Should You Invest $2,500 in Ethereum, or Shiba Inu?

Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) is already down by 25% so far in 2026 despite a decent run of technical successes with upgrades to its chain last year. At the same time, Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) has also seen a sharp decline over the last 30 days, with its market cap collapsing from $4.7 billion to $3.8 billion.

Dips like these might prove to be good crypto buying opportunities. But which of these two coins is worth investing $2,500 in, and why?

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Ethereum keeps getting better at scaling

Thanks to a slew of upgrades over the last couple of years, the Ethereum of today isn't the bloated, slow, and expensive-to-use chain that it was in the past. Its gas fees are now far less prone to spiking, and also far cheaper in absolute terms. An average swap now only costs around $0.15 where it once cost $1, and before that, $15 or more.

The network's roadmap suggests the chain will scale further to drive down costs and improve speeds, with the upcoming "Glamsterdam" upgrade next on the docket, slated for the first half of 2026. A key enabling piece Glamsterdam will bring is called proto-danksharding, which adds a cheaper lane for the data that Layer-2 blockchains post to Ethereum.

In English, small blockchains built on Ethereum compress many transactions into bundles, then publish that data back to the main chain (Ethereum) to permanently settle the transactions. Assuming Ethereum continues to expand the data lanes available to chains built on its backbone, it can narrow both the speed and cost gaps with speedy, low-cost competitors like Solana.

And that means Glamsterdam will make Ethereum even more attractive for developers building high-throughput applications. In other words, there's soon going to be yet another incentive for people to buy and hold Ethereum, and that's bullish.

Shiba Inu hardly has an ecosystem at all

As a meme coin, Shiba Inu's price can still spike on sentiment, but it totally lacks a real long-term use case, which would require anyone to buy and hold it.

There is, of course, the Shibarium, which is a Layer-2 chain built on top of Ethereum. Yet hardly anybody is using the Shibarium for any purpose today. It generated approximately $1 in chain fees, and about $81 in decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume on Feb. 1.

When the economic engine supposedly intended to power a coin's growth is that ineffectual, the investment thesis collapses into a hope and a prayer that something better will happen down the line. And that isn't really an investment thesis at all.

So if you're choosing between Shiba Inu and Ethereum for an investment of $2,500, this is an incredibly easy call. Buy Ethereum, and avoid Shiba Inu.

Alex Carchidi has positions in Ethereum and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.