The year 2023 has started very well for the prices of some cryptocurrencies, and in particular for that of the Shiba Inu crypto, namely the SHIB token.
The price trend of the crypto Shiba Inu (SHIB) in 2022
By December last year, the Shiba Inu price had fallen to below $8 million.
It was not the annual low of 2022, touched instead in June, but it was very close indeed. So close that we can talk about two annual lows for SHIB during 2022, with the December one only slightly above the June one.
That alone is interesting because instead many other cryptocurrencies in 2022 made their lows in November or December. Shiba Inu, on the other hand, did the same as Ethereum, meaning that after the June low, it did not fall below that level again for the rest of the year.
But there are two differences.
First, Ethereum’s price in the second part of the year was influenced by the Merge, or the move to Proof-of-Stake. Second, the ETH low in the second part of the year was significantly higher than the June low, while the SHIB low was almost identical.
Thus, it does not appear that the price trend of Shiba Inu has followed that of ETH, thus probably turning out to be just a case of the two trends being similar.
However, it should be mentioned that 2022 SHIB began with a price above 33 millionths of a dollar, and before the May collapse due to the implosion of the Terra/Luna ecosystem the price was still above 20 millionths.
Compared to the all-time high of October 2021, or 86 millionths of a dollar, the 2022 annual low was more than 90 percent lower, meaning a loss significantly greater than that of the major cryptocurrencies.
Forecast for the price of Shiba Inu (SHIB) in 2023
In 2023, however, a real redemption came.
From 8 millionths in December, the price soared to above 15 millionths on Saturday, a gain of 88 percent in just over a month.
Moreover, the current price of about 14 millionths is not far off the annual high of 2023.
Most interesting, however, is the comparison of the current price with last year’s.
It turns out to be higher than the late May price following the collapse due to Terra, but still lower than the early May price before the said collapse.
Also turns out to be lower than what it managed to reach with the August rebound when it briefly touched 17 millionths of a dollar.
It is as if starting in late May 2022 the price of Shiba Inu crypto began a very long lateralization with high volatility. The prices ranging from 8 to 17 millionths of a dollar. During this phase, which has been ongoing for more than eight months now, there have been two collapses and two rises. In both cases ending at very similar levels.
Even more interesting, however, is the comparison with 2021.
It must be said that SHIB debuted in the crypto markets in August 2020. Until January 2021 it had never been able to attract much interest.
After an incredible initial leap, by February 2021, the price had risen as high as $0.03 million, so the current price is still enormously higher than what it reached after the first spectacular leap.
It is also much higher than that of the second leap, which took place in March 2021 and brought the price up to 0.9 millionths of a dollar, but it is also higher than that touched with the third leap in April 2021, which brought it up to 3 millionths of a dollar.
Practically the current price of SHIB is in line with that of May 2021, which is when its rival Dogecoin reached its all-time high thanks to Elon Musk‘s appearance on Saturday Night Live as Dogefather.
Since then, DOGE’s price has fallen, while SHIB’s has continued to rise until October.
Currently, the price of Shiba Inu is at -83% from all-time highs, while Dogecoin’s price is at -87%, so not only has SHIB risen more than DOGE after May 2021, but it has also lost less in 2022.
SHIB’s market capitalization
Despite this, Shiba Inu no longer made it into the top 10 cryptocurrencies with the highest market capitalization.
It now ranks 13th with just over $8.5 billion, well behind ninth-place Dogecoin with $12.7 billion.
In this particular ranking, Shiba Inu has also been surpassed by Polygon (MATIC) and OKB, or the OKX exchange token.
Indeed, two other cryptocurrencies, Polkadot’s DOT and Lido Staked’s wrapped ETH (STETH), have a capitalization above 8 billion, not far behind Shiba Inu.
In 12th place, above SHIB, is Solana’s SOL with 8.6 billion.
It should be noted that the 2022 annual minimum for Shiba Inu’s capitalization was 4.8 billion. Little more than half of its current value, while the absolute maximum was over 41 billion.
In other words, although in 2021 SHIB even made it to the second tier of cryptocurrencies, behind the top three.
during 2022 it dropped to the third tier along with Solana.
The news over Shiba Inu’s
The rise in 2023 is most likely related to expectations regarding the arrival of Shibarium.
Shibarium is layer 2 of Shiba Inu, and its arrival was officially announced last month.
🍖 Introduction to Shibarium: Shiba Inu’s Layer 2 Network — Rejoice #ShibArmy! Shibarium Beta is about to be launched, and through this article we want to introduce some basic concepts in order to provide clarity to the community.
Read more: https://t.co/xWyPaVlQQ4
— Shib (@Shibtoken) January 15, 2023
An exact date has not yet been decided, but so many months now that Shiba Inu crypto users have been waiting for this launch.
That announcement was enough to send SHIB’s market value soaring.
Shibarium then wants to become a powerful layer 2 blockchain that can make transactions fast and cheap and further evolve the Shiba ecosystem.
It must be said that there are already several operational, functioning and successful layer 2s for Ethereum, but Shiba Inu’s is specific to its ecosystem.
Nevertheless, Shibarium will still be based on the Ethereum blockchain, as is the case with the SHIB token.
The update will enable very fast and cheap off-chain transactions.
Beyond that, the goal is to create a truly comprehensive development framework to enable the community to improve the development and user experience of dApps, particularly for NFTs.
Shibarium also has its native token.
BONE, is used to pay for gas on transactions instead of ETH, and to reward validators and delegators within the protocol.
BONE is already available on the DEX ShibaSwap, where it is traded in WETH at a price corresponding to $1.8.
It should be noted, however, that at the time of its launch in July 2021, the market value of BONE was corresponding to more than $15. While by November 2022 it had dropped to $0.6. This is a token with just over $400 million in capitalization and $16 million in daily volume.
Probably by keeping an eye on the price trend of BONE one can get an idea of the progress of the Shibarium project. While waiting for it to be finally launched.
