If an investor had procured $1,000 in Shiba Inu when Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin burned 410 trillion SHIB, his ROI would not have been very great.
Market commentators have often touted Shiba Inu as one of the best crypto assets to have invested in at its early stages. This is largely due to its promising return on investment (ROI) since launch, which transformed several investors into millionaires overnight.
Notably, data from CoinMarketCap indicates that Shiba Inu has an all-time ROI of 912,577%. For perspective, such an ROI would have transformed a $1,000 investment into $9.1 million. However, this favorable ROI depends on the timing of the investment, as not all earlier investments in Shiba Inu are currently favorable.
Vitalik Buterin’s Shiba Inu Burn
Here at The Crypto Basic, we recently assessed how much an investor would be sitting on had the person invested in Shiba Inu when Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin carried out his historic 410 trillion SHIB burn. Notably, this was one of the most significant moments in Shiba Inu history, with a Coinbase director suggesting it was the largest on-chain transaction in history.
For context, Buterin, who received half of the Shiba Inu supply from Shiba Inu founder Ryoshi following the token’s launch, transferred 410 trillion tokens currently worth nearly $5 billion to the dead address on May 16, 2021. According to him, he did not desire that much “power.” Buterin donated the leftover tokens to charities.
The burn made headlines within crypto circles and attracted investors to the Shiba Inu project at the time. However, our assessment confirms that if an investor had committed money to Shiba Inu shortly after this burn, they would not be witnessing the massive profit that earlier adopters saw.
Returns of $1,000 Invested in SHIB
Particularly, at the time of the burn, Shiba Inu changed hands around the $0.000016 mark despite a correction from an earlier upsurge. If a market participant had invested $1,000 into the asset at the time, the individual would have procured 62.5 million SHIB tokens.
Following massive price fluctuations over the past four years, Shiba Inu’s price has dropped since May 2021. With the current price of $0.00001219, the 62.5 million tokens would now be worth $761. This translates to a loss of around $239 or an ROI of -23.8%.
These negative returns are because Shiba Inu had already witnessed its historic run before the Vitalik Buterin burn. For context, the asset surged 50,513,413% from $0.000000000074 on Jan. 1, 2021, to a high of $0.00003738 on May 10, 2021, before facing a pullback. This run transformed $1,000 to $505 million in five months.
Notably, this evaluation confirms a disclosure from the team behind the community-driven burn platform Shibburn. They clarified in September 2023 that Shiba Inu’s 2020 to 2021 run was due to demand and not primarily Vitalik Buterin’s burn.
