In the beginning of 2021, Dogecoin was worth far less than a penny. Right now it sits around a comfortable $0.28. Not too bad for a token named after a dog meme. The coin has gone as high as $.74, but that was because of social media hype generated by Elon Musk among others, and the price quickly diminished. Many financial experts and investors who have made massive fortunes trading stocks, options, and futures in the past have denounced cryptocurrency as a whole many times. In May of 2021, Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England Governor, warned that people who invest money in Crypto risk losing it all. Since then, many of the most popular coins and altcoins have hit new all time highs, further proving the fact that crypto once again prevailed. Recently a new coin has been in the news, Shiba Inu (SHIB), and it has seen a similar pattern in its rise to Doge.
Shiba Inu is worth significantly less than one cent, so with $500, someone is able to buy millions of the token. There have been several periods this year where the coin has pumped several hundred, or thousand percent, in a matter of days. Much like Doge did earlier in 2021, this has enabled people to become millionaires who might have put a couple hundred in the coin at its start to see what happens. One reason you may see esteemed financial investors and institutions denouncing crypto is because of coins like this, which defy all economical reason. These people have spent their life studying financial patterns, and then this weird coin spikes 1000% in a week. These old-school investors who are used to hedge funds and ETFs are suddenly seeing a new generation make their fortunes off something they are too stubborn to understand, so they denounce them in hopes of destroying the hype. Frankly, people like Andrew Bailey should be embarrassed by their own efforts to destroy what is potentially the new financial system of the future, and one day they will deeply regret it.
Crypto works differently than traditional investment markets. Emotions play an even larger role than in the stock market, and social media plays a massive factor in a coin’s ultimate success. The news on coins messes with people’s emotions, giving them false hope, or making them go into crypto blindly without doing proper research. There are always stories in the news about people making small fortunes off crypto right after they get into it, and everyone starts hoping that they’re gonna be the next person to get lucky. If someone put $1000 into Doge at its all time high, they would have lost over half of their money at this point in time. People have made lots of money off the coin, but it is easy to forget that people lose money in crypto too, especially coins as volatile as Shib and Doge.
In the last month, some individuals have made a lifetime’s fortune off the $1000 they put into the coin in February, and there is nothing wrong with that. They took a risky investment, and it paid off. There are also individuals who put money that they couldn’t afford to lose into these meme coins, and ended up losing it, causing harm to their lifestyle and wellbeing. People try to predict how these meme tokens will move and if they will get rich off them, but that is an extremely volatile and dangerous game to play. These coins also take away from the credibility of the blockchain, making it seem like a joke and not emphasizing the utility it can bring to the world. If the media shifted its focus to the actually useful and well-made coins, it would benefit investors and developers.
These coins have been pumped almost entirely through social media hype, which eventually makes it to the news, only furthering the hype. These coins are as close to gambling as it can get when it comes to investing. People will make insane amounts of money, but many people will also lose money, it isn’t all gold when you’re investing in assets this volatile. Doge and Shiba Inu were the first meme tokens to make it big, but they won’t be the last. The next one could blow up tomorrow, or it could be another year. There is no way to tell with 100% certainty, and that is why there is no way to predict the future of dog coins.
