Shiba Inu Is Likely Marching to the Beat of Its Own Drum
Cryptocurrencies never cease to astonish me, and the sector once again surprised me when Russia made the reckless (to put it nicely) decision to invade Ukraine, setting off alarm bells around the world. Initially, this spelled bad news for cryptos such as Shiba Inu (SHIB-USD).
The geopolitical flashpoint, however, gave way to a beneficial catalyst.
Russia's involvement resulted in harsh economic consequences, as threatened. When outnumbered Ukrainian forces offered an unexpectedly violent resistance, their gallantry prompted even harsher retaliation from Western backers. Soon after, Moscow's economy began to deteriorate, and the ruble currency began to lose purchasing value.
In a desperate attempt to restore stability, Russia's central bank raised the benchmark interest rate from 9.5 percent to 20 percent. Even with this dramatic action, the ruble continued to lose value, raising the danger of hyperinflation, which was unthinkable just a few days ago.
When ordinary Russians realized their paradigm was going to take a sudden turn, they did what I suppose anyone would do in the same situation: they ran to banks and ATM machines and pulled out their money to swap for some Benjamins or any other hard currency. However, a few astute investors went to cryptocurrency.
To be honest, why wouldn't they? With the ruble on the verge of collapsing, anything of recognized worth would be better to Russian money. But would that apply to a Shiba Inu?
On the surface, cryptocurrency is cryptocurrency. You can virtually avoid sanctions if you have decentralized digital assets that operate outside of the global fiat monetary system. If you're very astute, you might even try to time your return to rubles to capitalize on the problems.
Still, Shiba Inu will most likely march to its own drummer, and here's why.
Shiba Inu is a Tough Case for Avoiding Sanctions
According to a Pew Research Center survey, only 16% of Americans have used or invested in cryptocurrency. There are two ways to look at it. On the one hand, 16% is a large number of people. On the other hand, greenbacks have been utilized by all Americans. So mainstream crypto integration will be difficult, let alone for a meme coin like Shiba Inu.
Russians have warmed to virtual currencies around the world, with 17.3 million people, or 11.9 percent of the population, possessing digital assets. However, we find a similar backdrop to blockchain integration in the United States. Yes, about 12% is a significant allotment. However, rubles have been utilized by all Russians.
I mention this to try to put myself in the shoes of the average Russian citizen as their currency implodes. If you're desperate, your first reaction would be to cash out in euros, then dollars, and last yen. But what about cryptos? At this time, Russians are experiencing a baptism of fire in terms of the feasibility of decentralized assets.
Censorship-free money? Sign me up, especially if it means avoiding the consequences of sanctions sponsored by the United States.
However, if someone is unfamiliar with cryptos, I highly doubt they will convert to riskier assets such as Shiba Inu. I'm not criticizing the SHIB. Rather, if I had to choose a crypto to invest all of my paper wealth in because the paper was about to burn, I would choose the most established, well-known asset.
Shiba Inu is now extinct. Sorry.
As a result, when I hear about Russians flocking to cryptos, I immediately think of some of the industry's biggest personalities. I'm not thinking Shiba Inu, which will likely retain its core user base.
Accessibility is another aspect that would keep SHIB from being a wartime crypto. If you want to buy the top three cryptos by market capitalization right now, you won't have any trouble if you have a basic understanding of computers.
You want a Shiba Inu? It's a slightly more complicated story. And when you're in a hurry and only want to preserve your assets, you'll gravitate toward (relatively) safer and more accessible options.
It's not a personal attack. It's simply human nature.