- SHIB’s 2021 rally was driven by hype—and a historic burn by Vitalik Buterin.
- The current market lacks that same spark, and the massive token supply isn’t helping.
- Developer Kusama says adoption, not just burns, is key to another price surge.
Remember when Shiba Inu (SHIB) was the meme coin to watch? Back in 2021, it exploded out of nowhere—one of the biggest gainers of that bull run. Tiny bets turned into life-changing windfalls. SHIB was dubbed the “Dogecoin killer,” and for a moment there, it actually looked like it might live up to the hype.
But fast-forward to now… and things are quiet. Too quiet.
The Missing Ingredient: Hype, Plain and Simple
Let’s call it like it is—SHIB isn’t moving because the hype’s dried up. That explosive growth we saw a few years ago? It didn’t just come from technicals or tokenomics. It came from energy. Frenzy. FOMO. And a massive assist from none other than Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin.
Yeah, in case you forgot: Vitalik was sent half the total SHIB supply, and he ended up burning 90% of it. That burn lit a fire under SHIB’s price, creating one of the wildest runs in meme coin history. People still dream of another move like that, but let’s be real—it’s probably not happening again.
And without that kind of headline-grabbing moment, SHIB has slipped into the background.
Supply, Sentiment, and a Serious Reality Check
SHIB’s got another problem too—a supply issue. With 589 trillion tokens floating around, there’s just too much of it. That alone makes it hard for the price to move meaningfully, no matter how many tokens get burned here and there.
Shytoshi Kusama, the project’s lead developer, has pointed this out. He’s been clear: burns alone won’t send SHIB flying. What the token really needs is adoption—and for that, you need hype. You need headlines. You need people excited to actually use it for something other than holding and hoping.
Could SHIB Make a Comeback?
It’s not impossible. SHIB still has one of the largest communities in crypto, and if market conditions line up just right—maybe we get another spark. But here’s the thing: even with Bitcoin hitting new highs, most altcoins (meme or not) are still lagging. We haven’t seen a true “everything pumps” bull market like we had in 2021. At least, not yet.
So yeah—SHIB could roar back. But it’s gonna need more than token burns and nostalgia. It needs buzz. It needs attention. It needs another wave of wild, irrational, meme-fueled enthusiasm.
