Dogecoin and Shiba may already be in your investment watchlist. But which one has the better investment in 2023 and beyond?
Dogecoin was originally started as a joke - a satire of the cryptocurrency market and the wild price surges seen by the likes of Bitcoin. It’s therefore somewhat ironic that the token went on to become one of the most popular cryptos of 2021, boasting a market cap of over $32bn.
It was also perhaps inevitable that eventually, another token would come along to rival Dogecoin - and this is where Shiba Inu comes in. Dubbed the ‘Dogecoin killer’, Shiba has a similar use case to DOGE, in that it is ostensibly a token for exchange and not really anything more. It also seeks to emulate Dogecoin’s success by building a strong community.
So aside from their Shiba Inu mascot, both coins share a similar mission. However, Doge has the advantage of its famous association with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whereas Shiba Inu’s plan to get Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin onside by sending him a large holding of SHIB fell flat when he promptly burned it and signalled that he didn’t want any involvement with the project.
So is Shiba simply trading on Dogecoin’s recent success, or does the project have any genuine long-term viability? In the following Dogecoin (DOGE) vs Shiba (SHIB) review, we’ll take a closer look at what each coin has to offer and consider which one presents the better investment opportunity.
Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
Contents:
- Dogecoin vs Shiba - The Key Differences
- Dogecoin vs Shiba Inu: Which Is The Better Investment?
- Dogecoin vs Shibu Ina: Price History
- Dogecoin vs Shibu Ina: Future Predictions
- Dogecoin Vs Shiba: What the Experts Say
- Can Shiba really be a ‘Doge Killer’?
- Dogecoin Vs Shiba: Conclusion
- FAQs
Dogecoin vs Shiba - A Comparison Between Them
It’s safe to say that neither Dogecoin nor Shiba is headed for crypto market dominance based on any technical credentials - neither is particularly innovative compared to other leading projects. But when it comes to pitting one token against the other, there are just a few key differences to be aware of.
Dogecoin vs Shiba - The Key Differences
Here are the most important ways the two assets differ:
Background
Dogecoin was the first of the so-called meme coins, famously started as a joke to satirize the investor hype surrounding the cryptocurrency market. The project was launched in 2013 and adopted the Shiba Inu dog as its mascot - which at the time was the subject of a famous meme doing the rounds.
Dogecoin’s blockchain isn’t completely without merit though. Modelled on Litecoin, it actually has a solid infrastructure and being based on the Scrypt proof of work mechanism, it is actually more scalable than, say, Bitcoin.
The lighthearted ethos proved to be something of a hit with crypto enthusiasts, with the price of DOGE seeing growth of over 300% in its first few weeks of trading. At the time, many saw the appeal in the more consumer-focused approach and viewed DOGE as a genuine alternative to Bitcoin.
It seems that Shiba Inu was very much created to mimic the unlikely success of Dogecoin. In its whitepaper, the psuedonymic founder ‘Ryoshi’ claims that the token is intended to be completely community-driven - much like DOGE had become by that stage.
Just as with Dogecoin, Shiba Inu is intended to serve as a peer-to-peer payment network, with no central authority, corporate structure or a CEO making decisions for the direction of the project. The idea is that Shiba Inu is entirely community-led from the outset.
A key difference between Dogecoin and Shiba Inu is that SHIB is actually an ERC-20 token, running on the Ethereum blockchain. Some might say this is a significant advantage as it means that Shiba Inu can interact with the most popular DeFi projects - most of which are also running on the Ethereum blockchain.
It’s probably fair to say that Shiba Inu is riding on Dogecoin’s coattails to quite a large extent - but this doesn’t necessarily mean it can’t eventually surpass the original meme coin.
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Transactions and Speed
When it comes to transaction speeds, Dogecoin actually holds up well against many of its contemporaries. The network uses a similar Proof of Work consensus protocol to that of Litecoin - which stands to reason, as the blueprint for Dogecoin was largely based on Charlie Lee’s token.
The key difference between Dogecoin and other value storage crypto projects is that it relies on the Scrypt algorithm, as opposed to the SHA256 used by Bitcoin. Scrypt is much faster and allows for a much faster block creation rate, which, in theory, makes Dogecoin a lot more scalable than Bitcoin.
Dogecoin has an estimated block creation time of around 1 minute, compared to Bitcoin’s 10 minutes and faster even than Litecoin’s 2.5 minutes.
