Is Shiba Inu (SHIB) a shit coin?

Highlights

• There are many terms, including stablecoins, gaming tokens, meme coins and shit coins, which are used within the cryptoverse
• Unlike Bitcoin, which started with a defined purpose, shit or meme coins do not declare any use case at the time of launch
• Shiba Inu’s ecosystem is adding new features like a stablecoin and an in-house blockchain, but the progress is very slow

The world of cryptocurrencies is filled with categories that have no unanimously accepted definitions. Take, for example, a stablecoin. Even though this category includes cryptocurrencies that claim to maintain a stable price, the failure of TerraUSD raises many questions. But one category of tokens, shit coins, is probably the most notorious. Unlike Bitcoin, these tokens are said to have no defined purpose.

The terms meme token, joke token, and shit coin mean more or less the same. These refer to cryptocurrencies with little utility in the conventional world. Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) are two of the most popular cryptos that are often categorised as memes or shit coins. Today, let us explore SHIB in this context and understand why the token is not treated the same way as Bitcoin and Ether.

Is Shiba Inu a shit coin?

Shit coin is neither a perfectly defined term nor it has wide use in the financial world. It is a late addition to the cryptocurrency space, and tokens like SHIB can be said to have birthed it. A shit coin is the crypto which begins trading at speculative prices and whose utility is unclear. Bitcoin, for example, proposed its utility as a central bank-free digital currency right from its launch. By contrast, shit coins are launched only for speculative trading purposes, sometimes seen as a pump-and-dump scheme. Interestingly, all cryptos, be it Bitcoin or Shiba Inu, have lost very heavily this year.

Shiba Inu indeed did not specify any real-world utility at the time of its launch. It was inspired by Dogecoin, whose creators said that DOGE was a joke. However, with time, proponents have started to discuss the use case of DOGE, for example, as a reward token on platforms like Twitter.

Data provided by CoinMarketCap.com

Shibarium and SHIB stablecoin

Later additions to the Shiba Inu ecosystem are a blockchain called Shibarium and the SHI stablecoin. Not much progress has been made on both fronts. Shibarium is said to be a Layer 2 blockchain, but even the utility of Layer 2 chains is speculative. It can be said that once Shibarium and SHI start competing with their respective rivals, Shiba Inu might graduate from a shit coin to a cryptocurrency with at least some definite use case.

Bottom line

The crypto industry has yet to arrive at any conclusion on things like a shit coin. DOGE and SHIB have become multi-billion dollar market cap cryptocurrencies. This is when there is no defined utility. Proponents expect that by adding new features like an in-house blockchain, SHIB can gradually overcome the tag of a shit coin. What happens next is extremely speculative as of now.

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