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With just three weeks to go until the curtain closes on 2021, we can confidently say this has been another solid year for most investors. Until December 6, the open sea S&P 500 was 22% higher – that’s double its average annual total return dating back four decades – and the overall value of cryptocurrencies more than tripled to $ 2.37 trillion.
However, one cryptocurrency left all other assets on this planet in the dust in 2021.
Shiba Inu dogs have inspired a number of top performing cryptocurrencies. Image source: Getty Images.
What does a 51,000,000% gain sound like since the start of the year?
When the clock struck midnight on January 1, Shiba inu (SHIB 0.86% ) the tokens could be purchased for a tiny $ 0.0000000073 per token, according to CoinMarketCap.com. Over the past 11 months and changes, six of those zeros after the decimal point have disappeared. With SHIB trading hands for nearly $ 0.000038 earlier this week, crypto investors who have the luck, stomach and the means to hang on since January 1 have risen by over 51,000,000%! In other words, a $ 2 investment at midnight on January 1 would have made you a millionaire as of this writing.
There are a number of factors that have come into play to push SHIB to these historic gains. In no particular order, the piece Shiba Inu benefited from:
- A growing number of cryptocurrency exchanges listing SHIB.
- The launch of the decentralized exchange ShibaSwap, which encourages longer wait times.
- Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) stimulates buying activity.
- Burning of coins reducing the circulating supply of SHIB tokens.
- Enthusiasm for new projects.
This trio of publicly traded stocks plans to accept SHIB
An additional catalyst that I didn’t mention in the list above is the acceptance of the Shiba Inu coin as a method of payment. While the vast majority of traders currently accepting SHIB are obscure online retailers or crypto exchanges, the following three publicly traded companies are either already accepting the Shiba Inu coin or planning to integrate it into their payment system very soon.
Image source: Getty Images.
AMC Entertainment
Arguably the most famous merchant who accepts the Shiba Inu coin is the movie chain AMC Entertainment (AMC -6.86% ).
AMC CEO Adam Aron didn’t hesitate to appeal to the company’s passionate investor base to ask what kind of strategies they’d like to see employed. The acceptance of cryptocurrency is one of the many changes that AMC has started to implement in hopes of getting more people back to theaters.
At the end of October, Aron published a poll on Twitter which asked users if AMC should accept SHIB. Of the 153,100 people surveyed, 87.6% were in favor of AMC’s acceptance of Shiba Inu in some capacity. Weeks later, Aron confirmed via tweet that engineers were working behind the scenes to incorporate Shiba Inu as a payment method within 60 to 120 days. This puts SHIB on track to be accepted online for gift cards, movie tickets, and concessions by Q1.
Image source: Getty Images.
Bots
On the other end of the spectrum is a penny stock called Bots, which is traded on the stock exchange over-the-counter. Despite its small size, it is a publicly traded company and noted its willingness to take SHIB as a form of payment.
Bots, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a blockchain-focused solutions company providing services in financial technology and cryptocurrency mining. Depending on the company, it can help with the construction Bitcoin mining operations, repair and optimize existing mining operations, and offers franchise opportunities for Bitcoin ATM kiosks.
On December 3, a press release from Bots announced its intention to accept the piece Shiba Inu. The press release mainly focused on the meteoric rise of SHIB and the hope that cryptocurrencies will become a mainstream form of payment.
Image source: Getty Images.
Egg trade
November 29, Egg trade (NEGG -5.10% ) has revealed plans to accept Shiba Inu for payment in time for the holiday shopping season. According to a press release from the company, it announced the move of The Reef, the largest digital billboard in North America, located in downtown Los Angeles.
The decision to accept Shiba Inu fits in with Newegg’s desire to be the preferred destination for online shoppers who want to pay for goods with cryptocurrency. Newegg started taking Bitcoin seven years ago and has allowed both Dogecoin and Litecoin as additional payment options this year.
Although no precise date has been given, Newegg foresees the integration of SHIB “at the beginning of December”.
Image source: Getty Images.
A utilitarian reality test
Landing publicly traded companies that will accept Shiba Inu for payment is certainly a victory. However, it is important that current and potential investors put these “gains” in the right perspective.
According to the online business directory Cryptwerk, the number of merchants accepting SHIB tokens has skyrocketed over the past two months, from a few dozen to 377, as of December 6.
But this is where the problem lies. There are over 32 million businesses in the United States and over 500 million entrepreneurs worldwide. In the grand scheme of things, 377 merchants accepting SHIB as a payment method represent a fraction of a fraction of global businesses. Additionally, just over 10% of those 377 merchants are nothing but cryptocurrency exchanges (that is, they’re not really merchants), which means that the The retail utility of this payment coin is even lower than advertised.
If Shiba Inu’s market value were less than $ 500 million and he tried to increase his utility by attracting new retailers, 377 global merchants could pass the detection test. But when we talk about a top 10 marginal cryptocurrency with a market cap over $ 20 billion, investors should expect much more real-world utility than 377 merchants.
To build on this point, investors should also expect clear competitive advantages for a cryptocurrency worth over $ 20 billion – but that’s not what you’ll find with Shiba Inu. .
The social media hype and FOMO have driven Shiba Inu to what will likely be historic year-long gains. But there’s a lot more work to be done if SHIB is going to command a market value of $ 1 billion, let alone its current valuation of $ 20.6 billion.
This article represents the opinion of the author, who may disagree with the “official†recommendation position of a premium Motley Fool consulting service. We are motley! Questioning an investment thesis – even our own – helps us all to think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.
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