin in the subset of memecoins.
But until that day arrives-- or some other memecoin comes out of nowhere to take the win-- Dogecoin remains the king of memecoins.
Why is Shiba Inu coin dropping?
Learn why Shiba Inu coin is dropping with a look at price and the top 3 reasons why this is happening.
While searching for the next Dogecoin, did you buy Shiba Inu coin (SHIB)?
Do you open your phone to check your position daily, only to find Shiba Inu dropping in what seems like a never-ending downward spiral?
If this sounds familiar, then take a deep breath and some solace in the fact that you’re not alone.
In this section of our Shiba Inu guide, we take a look at the Shiba Inu coin drop and explore the top 3 reasons why the Shiba Inu coin is dropping.
The Shiba Inu coin price drop
A shout out to our friends at CoinGecko for this chart, clearly showing the Shiba Inu coin’s drop in price.
Shiba Inu coin price chart:
Looking at that chart, there’s no denying that Shiba Inu has been nothing but a disaster for early investors.
Actually, as price sits close to all-time lows, it has pretty much been nothing but a disaster no matter what price you got in at.
Nobody is in profit right now.
So what is going on with Shiba Inu coin?
Top 3 reasons why the Shiba Inu coin is dropping
While all cryptocurrency markets are speculative assets open to volatility, the characteristics of Shiba Inu make it especially vulnerable to price swings.
In today’s market climate, that volatility has seen price swing south and drop the price hard.
1. Vitalik dumped his Shiba Inu coins
The first reason why Shiba Inu is dropping has to do with the founder gifting Vitalik Buterin roughly half of the entire token supply.
Ryoshi (obviously a pseudonym), sent them as a marketing stuny, expecting Vitalik to sit on the coins.
While there’s no doubting the marketing stunt worked for attention, Vitalik also dumped 660 billion Shiba Inu coins and donated the profits to charity, before burning the rest.
“I’ve decided to burn 90% of the remaining shiba tokens in my wallet.”
“The remaining 10% will be sent to a (not yet decided) charity with similar values to cryptorelief (preventing large-scale loss of life) but with a more long-term orientation.”
Something that wasn’t quite as positive for the price of Shiba Inu coin.
In terms of the token burn, Vitalik simply sent the tokens to a dead ETH address which you can see on Etherscan.
But ultimately, Vitalik dumped on the unsuspecting community who provided him with the liquidity required to sell such a large amount at once.
You can place equal blame on Vitalik and the Shiba Inu team for this moral travesty.
While money went to charities, many regular mums and dads who read about this scammy token in the paper no doubt lost out big.
“Charity” though, right?
The remaining half of SHIB’s supply is locked for liquidity on Uniswap and is the next reason why Shiba Inu coin is dropping.
2. ShibaSwap is not safe
If you’re looking for another reason why Shiba Inu coin is dropping, then the fact that it’s primed for a rug pull is a good place to start.
You should be avoiding ShibaSwap like the plague and by association, any of the Shiba Inu related tokens such as SHIB or BONE.
While ShibaSwap’s CertiK audit score has been upgraded, there are a ton of red flag that remain.
The biggest being that even though the team updated the contract to a mult-signature account that requires multiple owners to agree on a transaction before it can be executed, there’s no way to say that those accounts aren’t still under the control of a single team member.
Most of those controlling accounts are brand new, with zero transactions completed, making them simply sockpuppets.
Yep, Justin Sun’s Steemit style.
The fact that the team can essentially rug pull at any time, obviously isn’t good for demand and the token price is dropping as a result.
3. Meme coins have lost their fun
In the end, meme coins such as Shiba Inu and Dogecoin, have simply lost their fun.
There’s only so much excitement that a funny coin that doesn’t actually do anything, can inspire within the crowd.
Shiba Inu coin is just another example of a meme coin that was literally designed to be a joke.
A joke that was a joke of another joke, that being Dogecoin.
While earlier in the year the hype around how high Dogecoin could go was real, it’s certainly come back to earth now.
So as the price of Shiba Inu is based primarily on speculation rather than utility, the swings are always going to be more pronounced.
When you take into account Vitalik’s dump and the scammy stench coming out of the ShibaSwap platform, you can no doubt see why Shiba Inu coin is dropping.
Is Shiba Inu coin a scam or legit?
Shiba Inu coin has been touted as the next Dogecoin to make you rich. But is it a scam?
We've tried really hard to make this Shiba Inu guide as impartial as possible.
But when straight up asked if the project is a scam or legit, there’s just no way I can sugarcoat my response.