As we have noted, Shiba Inu is built on the Ethereum blockchain so its block creation time and transaction rate are inevitably reflective that of its parent network.
Being an ERC-20 token, SHIB uses a proof-of-work mechanism that for all intents and purposes gives it a similar transaction rate to Dogecoin. However, this may change when the Ethereum network shifts to a proof-of-stake mechanism, which could give SHIB a competitive advantage over DOGE.
Supply and Demand
Dogecoin is known for its active community and celebrity endorsements, but ultimately the price of an asset is determined by supply and demand.
Whereas some cryptocurrencies limit their supply to create scarcity, Dogecoin has remained true to its remit of creating a genuine peer-to-peer payment system by adopting an inflationary mechanism. The idea is that this will prevent investors holding the token and taking large sums out of circulation, whilst keeping transaction fees down in the long term.
Dogecoin increases its supply of a rate that currently equates to around 5 billion DOGE per year. This means that there are always enough tokens in supply to support transactions and allow DOGE to serve its purpose. In theory, market forces will eventually determine how much DOGE is released into the network, as with fiat currency.
The developers behind Shiba Inu have taken a different approach when it comes to the token’s supply mechanism. SHIB has a circulating supply of 500 trillion and a total cap set at 1 quadrillion.
However, a large amount of the supply was burned by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin - it isn’t clear if this was the intention behind Shiba developers sending him the token, but it was largely seen as a thumbs down from the Ethereum founder.
The Shiba website proudly states that the remaining SHIB - that which was not burned by Buterin - was entirely locked up in the Uniswap exchange, meaning that anyone looking to trade SHIB must do so on the open market.
Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
Dogecoin vs Shiba Inu: Which Is The Better Investment?
When it comes to making an investment, weighing up Shiba vs Dogecoin is tricky as both coins are community-driven, which means they are subject to some pretty wild price fluctuations with little to help them stabilise.
Cryptocurrency investment always carries a certain risk, but anyone looking to acquire a holding of either DOGE or SHIB should bear in mind that these are both meme coins and there is no real precedent for how their value may change over time.
Dogecoin vs Shiba Inu: Price History
If you’re looking to invest in Dogecoin or Shiba, then it’s a good idea to look at each token’s previous price performance. Whilst this alone might not be enough to make accurate predictions, it can be useful in assessing how certain market forces affect each coin.
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Despite widely being acknowledged as something of a joke, Dogecoin experienced a fairly successful launch, making gains amounting to around 300% just two weeks after being listed. However, this proved to be short-lived and DOGE pretty much flatlined at minimal value for the next few years.
DOGE experienced something of a price surge in 2017, when prices went from $0.0002 to around $0.0090 before the year was out. Once again, this was short-lived but it was enough to let investors know that Dogecoin was still relevant in an ever-progressing crypto market.
By 2019, DOGE was trading back down around $0.0025, occasionally creeping up to $0.0030 going into 2020 but without making any substantial headway. DOGE’s next major jump came during a market-wide upswing at the start of 2021, which saw prices hit $0.082 in February.
A couple of months later, the Dogecoin community exerted its power, sending DOGE up to record highs in April before culminating in an all-time high of $0.731. This marked an increase of a staggering 9000% on DOGE’s price in January 2021.
Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
Read Also: Why Dogecoin is So Cheap?
Shiba Inu (SHIB)
SHIB has only been in existence since 2020 so naturally, there isn’t anywhere near as much data as there is for DOGE. Shiba Inu launched at <$0.00000001, the price being kept purposely minute to allow room for significant growth whilst ensuring SHIB remained affordable and viable as a peer-to-peer currency.
After its launch in August of 2020, SHIB remained more or less worthless for much of its existence - with its price rarely fluctuating and never rising beyond a few fractions of a cent. However, this all changed in 2021, when Shiba began to bathe in reflected glory after DOGE’s remarkable price runs.
In April, the price of SHIB went from $0.0000001 to $0.0000036 - now on paper this hardly looks like a big jump, but in terms of investor returns this equates to gains of some 3500% - and all within just a few days.
Since then, Shiba Inu has very much earned its moniker of the ‘Doge Killer’ and a certain amount of hype began generation around the coin in October 2021, sending prices up to an all-time high of $0.0000826 - representing a staggering increase on its launch price just one year earlier.
