“An outside advantage with a gambler’s luck, shitcoins do offer an easy way to make a quick buck but there is no certainty when the pump arrives, or the party will end. When the dust settles, the chance of coming out in profit is slim to none.” -Nitin Kumar
As the crypto craze ramps up- adoption increasing by the day, new projects, new reaches of application, endlessly evolving technology- we’ve already seen a few shining examples of the rising trend of shitcoin investing.
Making Up The Market:
I’d say that around 95% of all crypto projects out there can be considered shitcoinish. There are 13,000+ currencies and counting, according to coinmarketcap.com. Coins that were made for a variety of reasons, not many of them intended to be a long-term source of value. Pump and dumps, memes, hype, blockchain projects that are sub par and wont last in the markets, or in some cases, blockchains that have value but are not fully realized to be valuable. We’ve seen a variety of ways that these coins have taken form.
Our Favorites:
Some of these projects have taken to fame for differing reasons. Internet popularity from jokes, hyped rug-pulls, and coins that actually have a chance but have suspicious tickers, the list is endless.
Here, we have four examples of the more popular coins- beloved by their communities, unique in their rise to the spotlight:
Dogecoin (DOGE)– One of the oldest and most well known crypto currencies in the market. Dogecoin came to the scene in 2013 as a joke to poke at Bitcoin. Little did the developers know that they’d created something the internet community would love.
It’s seen as a solution coin because of its large supply and ease of transfer. People see it as nothing but a meme coin supported by nothing but hype. Others see it as the every man’s payment in the digital world. Either way, it’s kept a spot in the top 10 market caps of all cryptos. Floating around 9-10 at the time of this writing- having a market cap $20B less than when they hit exponential ATHs back in the spring.
The first shitcoin/memecoin, the largest and most popular, and perhaps the one that will last. Their community is awfully large, and endorsed by a variety of influential business figures. There is a hope for this dog money. Shitcoin? You decide- that’s the best part about it! The market chooses.
Shiba Inu (SHIB) – Shiba Inu is a rather fascinating project. A meme coin? Or something more?
Created in 2020 on the Ethereum Blockchain. With an initial supply of 1 quadrillion tokens (40% of which has been burned), this memecoin has taken the world by storm. Started for fun, now the native token for a decentralized, community run DeFi ecosystem.
This community is certainly something else. The developers of this particular meme token had another vision for success in mind, outside of the simple concept of community acceptance behind Dogecoin. They want to give back to the community: A DEX similar to BSC’s Pancakeswap, allowing for different DeFi tool and NFT access. The SHIB Army helps in rescue and adoption programs of actual Shiba Inus. Not to mention Vitalik Buterin making the largest crypto donation in history with the currency. SHIB has made an impact in DeFi.
With a following similar to that of DOGE, and a further reach of utilization, it’s definitely something to keep an eye on moving forward.
SAFEMOON (SAFEMOON)- What many would call the “most hated” shitcoin. SAFEMOON is quite the token. Set up for success- the safest way to the moon.
Started in March of 2021, SAFEMOON quickly made it into the top 100 for coin market capitalization. The developers made what they call a ‘fair launch’ for this community supported digital asset. This means that they burned all tokens that they acquired in the creation of the network, and launched the network with 1 quadrillion tokens, and no more will ever exist.
Everybody benefits in this ecosystem with each transaction. 5% to burn, to bring scarcity and value, 5% to the community Liquidity Pool, and 5% to go to the rewards of every HODLer. With each transaction, the currency only becomes more rare.
They have the community behind them too. From open and transparent developers to the people invested in- there’s a lot of room to grow for this community. Their ambitions to influence tokenomics in DeFi are well supported by their efforts to do so- definitely one to watch.
Squid Game (SQUID)- This here token is one that has been pulled from exchanges and is said to be a legitimate scam and rug-pull operation. Can’t even connect to their website anymore…
Built on the BSC, this meme token was one that took to fame quickly. With the popularity of the trending Squid Games series, the trend entered crypto exchanges. Shooting up multiple decimal points in value in a rather short period of time, from less than a millionth of a dollar to over 2,800, only to see the same numbers turn red just moments later. From 2800 back below a one thousandth of a dollar, developers leaving the project soon thereafter.
Binance has called the move a rug-pull. They are pursuing legal action and justice for affected investors, being disappointed that their open-source smart chain was used to create this debacle… Definitely something we can all learn from- do your research!
Moving Forward…
The question now is where do we go from here? Will these shitcoins hold value? Here’s my two cents:
DOGE will only survive if it makes it to their desired place of an everyday currency, outside of being a coin, their blockchain doesn’t offer much.
SHIB has a lot of room to grow, being similar in community backing to DOGE, with an entire ecosystem behind it- if pancakeswap can make it, so can shibaswap.
SAFEMOON is what it says it is, a safe way to the moon. If Bitcoin is going to be the gold standard of the crypto world, SAFEMOON has a chance to be the Rhodium. A finite supply of tokens that only declines with every transaction- increasing scarcity over time. It may be hated now- but one day it might be well sought after and worth more than we think, all depends on the market.
SQUID has been declared a rug pull by multiple entities. Just an example of people taking advantage of internet hype communities. There can be crypto communities made around literally anything of popularity, but they don’t always come with the strength and sincerity like that of SHIB and DOGE. Sometimes buying into hype isn’t the best option.
What Can We Gather?
If these shitcoins can teach us anything, it’s that the market wins. In foro vincit. Decentralized technology has given the power to the communities to determine their own standards of value, and we’ve seen it take on many forms.
We can see that these discussed projects all have community at the heart. Community is what drives these things forward. They decide the real worth.
Community has to be in control! When decentralization is key- we can see more security, acceptance and application. We can see communities determine value in many cases, but when the community doesn’t have control of the ecosystem, those values can’t always be trusted, like in the case of squid games.
Community is what drives these coins forward and keeps them afloat. It will be the determining factor of their success- will their communities grow? Will value be seen in any of these in the future? The market shall decide.
