Shiba Inu (SHIB), a meme coin that absolutely exploded in value in 2021, has been negatively affected by the 2022 market crash, much like virtually any other cryptocurrency. However, since its launch in August 2020, Shiba Inu has evolved past its meme coin beginnings to include various decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) features. A strong community of supporters – calling themselves “Shib Army” – and a continuous stream of new features underline the fact that Shiba Inu is far from being dead.
When it was first launched on the market, Shiba Inu, which was seen as more of a joke than a serious project a the time, thought to be unable to reach any significant momentum in the markets, decisively surprised most crypto investors and eventually became one of the most valuable cryptos.
As a result of the meteoric rise, Shiba Inu surpassed the likes of TRON (TRX) and Uniswap (UNI) in terms of market cap. After hitting its all-time high of $0.00008819 and a market capitalization of $43.51 billion on October 28, 2021, Shiba Inu momentarily entered the list of the 10 largest crypto assets, surpassing its inspiration and the original meme coin, Dogecoin (DOGE).
However, the 2022 bear season was rough on Shiba Inu – the token lost over 70% of its value since the beginning of the year. As a result, many investors started asking the same question: “Is the Shiba Inu coin dead?” Let’s find out whether the question has any merit.
Why is Shiba Inu down?
There are many different factors that contributed to the fall of Shiba Inu in 2022. Let’s examine these reasons by loosely categorizing them into crypto-related and macroeconomic ones.
Crypto-specific reasons for the Shiba Inu crash
While the crypto market has been on a downward trend since late 2021, the collapse of the Terra ecosystem in May 2022 can be identified as the catalyst for pronounced bearish activity. The fallout of the Terra collapse wiped out $60 billion from the market between LUNC and USTC and led to several crypto companies going under in subsequent months.
The second crypto-specific reason for the Shiba Inu coin crash in 2022 is the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange, once the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange. While the full extent that the FTX meltdown will have on the crypto markets is currently unknown, the consequences are bound to be far-reaching and notably bad for the sector as a whole.
Finally, the departure of Shiba Inu’s lead developer Ryoshi in June 2022 could spell trouble for the meme coin ecosystem going forward. However, it is worth noting that Ryoshi’s departure from crypto was anticipated beforehand, didn’t come as a surprise to SHIB investors, and the mantle of being a lead developer was assumed by a prominent Shiba Inu community member, Shytoshi Kusama.
Macroeconomic reasons for the Shiba Inu crash
The rising interest rates designed to stave off multi-decade high inflation have created a broader economic environment that is making investors hesitant to invest in the so-called risk asset class, of which cryptocurrencies are definitely a part.
In addition, the energy crisis deepened by the war in Ukraine and geopolitical tensions across the globe are contributing to a notably bad investment environment. This is reflected both in crypto assets – which are down high double digits this year – and in traditional assets. Case in point, the S&P 500 Index, widely considered a measure of the United States’s economy, is down nearly -20% year-to-date. The Nasdaq Composite Index is down even more, showing a roughly -30% YTD change.
Shiba Inu’s historical market performance: Is Shiba Inu dead?
Because of this year’s crash crash exacerbated by the reasons listed above, many people might think that Shib is dead. To better understand the situation, let’s take a look at Shiba Inu’s past price movements.
First of all, Shiba Inu, which was released in 2020, is experiencing its first bear season. For this reason, it is not possible to study their movements in previous bear seasons. However, the fact that it shows more resistance than other cryptocurrencies in the current bear season shows that it is quite resistant to external market forces and paints a positive picture for the future.
Let’s quickly compare the price of SHIB and the extent of its YTD drawdown compared to some of the leading cryptocurrencies in the space:
*Price data collected on November 29, 2022, at 16:30 UTC.
While crypto staples Bitcoin and Ethereum showed better performance than the price of Shiba Inu, several high-profile assets in the cryptocurrency market – including Cardano, Solana, and Avalanche – have been more heavily impacted by the bear market grip.
Does Shiba Inu have a future?
Given the developments in the Shiba Inu ecosystem, which include the native ShibaSwap DEX platform, SHIB Burning Portal, as well as NFT and metaverse products, it is safe to assume that the token, widely considered to be the “Dogecoin killer” and the eventual number 1 asset in the meme coin sector, has a bright future ahead.
It is also worth noting that the project’s total supply could see major changes going forward, especially if the Shiba Inu coin burning picks up the pace. While the decrease in the supply probably won’t be enough for Shiba Inu to reach $1, it could be enough for the meme coin to be worth 1 cent sometime down the line.
What will Shiba Inu be at the end of 2022?
Currently, Shiba Inu has a value of $0.00000091. According to the CoinCodex price prediction algorithm, the coin is expected to finish the year relatively close to the current price point – more precisely, the meme coin is forecasted to trade at $0.00000089 on the last day of 2022.
What’s Shiba Inu price prediction for 2023?
SHIB price prediction (data collected on November 29).
Based on our algorithmic SHIB price predictions, SHIB’s maximum price is estimated to reach as high as $0.000153 in May 2023. In the absence of notably negative news, which could substantially change the state of technical market indicators, SHIB/USD is expected to increase by over +280% over the course of the next 12 months and close 2023 at $0.0000583. Additional price spikes are forecasted in the first half of 2024.
Keep in mind that the above predictions are based on the status of 28 technical analysis indicators (including 14-day RSI, 50-day/200-day SMA, and others) in late November. The prediction can’t account for future negative (or positive) developments that could significantly shift market indicators and subsequently above SHIB price forecasts.
So, is Shiba Inu dead?
We’ve come full circle to our titular question: “Is Shiba Inu dead?” Hopefully, the reasons outlined in the article managed to reject that notion in full and painted a data-driven picture of what to expect from the meme coin in the future. Once the current negative macroeconomic trend reverses, crypto assets like Shiba Inu seem poised to resume their strong market performance and quickly recuperate losses accrued during the bear cycle.
