Broadly carrying a high-risk, high-reward profile, the development team behind the Shiba Inu (SHIB-USD) token are apparently ready to ditch its “meme-coin” reputation, even though its whitepaper belies this newfound pivot. Nevertheless, a pair of recent news items suggests that SHIB has an outside chance of being taken more seriously among mainstream cryptocurrency investors.
First, Bitcoin of America, a digital currency exchange that also specializes in Bitcoin (BTC-USD) ATM machines called “BTMs,” announced that crypto fans can now conduct trades of Shiba Inu through its network. Bitcoin of America commands more than 1,800 BTMs across 31 states. While the inclusion of SHIB might not be a gamechanger, it lends much-needed credibility to the token.
Second, The Indian Express reported that Shiba Inu is also “launching its own metaverse, with 100,595 plots of virtual lands.” Per the report, SHIB developers wanted to mature the network, thus dropping the meme-coin label and deliver something substantive for the underlying community.
An intriguing and somewhat controversial evolution, the metaverse essentially represents the next generation of connectivity. While the so-called Web 1.0 brought the internet to the retail market and Web 2.0 expanded on its utility through structured ecosystems, Web 3.0 facilitates decentralization of informational transactions, thus mitigating the undue influence of big technology firms.
The metaverse can play a massive role in the Web 3.0 rollout by allowing participants to untether more of their lives from centralized control structures and “upload” their personalities and data wealth to digital decentralized platforms.
On paper, the concept is a fascinating one. However, prospective investors ought to be extremely careful about plowing into Shiba Inu based on its widened footprint and metaverse ambitions. While virtual real estate has been a hot seller recently, the viability of such a novel ecosystem has never been robustly tested. As well, with nearly 19,000 cryptos available for trading, SHIB is one misfortunate event from losing significant relevance.
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.