Check Out: Could Shiba Be A Millionaire-Maker Coin?
Dogecoin vs Shiba Inu: Future Predictions
Looking at a token’s previous price movement is one way of building a forecast, but if you are looking to invest in Dogecoin or Shiba Inu, then collating price predictions from top analysts will help you develop a much more accurate picture.
Dogecoin (DOGE)
If you’re interested in investing in Dogecoin, then you are probably already aware that the coin has seen some pretty significant - and often wild - price movement over the years - much of which has been driven by the ever-faithful DOGE community. Whilst this can provide great gains for savvy investors, it inevitably means Dogecoin price predictions are not always reliable.
TradingBeasts has made a fairly realistic Dogecoin price prediction. According to its technical analysis, DOGE will end 2023 at $0.22. Moving into 2023, DOGE will continue this momentum, going into 2024 at a potential high of $0.30.
Elsewhere, DigitalCoinPrice has been a little less optimistic with its DOGE forecast. It predicts that Dogecoin will reach $0.18 by the end of 2023 and continue climbing steadily over the coming years, eventually reaching $0.40 in 2027.
WalletInvestor’s Dogecoin price prediction is similar to that of TradingBeasts.
The platform has Dogecoin (DOGE) finishing 2023 at potential high of $0.38. Whilst 2023 will be a chaotic year for Dogecoin, ultimately its value will increase and by the end of 2024 the platform predicts that DOGE could have a trading high of $0.78 per token.
Read More: Dogecoin Price Predictions
Shiba Inu (SHIB)
Just as with Dogecoin, SHIB confounds many analysts as it often moves out of synch with the wider crypto market, making Shiba price predictions very difficult to make.
It’s fairly safe to say that SHIB’s actual per-token price is not going to be approaching any impressive figures any time soon, but most analysts are surprisingly optimistic about its future. DigitalCoinPrice, for example, believes that Shiba will end 2023 at $0.000028. By 2025, SHIB is expected to have reached $0.000047.
Meanwhile, TradingBeasts is expecting SHIB to have gained around 95% by the end of 2023, before going into sustained growth over 2023 and 2024, and surpassing $0.000044 by 2025.
Finally, WalletInvestor has the most optimistic price forecast for SHIB. By the end of 2023, the platform expects the meme coin to be holding steady at around $0.00007, before going into a period of growth over the coming years. By the end of 2025, WalletInvestor predicts that Shiba coin will be worth $0.0002.
Dogecoin Vs Shiba: What the Experts Say
It’s probably fair to say that there are mixed opinions when it comes to meme coins. Dogecoin’s most famous association is without a doubt that with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. He has made several tweets that appeared to express support for the token.
Having previously described Dogecoin as “the people’s crypto” and has even tweeted that he plans to buy a Shiba Inu dog as “resistance is futile”. Musk’s first string of tweets sent the price DOGE up by as much as 47% within minutes of them being posted. Musk has also famously pledged to put an “actual Dogecoin on the actual moon”.
However, later, Musk seems to have cooled on Dogecoin and at one point urged people to exercise caution when investing in crypto. These comments did not specifically mention DOGE, but they were made in response to the coin’s impressive price runs and following speculation that Musk had too much influence over the crypto market.
Meanwhile, crypto expert Nic Carter is not expecting much from Dogecoin. “Unfortunately a lot of retail punters are going to lose money on dogecoin in the long term because there’s really not much there in terms of interesting technology,” he said.
When it comes to Shiba, most investors and analysts are aware that the coin is attempting to ride the hype of DOGE, but Ben Caselin, head of research and strategy at cryptocurrency exchange AAX, suggests that, “rather than simply dismissing the hype outright, it’s important to realize that what we’re seeing is the mass movement of traders new to crypto moving into space.”
Meanwhile, OKEx CEO Jay Hao points out that: “The Shiba Inu community has been gaining strong momentum from the weekend deposits, and we look forward to witnessing its robust development.”
Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
Can Shiba Really Be A ‘Doge Killer’?
It may seem as though Shiba is more or less a copycat of Dogecoin, seeking to cash in on the latter’s recent success - and to an extent this is true. However, SHIB has a few aces up its sleeve that could see it eventually becoming the Doge Killer it has been touted as.
Firstly, as we have already mentioned, SHIB is an ERC20 token. This means it has far more applications that involve interaction with other Ethereum based projects - particularly the major DeFi projects.