Yes, Shiba Inu coin is a scam and is in no way a legitimate crypto project.
Let’s explore the key themes around why this is the case.
Shiba Inu coin lacks fundamentals
That’s right, Shiba Inu coin doesn’t actually do anything.
It’s a meme coin with no fundamentals behind the project other than being yet another centralised shitcoin with questionable tokenomics.
The coin’s fun dog logo is designed to lure in normies with zero knowledge of the tech behind the project, in order to pump price for early investors.
If that sounds ponzi-esque to you, then you’d be correct.
While there’s no doubting that people have and will make money buying/selling Shiba Inu coin at the most opportune times, this still makes it the definition of a scam.
No doubt Shiba Inu supporters will argue that Bitcoin sees the same wealth transfer from dumb to smart money, but the difference is token utility.
Bitcoin is the most secure, decentralised computer network in the world and has become the premier alternative asset to use as a store of value.
Shiba Inu coin has a cute dog logo.
Enough said on that comparison.
ShibaSwap is a rug pull waiting to happen
While the decentralised exchange ShibaSwap was meant to add functionality to the Shiba Inu coin ecosystem, it has only raised more questions.
As we’ve previously discussed within this guide to Shiba Inu, even though the team updated the contract to a multi-signature account, requiring multiple owners to agree on a transaction before it can be executed, there’s no way to say that those accounts aren’t still under the control of a single team member.
The entire ShibaSwap platform just reeks of a scam waiting to happen in the form of a rug pull from the anonymous team.
Most of those controlling accounts are brand new, with zero transactions completed, making them simply sockpuppets.
There are so many other awesome crypto projects to invest in and other decentralised exchanges to seek yield.
Why anyone would place their trust in Shiba Inu coin, I have no idea.
Shiba Inu coin is a scam
With questionable tokenomics and zero fundamentals other than a decentralised exchange which is primed for a rug pull from the anonymous team, I can’t call it anything else.
There is simply no other way to put it:
Shiba Inu coin is a scam!
You would be wise avoid like the plague and dump whatever you have into literally anything else.
You can’t say you don’t have options.
Shiba Inu (SHIB) Pros and Cons
A look at the pros and cons associated with the SHIB meme coin, which has become somewhat of a social phenomenon.
As we’ve explained above, Shiba Inu is a meme token that was created on the Ethereum blockchain and exists as an ERC-20 token.
In this subsection of the Shiba Inu (SHIB) guide, let's look at the pros and cons associated with the meme token
Shiba Inu pros:
- Shiba Inu has a very low price for entry. At the time of writing this subsection of the guide (July 21, 2021), Shiba Inu was priced at $0.000006781. Why is this important? Price of a token is extremely important if you are planning on tracking the percentage gained or lost on your investment. It can be used as a predictive tool allowing a user to calculate potential gains (or possible losses) in making their investment decision.
- Likewise, this low price allows the investor to realize huge profits from a very low investment price. At today's price, 1 million Shiba Inu would cost a potential investor a mere $6.78. If the price of Shiba Inu was to reach a possibly realistic value of a mere $0.01, an initial investment of $6.78 would return the sum of $10,000.
- Because of the low price attached to the Shiba Inu token, the market volume for the token should be active. This high volume of market activity could produce price increases both in the short and long term.
- Per CoinMarketCap the market capitalization for Shiba Inu is $2,661,633,135 and its fully diluted market capitalization is $6,652,626,638. As such, Shiba Inu is classified as a mid-cap token. Why is this important? Being a mid-cap token means that Shiba Inu is battle-tested as it has survived and passed through the small-cap category.
- Being a mid-cap asset gives Shiba Inu exposure in the financial media. This fact, coupled with the higher trading volumes mentioned above could possibly drive interest in this investment pushing the short term price higher.
- Being an ERC-20 token and trading on the Ethereum blockchain exposes the Shiba Inu token to over 100 million potential users.
- Vitalik Buterin (one of the founders of Ethereum) burned 50% of the total supply of Shiba Inu. After doing this, Shiba Inu locked the remaining supply in Uniswap providing the token greater exposure and volume activity.
- Shiba Inu has exhibited striking trading volumes. This can be inferred to represent that Shiba Inu's long term investors retain their hopes for the future of this token
- Shiba Inu is listed on several top-named exchanges such as Binance, OKEx, FTX, WazirX, Huobi Global, eToro, and KuCoin.
