Can Meme Coins Like Shiba Inu Actually Survive Long-Term?

The Community Factor: A Double-Edged Sword

Shiba Inu stands out in the crowded meme coin ecosystem, but not necessarily for the reasons traditional investors expect. While the project launched in 2020 and has since plummeted over 90% from its peak, what keeps it relevant isn’t utility—it’s the passionate Shib Army. With more than 825,000 followers on X and an engaged Reddit community, Shiba Inu manages to stay within the top 50 cryptocurrencies despite barely moving the needle on actual adoption.

The numbers tell an interesting story about community commitment. During the 2021 bull run, the project saw over 100,000 active addresses simultaneously. Fast forward to recent data, and that figure hovers between 3,000 and 4,500 daily active addresses. What’s striking isn’t the decline—it’s that holders are sticking around even as the price cratered nearly 75% over the past year. By comparison, Chainlink (LINK), which boasts genuine utility and a higher market cap of $8.60B, shows active address counts ranging from 2,500 to almost 10,000 this year. The takeaway: community loyalty can be as powerful a metric as functional utility.

Market Reality: Where Shiba Inu Stands Now

Shiba Inu isn’t disappearing anytime soon, but neither is it staging a comeback. The coin remains under intense pressure, having lost astronomical value since its 2021 peak. However, two recent catalysts could provide short-term momentum:

• ETF Eligibility on the Radar: T. Rowe Price included Shiba Inu in its Active Crypto ETF filing submitted October 22. While this doesn’t guarantee adoption, SEC approval could redirect institutional capital toward the coin—even if temporarily.

• Derivatives Trading Goes Live: Starting December 12, Coinbase Markets launched perpetual futures trading for Shiba Inu and other altcoins. Unlike traditional futures with expiration dates, perpetuals allow traders greater flexibility and could increase trading volume.

These developments suggest the crypto industry still sees value in engaging with established meme coins, even if purely for trading purposes.

How to Buy Meme Coins in the Current Market

For investors curious about entering this space, understanding the mechanics matters. Most exchanges—both centralized platforms and decentralized exchanges like ShibaSwap—now support direct spot trading and derivatives access for major meme coins. The key is recognizing that buying meme coins requires different risk management than purchasing blue-chip cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) at $87.28K or Ethereum (ETH) at $2.91K.

The Shibarium Layer 2 network, despite suffering a security breach in September, continues operating and represents an attempt to add functional infrastructure to the ecosystem. This infrastructure play—however flawed—differentiates Shiba Inu from purely speculative meme projects.

Better Bets in the Crypto Landscape

Here’s the honest assessment: Shiba Inu will likely persist as a niche holding within the broader crypto portfolio for years to come. The Shib Army ensures enough activity to prevent complete irrelevance. But expecting a price recovery to 2021 levels? That’s wishful thinking without fundamental breakthroughs.

If you’re allocating capital in crypto, consider assets with clearer long-term narratives. Bitcoin dominates the space and has attracted serious institutional interest—it’s evolved from speculation into a potential digital gold thesis and payments infrastructure. Ethereum (ETH), still at $2.91K, powers the entire smart contract ecosystem that birthed Shiba Inu in the first place. Solana (SOL) currently trades at $120.37 and has become the preferred chain for newer meme projects due to lower transaction costs.

These smart-contract platforms—Ethereum, Solana, and similar ecosystems—form the backbone of decentralized applications, stablecoins, and yes, meme coins themselves. As blockchain utilities mature beyond speculation, these foundational layers will play increasingly critical roles in digital infrastructure.

The Verdict: Longevity Doesn’t Equal Profitability

Shiba Inu has established staying power through community alone. That’s genuinely remarkable in a space where thousands of projects launch and die within months. The Shib Army’s dedication ensures the coin remains visible on exchange listings and trading platforms. Dogecoin (DOGE), with a market cap of $18.87B, demonstrates this principle at scale—a meme coin that refuses to die through sheer cultural momentum.

However, community loyalty rarely translates into price appreciation without catalysts. Short-term boosts from ETF inclusion or derivatives trading may provide volatility traders opportunities, but these aren’t drivers of fundamental value creation. If your investment thesis requires believing Shiba Inu will regain its former glory, you’re betting against mathematical reality and the iron law of market cycles.

The real opportunity lies in identifying which layer-1 and layer-2 ecosystems will dominate blockchain infrastructure in the next 5-10 years. Whether that future includes room for Shiba Inu’s continued existence is almost beside the point—it probably will. Whether it makes sense to own it at current valuations is an entirely different question.