If You'd Invested $500 in Shiba Inu 5 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Today

Key Points

• Shiba Inu launched as a meme token.

• With the launch of Shibarium, it now has more utility.

• The token has lasted and performed much better than most investors and experts could have imagined.

• 10 stocks we like better than Shiba Inu ›

Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) essentially started as a joke on a joke. The Shiba Inu idea was taken from the original meme token Dogecoin, which used the Shiba Inu mascot. But it happened early on in the meme token era and Shiba Inu, similar to Dogecoin, has stood the test of time. Shiba Inu is the 21st-largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap of nearly $7 billion.

Image source: Getty Images.

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And unlike Dogecoin, Shiba Inu's developers have actually taken steps to give the token more real-world utility. Shiba Inu launched as an ERC-20 token, meaning it was built on top of Ethereum's network. In 2023, Shiba Inu launched Shibarium, a layer-2 blockchain solution built on top of Ethereum where transactions could be processed off of Ethereum's network, easing congestion and fees.

Shibarium also launched a decentralized application store, with more than 1,200 dApps being offered, showing that developers have real interest in Shibarium. Furthermore, Shibarium has a burning mechanism on certain transactions, which will help lower the token's massive supply over time.

If you'd invested $500 in Shiba Inu in 2020

Believe it or not, Shiba Inu has barely been around for five years but it's created many millionaires in a short period of time, largely due to its ability to go viral on social media. According to CoinMarketCap, the token launched in November 2020 at $0.000000000056. As of this writing, it traded at $0.00001174. That's a jaw-dropping gain of 20,964,186%.

So if you somehow knew about Shiba Inu and were able to get in right away, $500 invested would now be worth over $104.8 million. Now it's unlikely that investors got in so low, but even if you got in somewhat early, you've done insanely well. Only in the world of crypto are gains like these possible.

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Bram Berkowitz has positions in Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.