Canadian telehealth firm Ask the Doctor jumped on the Shiba Inu (CCC:SHIB-USD) bandwagon on Dec. 1 when it bought $1.5 million in tokens of the popular cryptocurrency.
I wrote about the move a few days later.
“Ask the Doctor has accepted Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) since 2016, so it’s fair to say it’s a big proponent of cryptocurrencies. In addition, it has already begun to accept Dogecoin (CCC:DOGE-USD) for payments for services such as prescriptions and dental services,” I wrote on Dec. 6.
I finished my article by suggesting a day would come when a crypto such as SHIB-USD would completely replace the U.S. dollar as a form of payment. But, unfortunately, I also said that day hadn’t come.
Fast forward three weeks and it looks like Ask the Doctor has permanently jumped off the Shiba Inu bandwagon. If you hold SHIB-USD tokens, here’s why you might consider doing the same.
Shiba Inu Is a Fraud
That’s the opinion of the good folks at Ask the Doctor.
According to CryptoPotato, Ask the Doctor withdrew its support for the cryptocurrency on Dec. 21, selling its entire Shiba Inu stake of 31 billion tokens. As a result, it no longer holds any of this pup coin on its balance sheet.
“Why is @ShytoshiKusama not revealing himself? Easier for scammers to hide from law enforcement and people coming after you? $shib is a scam #shibarmy, the 1% real is brainwashed and 99% is bots,” the company tweeted.
Those are pretty harsh words for a healthcare organization to utter. Apparently, it even claimed that “the creators of the scam project Squid Game (SQUID) had ‘laundered’ some of their fraud proceeds by purchasing Shiba Inu tokens,” CryptoPotato also reported.
Ask the Doctor feels that unlike some of the other cryptocurrencies held on its balance sheet, Shiba Inu hides behind its cloak of anonymity, providing ample opportunity to defraud buyers such as itself.
CryptoPotato makes an excellent point stating that Ask the Doctor knew about Shiba Inu’s anonymity before buying the $1.5 million.
The question is, why is it now suggesting SHIB-USD is a fraud? Did something happen to Shiba Inu that the rest of the investment world is unaware of? That’s unlikely.
Where There’s Smoke …
This is an example of a social media spat where investors may never learn the entire truth. It’s a classic, he said, she said.
Over at CoinTelegraph, it reports that Ask the Doctor has lost approximately 17% of its followers on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) due to its actions on social media. It does make you wonder why a company would get so hostile about this type of situation?
One answer could be that Shiba Inu has lost approximately one-third of its value since the beginning of December. That’s $500,000 in losses over three weeks. On an annualized basis, this would wipe out its entire investment.
However, I’m merely speculating on the reasons the company and its leader, Prakash Chand, totally snapped.
Typically, in these situations, I’d be inclined to side with the accuser, not the accused. However, one of Shytoshi Kusama’s tweets defending Shiba Inu does seem to paint a negative picture of the Ask the Doctor founder.
“7 months ago… HMMM,” Kusama tweeted. “So from here on out we will ‘sniff’ all businesses before engaging with them on Twitter. Wouldn’t want to run across any scammers…”
I checked the FD7 Ventures website, the company behind Chand’s supposed $1 billion cryptocurrencies investment fund. It says it’s under construction. I’ve seen a ton of secretive hedge fund and venture capital websites. Even those provide a contact form.
While I’m not a big fan of Shiba Inu, the abrupt turn by Ask the Doctor suggests it’s more into lawsuits than cryptocurrencies. It’s not even close to being a smoking gun.
If you bought SHIB-USD for the long haul, there’s nothing to see here.
On the date of publication, Will Ashworth did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Will Ashworth has written about investments full-time since 2008. Publications where he’s appeared include InvestorPlace, The Motley Fool Canada, Investopedia, Kiplinger, and several others in both the U.S. and Canada. He particularly enjoys creating model portfolios that stand the test of time. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
