One of the lessons that I try to impart on InvestorPlace readers is that you should keep an open mind about various opinions regarding your favorite assets. By understanding the opposition’s argument, you can make a much better-informed decision about a particular stock or cryptocurrency. But with Shiba Inu (CCC:SHIB-USD), even I had to remind myself of my own investing processes.
Initially, I viewed SHIB-USD as a joke. In my defense, the developers and proponents behind the blockchain token don’t provide much reason to think otherwise. “Once upon a time, there was a very special dog. That dog was a Shiba Inu, and this dog inspired millions of people around the world to invest money into tokens with the dog’s image on it.”
Come on. If someone said this to me in any other context, I would immediately apply the F.A.S.T. principle for responding to someone possibly suffering from a stroke. I’m not kidding.
However, Shiba Inu has more than proven itself in terms of upside performance. And as benchmark virtual currencies like Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) skyrocketed, I felt that the risk-reward proposition favored the smaller (albeit more speculative) digital assets.
Still, critics remain, with one of them being The Motley Fool contributor Sean Williams. Recently, Williams provided seven reasons to sell Shiba Inu right away. Although his warnings about SHIB and other cryptos have proven salient, I thought it would be fun to play devil’s advocate and respond (respectfully) to his objections.
With that, here are seven reasons why Shiba Inu stakeholders love their meme-inspired token.
1. Shiba Inu Community Could Signal Profitability
Leading off, Williams makes the argument that community is not a measure of success. “What I’m seeing on social media is a community focused on hyping SHIB’s token price and paying little if any attention to what the long-term use case might exist. In other words, ‘community’ as a catalyst equates to nothing more than self-interest-based hype.”
I don’t disagree. However, that’s a different argument for why Shiba Inu is popular, which is profitability. When you have a rabid fan base driving up a relatively low-volume asset, you’re likely going to see dramatic swings. That’s exactly what has happened and can still happen in the future.
2. Utility Doesn’t Matter
A criticism that’s not exclusive to Shiba Inu, Williams states that there’s no real-world use cases for SHIB. Specifically, he points out that only 137 merchants accept it as any form of payment. With nearly 214 million companies worldwide, the acceptance rate would be 6.4 to the negative seventh power.
But you know what? Utility doesn’t matter. Bitcoin doesn’t command a $60,000 price tag because it’s useful. It’s become a digital store of value, away from prying governmental eyes (or so proponents tell themselves). So respectfully, I don’t think the utility argument matters either way for Shiba Inu.
3. No HODLs Barred
One of the cutting criticisms that Williams provided is that the median holding time for Shiba Inu is a “laughably low 20 days.” This suggests that its proponents are not true HODL-ers or those who hold on for dear life. Instead, they’re ruthless capitalists.
Two points here: first, Williams received his information from Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), which I’m not entirely sure is a useful tool. It’s possible that those who wanted to make a quick buck trade SHIB on Coinbase. However, those who are more well versed in the community – a decentralized community for that matter – would probably not deal with a hot wallet service like Coinbase.
Second, even if most SHIB proponents were swing traders instead of HODL-ers, good for them! HODL-ing is an infantile strategy anyways, only meant to serve the wealthy and powerful.
4. No Differentiation? No Problem!
When Williams wrote that Shiba Inu lacks any desirable differentiation, he is relieving himself in the face of a tsunami. Look, I completely, 100% agree with him. With over 14,000 cryptos and rising, there is absolutely nothing that compels one person to buy SHIB over another coin or token.
However, this argument is mathematically flawed as it assumes that each of those 14,000-plus assets have an equal chance of success. But that’s not how this works. Instead, the one source of differentiation is that Shiba Inu has a massive, rabid community that other crypto projects will die for. It’s as simple as that.
5. A Musk-Free Environment
Williams notes that the “buzz surrounding Elon Musk’s tweets has absolutely no tangible connection to SHIB or the community.” Again, he’s right about that. However, I’m not entirely sure that being so tied in with Musk is a great thing.
After all, the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO has proven to be a wildcard in many respects. From smoking weed to drawing the ire of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk’s presence is both an asset and a liability. Personally, I find this to be an argument of no consequence.
6 Robinhood Delay is No Big Deal
Generally speaking, crypto advocates have always eyeballed mainstream integration as the next step in the blockchain evolution. In large part, major cryptos like Bitcoin have achieved this pivotal success. Thus, it’s no surprise that Shiba Inu proponents rallied to convince Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) to list SHIB on its trading platform.
So far, Robinhood has demonstrated hesitation due in part to regulatory concerns. Still, I’m not sure if that will dissuade anyone from buying Shiba Inu. If SHIB becomes more prominent, multiple platforms will accept it. It’s just a matter of time.
7. SHIB Is an Open Book
Finally, Williams points out that the history of payment coins that delivered massive percentage gains over a short period of time eventually lost between 93% and 99% of their value. Therefore, history doesn’t bode well for Shiba Inu.
Again, I don’t disagree with him. SHIB is a crazy-risky idea, one that should be engaged with the dumbest of dumb money. Having said that, you can also make the argument that the communities behind popular meme coins is unprecedented.
Frankly, given how nutty the whole idea of meme coins are, SHIB should have collapsed a long time ago. That it has stuck around for so long means that the community for Shiba Inu may leverage unprecedented strength. Certainly, it’s something to acknowledge and respect.
On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto held a LONG position in BTC. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare.
