• Shiba Inu is down 21% year-to-date heading into April
• At one point, it was pegged to pass Dogecoin (DOGE-USD)
• Investors should definitely stay away from this meme coin

It has been about six weeks since I last wrote about Shiba Inu (SHIB-USD). At the time, it was trading around $0.00002899. Down more than 7% since, little seems to have happened with the meme coin to push it in either direction. 

I remember last October when it was trading around $0.000076. The media discussed when it would pass Dogecoin (DOGE-USD), its older sibling in the dog genre of cryptocurrencies. 

As I write this, DOGE-USD has a market capitalization of $19.2 billion, $4.4 billion higher than Shiba Inu. So, while I don’t have much use for either cryptocurrency, SHIB-USD seems to be sinking into irrelevancy.    

If you’re new to cryptocurrencies, I can safely say that SHIB-USD is not the one to make you millions. And if you currently hold the token, you might want to consider the marginal utility of continuing to own it. 

Here’s why.     

SHIB-USD

Shiba Inu

$0.00002588

You Could Own GameStop Rather Than Shiba Inu

I’m the last person who would recommend that one of our readers buy GameStop (NYSE:GME). Not today. Not a year from now. Never. 

In my last article about GameStop, I suggested Executive Chairman Ryan Cohen, the retailer’s largest shareholder, close all of its stores because they’re an embarrassment to good retailers everywhere.  

However, if a speculative buy is your thing, GME stock has proven to be a much better bet than Shiba Inu. In the past week, GameStop’s share price shot up 40% after Cohen bought 100,000 shares at prices as high as $108.82. I’m not a fan of the man, but his buy effectively creates an artificial floor in the minds of all the meme stock crowd. 

That has got to count for something.

One of the things that I always like to stress in my commentary is that you always have options. You don’t have to buy Shiba Inu when hundreds of cryptocurrencies are available, some of them with actual utility. 

InvestorPlace’s Tezcan Gecgil discussed this subject in early March, suggesting that it will need real-world utility to reach new highs. She wrote:

“For now, the bullish case for Shiba Inu primarily relies on a large community of dedicated supporters. Platforms like Reddit and Twitter have proved to be valuable tools for generating short-term momentum in the price of SHIB-USD. The coin still lacks the real-world utility necessary to stand out in the crowded crypto space.”

What Constitutes Real-World Utility

My colleague suggests Shiba Inu’s Shibarium launch could be the real-world utility investors are looking for from the cryptocurrency. InvestorPlace’s Chris Markoch does an excellent job explaining Shibarium in a December 2021 post. 

Markoch reasons that were Shiba Inu to create its own blockchain, it would deliver on said real-world utility. But unfortunately, the people behind Shiba Inu have played fast and loose with the launch timeline. He argues that is not good enough. I would agree.

The thing that annoys me about the entire cryptocurrency community is that hardly anyone talks in specifics. Instead, everything is airy-fairy, lacking in actual substance. That alone makes it challenging for regular folk to get excited about making a substantial purchase of Shiba Inu.

At least with GameStop, Cohen showed his hand slightly by suggesting it will launch its non fungible token (NFT) marketplace by July, the first of many moves away from traditional brick-and-mortar retail toward more of an online gaming marketplace. 

In the case of GameStop, a profitable NFT marketplace would be evidence of real-world utility. That said, I haven’t a clue if Cohen will be able to pull it off. We’ll see. 

What has Shiba Inu got to show in this department? You can get a 20% discount on your tickets to Cineworld movies. 

Don’t Buy Shiba Inu

As I said earlier, why buy Shiba Inu when you could buy Bitcoin (BTC-USD), Ethereum (ETH-USD), or one of the other top 10 cryptocurrencies.

In my February commentary about Shiba Inu, I suggested that it do a reverse stock split to get its coin price above $1. After all, how can you take something seriously that trades for fractions of a penny?

Look at all of the top 10. They’re either at or near $1 or higher. It is silly to think people will take something with such a low price seriously. 

Shiba Inu has done little to convince me that it is worth my support. Therefore, I would not recommend buying its coin until it demonstrates that it is more than a cute way to pay for a night out.

In my estimation, Shiba Inu continues to overpromise and under-deliver.

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.