Shiba Inu (SHIB) surpassed Dogecoin (DOGE) in February. Several factors have influenced this exceed of Shiba Inu. These factors involve the Metaverse trend, token burning events, and the increase of retail adoption. Shiba Inu is currently ranked the 13th biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. It is worth roughly $18 billion. As per the record, Shiba Inu is immediately behind DOGE, its competitor with a market capitalization of almost $20 billion.
Though it has fallen behind DOGE in the rankings, SHIB’s price has outpaced it in 2022. In more detail, the SHIB/DOGE pair has recovered sharply in February, increasing by over 38% month-to-date (MTD). Consequently, Shiba Inu has gained more than 50% MTD against the dollar compared to Dogecoin’s 11%. On Feb. 6 and 7, the SHIB market saw the most increases of the year. In contrast to DOGE’s 12.5% rise, SHIB’s price surged by a net 41%. This rise was driven by back-to-back bright updates in the Shiba Inu market.
The Fast Food Chain, Welly Announces Shiba Inu’s Adoption
Factors that contributed to Shiba Inu’s February rise were many positive ones. The list includes token burning, merchant adoption, and the release of a layer-2 blockchain solution. Furthermore, on the 3rd of February, Welly’s, a fast-food company known for its burgers and fries, established a partnership with Shiba Inu. As a result, the company added the Shiba Inu-themed product line in its retail locations. This new integration includes non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as well.
— Shytoshi Kusama™ (@ShytoshiKusama) February 2, 2022
As part of Shiba Inu’s decentralized autonomous organization, “Doggy DAO,” clients of Welly will be able to purchase their items using SHIB tokens. As a result, SHIB’s price increased by 7% the day after the news. Moreover, to commemorate Valentine’s Day, crypto firm Bigger Entertainment announced a major “coin burn” of SHIB tokens. They will be erasing 162 million SHIB from circulation. This announcement came only one day before the big SHIB’s rally.
On the same day, Unification, a Singaporean blockchain solutions company, revealed that it had partnered with the Shiba Inu creators. The partnership has come in terms of developing a layer-2 solution called Shibarium. In addition, Shibarium’s design is specifically for gaming applications. In terms of cryptocurrencies in general, Dogecoin’s ecosystem has traded more or less in line with general crypto market trends. Accordingly, on the 14th of January, Tesla made a huge announcement. The owner of Tesla, Elon Musk, stated that his firm will accept DOGE payments as a payment for merch.
Tesla merch buyable with Dogecoin
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 14, 2022
Following the Tesla announcement, DOGE surged to as high as $0.2148. However, since then, it has fallen to a level near $0.1500.
The Next Focus of Shiba Inu Is Metaverse
In contrast to Dogecoin, Shiba Inu has managed to stick to its recent gains. As of Thursday, SHIB was trading just 5 percent behind its year-to-date high of $0.00003523. Meanwhile, it was looking at a breakthrough over its intermediate resistance level of $0.00003331. SHIB stayed positive as Shiba Inu creators stated on Wednesday that they would enter into the Metaverse. In this way, users would buy plots on virtual land. However, it’s not clear when the project will start, nor the name it will hold.
As the word of the project spread, it affected the LEASH token. This token would let users buy and sell land in the Shiba Inu metaverse. As a result, LEASH surged by 45 percent on the 9th of February. At the same time, a new whale bought 3.4 trillion SHIB for $116 million in a single transaction.
On Feb. 8th a new Shiba Inu whale purchased 3.4 trillion $SHIB ($115.9 million USD) 🐳
— Shiba Inu News (@ShibReports) February 10, 2022
However, there are certain drawbacks to using SHIB. On the one hand, there hasn’t been much of an increase in the token’s real value. According to Cryptwerk, an online crypto directory, SHIB is only accepted by 618 retailers worldwide. On the other hand, DOGE has been included in more than 2000 checkout pages.
Due to the extreme price volatility, Shiba Inu is standing at risk of large price declines. When looking at recent history, it can be concluded that SHIB has had a correction of 80-90% throughout each of its last two cycles. Therefore, to maintain its long-term positive bias, the token needs to close above $0.00003331. If it goes back down by the same amount, it could lose 40% of its gains, with the next downside target at $0.00002091.