What happened to the Shiba Inu crypto?

Shiba Inu was one of the main crypto stars of the last major bull run, the one in 2021. 

At the time, it performed so well in the crypto markets that it even reached the top 10 among actual cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. 

Now, however, it has plummeted to the 24th position, even behind Monero and Litecoin. 

What has happened to Shiba Inu in recent years? 

Shiba Inu

Shiba Inu was created in 2020 as a token on Ethereum. 

It has always been a memecoin with the goal of replicating Dogecoin’s success on Ethereum. 

Dogecoin is the first and foremost memecoin, even predating Ethereum itself since DOGE was launched in 2013 while ETH in 2015.

However, it has its own blockchain, making it incompatible with DeFi on other chains. 

In 2020, DeFi was entirely dominated by Ethereum, so someone thought of creating a memecoin on this chain that would attempt to replicate the success of Dogecoin. 

The name Shiba Inu was chosen both because it is the breed of the dog symbolizing Dogecoin, and because Elon Musk himself, probably unintentionally, suggested using the name of that dog breed. 

Until early 2021, Shiba Inu had not achieved any particular success, but then, thanks to Elon Musk’s promotion, it literally skyrocketed. 

The 2021 Boom

In just a few months, it went from less than one millionth of a dollar to 18 millionths, and then by October of the same year, it suddenly skyrocketed above 88 millionths of a dollar. 

In just over six months, it had recorded a gain exceeding 10,000%.

It was something incredible, especially because it involved a crypto that had practically entered the top 10 by market capitalization at that point, with its $41 billion. 

Suffice it to say that Dogecoin in October 2021 was below 40 billion dollars in market capitalization, although in May, for a brief moment, it was even above 80.

But the success of Shiba Inu in the crypto markets ended there. 

The Collapse of SHIB’s Price

During the bear-market of 2022, the price of the token SHIB of Shiba Inu plummeted below 10 millionths of a dollar, and the following year it fell even below 7 millionths. 

While still remaining above the levels of early 2021, it practically returned to those prior to the October bubble, effectively erasing all the gains recorded during that second major bullrun. 

To be honest, since then it has occasionally shown some signs of life, but always and only as a purely speculative crypto. 

For instance, in the early months of 2024, another bubble inflated, briefly pushing its price above 35 millionths, which is significantly less than the all-time high of 88, but notably more than the 18 millionths that marked the peak of the first bullrun, which ended in May 2021 simultaneously with that of Dogecoin. 

However, that same year the price then fell below 13 millionths, and during the mini-bubble at the end of 2024, it barely managed to briefly climb back above 30. 

The 2025 Issue

The real problem, however, emerged during 2025. 

Indeed, after the burst of the mini-bubble at the end of 2024, the price of Shiba Inu plummeted again, dropping well below 13 millionths of a dollar from mid-2024. 

The first phase of the 2025 decline concluded in April at 10 millionths of a dollar, while the second phase, still ongoing, began shortly before mid-October. 

During the current downward phase, it hit a low at the beginning of November below 9 millionths of a dollar, but it seems to be attempting once again to fall below this threshold after a small and brief rebound that brought it back above 10 millionths a week ago. 

In essence, it appears to be plummeting back to the levels prior to the second major bullrun of 2021, specifically to the levels of September of that same year. 

Therefore, this is a decidedly poor performance over the long term, with a medium-term trend that still appears to be bearish.

The Project’s Failure

Shiba Inu remains a memecoin, but over the past years, it had attempted to evolve into something else. 

The fact is that this evolution project has essentially failed, resulting in it remaining almost exclusively a memecoin. 

The issue is that in the last two or three years, Solana’s blockchain has established itself in the memecoin market, taking away the absolute leadership that Ethereum held in this sector between 2020 and 2021. 

This has caused memecoins on Ethereum to lose some appeal, in favor of those on Solana. 

Despite still being technically the second largest memecoin in the world by market capitalization, after Dogecoin, Shiba Inu seems to have lost the potential to regain its prominence.