The memecoin Shiba Inu, once branded ‘The Dogecoin Killer,’ has entered a phase of diminished volatility after its explosive early growth. Its price surged over 85 million percent between 2020 and 2021 but momentum faltered in 2023. The founding team has largely abandoned the project, creating an identity crisis and negative sentiment. Its heavily marketed Shibarium layer-2 solution, launched in August 2023 after a two-year delay, has failed to deliver significant token burns, further weakening its market case.
Shiba Inu‘s price action has settled into a less chaotic pattern after its wild early days. The token’s dramatic upswings have ended, leaving behind its ‘The Dogecoin Killer’ badge of honor. SHIB surged more than 85 million percent between 2020 and 2021. It also continued its momentum well into 2023, and then went bust.
The token is now suffering from an identity crisis where die-hard fans have stopped relentlessly talking about its prospects. The founding team has mostly abandoned the token, leading to no proper plan in place. All projects launched in the last five years have not been a major success. None helped to push SHIB’s price up in the charts, leading to negative sentiments.
The most hyped launch was the Shibarium layer-2 solution, released in August 2023. The launch was delayed by over two years, but traders were hopeful that a mechanism to burn SHIB tokens had arrived. While initial days saw Shibarium brimming with activity, it quickly turned into disappointment.
Shibarium was marketed as a ‘SHIB burning mill’ that would send trillions of tokens to a dead wallet. This would scale up its price due to token scarcity, but none of that turned into reality. Burns were meager, some even coming to as little as $20 per day. For instance, in May 2025, Shibarium burned a total of 1 billion tokens worth only $15,000.
That is not a significant amount that can change Shiba Inu’s prospects given its 549 trillion tokens in circulation. Until Shibarium kicks-start bigger burns, Shiba Inu’s case will remain bearish despite marketing efforts. If burns decline, a recovery looks impossible, but a collapse is inevitable. Traders now want utilities and no longer fall for hype.