- If you are a seasoned investor and have knowledge of the various financial metrics, due to the price volatility of Shiba Inu, the potential for high short term gains is possible.
- Shiba Inu, in July of 2021, launched its own Decentralized Exchange known as Shiba Swap. This move by Shiba Inu's developers demonstrates their intent to move it beyond a mere meme token and transform it into a serious cryptocurrency.
Shiba Inu cons:
- The market for meme coins/tokens is highly saturated. Plus, when the term 'meme coin' is used, the majority of cryptocurrency investors will immediately identify the term with Dogecoin, not Shiba Inu.
- The current status of Shiba Inu within the search engine sphere is confusing. Just try and search 'Shiba Inu' on Google. From experience, this search gets you pictures and articles about the Japanese Dog, not the cryptocurrency. This confusion is no help to the token's future. (A hint, to get blockchain articles on Shiba Inu, add 'crypto' or 'coin' to your search.
- Due to a present lack of innovation, Shiba Inu is likely to remain an ERC-20 asset for the foreseeable future. By remaining on the Ethereum blockchain subjects Shiba Inu to all of Ethereum's faults - slow processing times, high transaction fees, and the like.
- Shiba Inu lacks a robust infrastructure requiring it to be termed an ordinary cryptocurrency. This basic structure is proven by the fact this token in essence adds nothing to the cryptocurrency environment. Being nothing more than a transactional cryptocurrency pits it against some stiff competition in the space such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stellar-Lumens, and even Dogecoin, for example. The competition present may cause people to stay away from using Shiba Inu in favour of the more established alternatives.
- Shiba Inu's limited uses give it little in the way of intrinsic value.
- Unless you are a savvy and experienced cryptocurrency investor the price volatility of Shiba Inu could lead you to significant losses. Market entry and exit timing is the key to deriving profits from investing in this token.
- Shibaswap is a definite liability for Shiba Inu. On July 8, 2021, the platform reviewer DeFi Safety scored the ShibaSwap protocol a mere 3%. To receive a passing grade from DeFi Safety a platform must score 70% or more. The Twitter notice of this from DeFi Safety follows:
https://twitter.com/DefiSafety/status/1412881797206192132
- DefiSafety
- The Shiba Inu token is still relatively new. While there has been a great deal written about the token, a quick review of these articles demonstrates a serious lack of credible information concerning Shiba Inu.
- Due to the 'newness' of the Shiba Inu platform, investing in the token is highly speculative at best. To assure its position, it will be required to continue the momentum gained at its launch, which is, in fact, an uncertainty on its own.
Should I Buy Shiba Inu (SHIB) In 2021?
Due to the multiple red flags outlined below, Shiba Inu is in no way a good investment this year.
With our Shiba Uni guide now in the books, there’s only one question that remains: Should I invest in Shiba Inu (SHIB)?
Unfortunately, our answer is a resounding no.
Although 2021 came with a great start for Shiba Inu (SHIB) in terms of overall price rise, there are several reasons why we think it is not a worthy investment.
4 Shiba Inu red flags
1. Utility
Shiba Inu Token has no practical utility apart from ShibaSwap that is quite a new platform.
There are thousands of other DeFi platforms available in the market that provide better returns with low risk.
2. Speculation
Its price is dominated by market speculation and hence it's highly volatile.
It's not safe to put large sums of money into such assets.
3. Social Media Hype
Social media is the biggest contributor to the success of Shiba Inu token.
It rode the hype wave of Dogecoin and other meme coins.
Due to its dying interest recently, we are seeing a huge decline in its price.
4. Shibaswap Safety
Is ShibaSwap safe? No. DeFi Safety review gives it a score of just 3%, (raised to 35% after Certik's audit.)
Funds can be stolen by the developers of ShibaSwap from staking contracts since they are owned by one address.
Should I buy Shiba Inu in 2021?
Many people that are new to cryptocurrencies ask the question, "Should I buy Doge, or maybe Shiba Inu?"
This is our take on the meme-based cryptocurrency craze.
Hope it helps!
The final verdict on Shiba Inu coin
By no means Shiba Inu is a good investment due to the 4 major red flags outlined above.
Yes, it’s true that early investors made some crazy returns, but without any major practical application its future looks shaky.
Investing in Shiba Inu coin is extremely risky and one should not invest more than they can't afford to lose.
LeoFinance Crypto Guides.
Why not leave a comment below and share your thoughts on our guide to Shiba Inu coin? All comments that add something to the discussion will be upvoted.
This Shiba Inu coin guide is exclusive to leofinance.io.