Shiba Inu is still experiencing a hangover after its remarkable rally in 2021.
Cryptocurrency returns have been mixed in 2025. Major players like Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen solid gains exceeding 30%, but the speculative segment is struggling. Dogecoin is down 25% for the year, while Shiba Inu (SHIB -13.50%) is down a staggering 44%.
Created in 2020 by an anonymous developer known as Ryoshi, Shiba Inu aimed to provide an alternative to other meme tokens like Dogecoin. Its value skyrocketed by an astonishing 45,278,000% in 2021, marking one of the highest annual returns in financial history. A perfectly timed investment of only $3 would have turned into over $1 million.
Shiba Inu peaked at $0.000086 in 2021 but is now trading 87% lower at about $0.000012. Could 2026 be the year it pulls off another historic surge and possibly reaches the coveted $1 mark? The answer might surprise you.
Shiba Inu’s Fundamentals Are Wobbly
Once seen as a viable alternative to conventional money, cryptocurrency currently lacks significant traction among consumers and businesses. While some cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are valued as digital stores of wealth thanks to their capped supply and decentralized nature, and Ethereum is popular among developers for decentralized finance applications, Shiba Inu has yet to find a legitimate use case.
Shiba Inu’s Huge Supply Hinders Growth
In addition to its lack of utility, Shiba Inu is hindered by its massive supply of 589.5 trillion coins, resulting in an incredibly low individual price. Despite this, it boasts a market capitalization of around $7 billion, a noteworthy figure for a cryptocurrency without practical application. For Shiba Inu to reach $1, its market cap would need to balloon to an unimaginable $589.5 trillion, over 130 times that of the current largest company, Nvidia.
Token Burning: A Community Effort
The community is attempting to address the supply issue through a process known as “burning,” which involves permanently removing tokens from circulation. Theoretically, reducing the total supply should drive the price up, potentially opening a path toward the $1 milestone.
An Incredible Amount of Time Required for Token Burning
With Shiba Inu’s price at $0.000012 and a supply of 589.5 trillion, the total market cap sits at $7 billion. Hypothetically, if 99.99998% of tokens were burned, leaving 7 billion, the price could reach $1. However, since the overall market cap would remain constant, investors wouldn’t gain anything actual; any potential gains would be offset by owning vastly fewer tokens.
To put it in perspective, only 22.3 million tokens were burned last month, which converts to an annual burn rate of roughly 267.6 million. At this slowdown, it will take over 2.2 million years to eliminate the supply necessary to justify a price of $1, making it highly unlikely we’ll see this in our lifetime.
