Digital marketing entrepreneur Neil Patel has warned investors against considering Shiba Inu (SHIB) as a viable long-term investment, citing the project's low utility, fading momentum, transparency issues and enormous token supply.
Patel questions SHIB's investment case. Transparency issues remain unresolved
At the time of writing, Shiba Inu is trading near $0.000007767, down 90.72% from its all-time high of $0.00008845 reached in October 2021. While some holders argue that the decline represents a buying opportunity, Patel rejected comparisons to past market cycles.
SHIB/USD every day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Patel questions SHIB's investment case
Patel said Shiba Inu doesn't address a real-world problem and relies on attention-driven trading slightly than functional usage. He grouped SHIB with assets that primarily move during broader crypto market rallies slightly than generating demand through internal fundamentals.
He compared SHIB to Bitcoin and Ethereum, saying Bitcoin is linked to monetary policy debates while Ethereum supports applications akin to tokenization of real-world assets. Patel said Shiba Inu doesn’t offer the same feature.
According to Patel, SHIB’s price performance depends upon market-wide conditions slightly than ecosystem progress. He said updates across the Shiba Inu ecosystem haven’t resulted in sustained demand for the token.
Patel cited Shibarium, the Shiba Inu metaverse, and the project's decentralized exchange as examples of developments that didn’t have an enduring impact on prices. He said uptake of those initiatives stays limited based on available data.
He also said the energy that drove the SHIB rally throughout the pandemic has waned. Patel described the drop in community participation as consistent with the token’s prolonged price decline.
Patel advised investors to think about assets with clearer use cases. He pointed to Bitcoin as an option that addresses structural problems in the worldwide economic system slightly than counting on speculative trading cycles.
Transparency issues remain unresolved
Patel's comments echo criticism previously voiced by parts of the Shiba Inu community. Some critics questioned the project's governance structure and use of pseudonymous developers.
These concerns followed disclosures from K9 Finance DAO, Shiba Inu’s official liquid staking partner. According to K9 Finance, SHIB developers stopped responding to messages related to recovery efforts following the Shibarium Bridge exploit. The K9 Finance team said it could reevaluate its relationship with the ecosystem if affected users don’t receive compensation.
Patel also cited Shiba Inu’s token offering as a structural constraint. SHIB has a circulating supply of around 589 trillion tokens. Critics argue that the scale of the provision limits upside potential and undermines long-term price objectives.
Large-scale token burns remain uncertain. Most SHIB tokens are held by investors, and existing deletion mechanisms are based on voluntary participation slightly than protocol-induced reductions.
Patel said these aspects outweigh the speculative appeal of Shiba Inu and urged investors to approach the token with caution.