Shiba is also putting the finishing touches on ShibaSwap, which allows buyers to trade SHIB for other cryptocurrencies. There are two more coins - BONE and LEASH from the same developers.
Finally, Shiba is also entering the NFT market with its artist incubator programme. Once again, this is a nascent initiative but it effectively involves putting together a community of artists and various entertainment industry to “lead the artistic Shiba movement as [it] explores how to bring [its] unique position into the NFT market.”
So will Shiba Inu be able to topple DOGE as the top meme coin? Perhaps. But, in any case, anyone interested in investing in SHIB will want to keep a close eye on these developments.
Don't Miss: 15 Reasons Why You Should Invest in Shiba Inu Today
Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
Dogecoin Vs Shiba: Conclusion
There’s no getting away from the fact that both Shiba and Dogecoin are largely built around hype. Whilst both have perfectly workable infrastructures, neither has brought anything particularly new or innovative to the blockchain world when it comes to furthering its capabilities.
However, investors shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss the idea of community-led crypto projects. The reality is that most cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value and the fact that Bitcoin still dominates the market despite being launched way back in 2009, shows that technical innovation doesn’t always equal success.
2021 showed us the power of community. After the Gamestop debacle, wherein Reddit users joined forces to send the stock value of the beleaguered gaming store skyrocketing, the Dogecoin community followed suit, sending DOGE soaring into the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap - having been all but forgotten about just a year or so earlier.
On the surface, it might seem obvious that Dogecoin is the stronger investment option, given that Shiba is something of a ‘knock off’. However, investors should remember that Shiba has a few technical advantages and the developers behind the project have several expansions planned - including entering into the world of NFTs, which Doge cannot currently match.
Ultimately, anyone planning to invest in either coin will need to keep a close eye on developments within their respective communities. This means keeping abreast of what’s going on in Reddit forums, on Twitter and other social media platforms.
Both SHIB and DOGE tokens certainly carry risks, but it is the wild price fluctuations that make meme coins such a tempting opportunity for those who believe they can get in and out at the right times.
Is It Better To Invest In Shiba Or Dogecoin?
Both Shiba and Dogecoin are high-risk investments, so before you invest in any crypto assets, make sure you are willing to take the high level of risk and volatility.
While neither of these crypto assets is considered as a safe investment, Dogecoin may carry less risk than Shiba because it has a longer track record and better name recognition. However, Shiba may have more opportunities for growth over time.
eToro – The Best Platform To Buy Cryptos
Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
FAQs
Is Dogecoin better than Shiba inu?
Shiba Inu has been dubbed by some as the Doge killer and is certainly gaining traction however the following of Dogecoin is currently stronger. Both have their advantages so only time will tell if Dogecoin is better than Shiba Inu.
Will Shiba Inu pass Dogecoin?
According to Investor Place, Shiba inn's future is optimistic and likely to increase in value as time goes on. Given time, Shiba inu could pass Dogecoin. Shiba Inu has been dubbed but some as the Doge Killer when it was created in response to Dogecoin both coins are largely driven by hype and a strong following.
Shiba vs Dogecoin - which is better?
Shiba was launched largely in response to Dogecoin - with the intention of building a strong community that would help to boost the coin’s notoriety and help it gain traction as a viable means of payment. Technically speaking, Shiba has some advantages over its predecessor but at the time of writing the Doge community seems a lot stronger - only time will tell which meme coin will win out.
Is Dogecoin a safe investment?
Many crypto detractors are quick to point out that most tokens hold little by way of intrinsic value. This is especially true of so-called meme coins, which are more or less entirely driven by community sentiment. Make no mistake, there is profit to be had from Dogecoin, but it should certainly be seen as a higher risk investment.
Where can I buy Dogecoin?
Dogecoin is certainly popular at the moment and you’ll find many exchanges now list the token. If you’re looking to buy DOGE, then we recommend checking out eToro, as it has a very approachable platform as well as one of the best reputations in the industry.
What are meme coins?
The term meme coin refers to tokens like Dogecoin and Shiba, which were both launched with a famous meme as their mascot and seek to subvert the crypto industry with their light-hearted approach. Though initially thought of as a joke, the success of coins like DOGE has forced the wider crypto community to pay attention the significant potential of meme coins and the followings they can accrue.
Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.