It is 2023 and somehow Shiba Inu is still relevant. Without throwing any shade, the previous statement is justified because SHIB is one of those bull market ‘darlings’. In 2017, Verge or XVG token cherished a similar rise in popularity after its 1581942% surge. At the moment, it is ranked 244th, and peripheral from the industry.
To Shiba Inu’s credit, its ecosystem did not shy away from innovation. They had plans for a DEX, metaverse, gaming, burning protocols, and whatnot. While some of these sectors are still in progress, its decentralized exchange launched in 2021. And it did not disappoint.
ShibaSwap, a native DeFi platform for Shiba users went live in July 2021, in order to boost Shiba Inu’s utility tokens. Within 24-hours, the platform surpassed over $1 billion in total value locked or TVL. It is actually an incredible statistic and it falls as a testament to the initial interest from SHIB users. Now, in this article, we are analyzing the same DEX and its current performance against competitors. Let’s just say, it is been quite a fall from grace.
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ShibaSwap but Users Don’t
According to data from DeFi llama, the current total value locked on ShibaSwap is $26.63 million. That is a drastic decline from its all-time high of $1.53 billion. However, it is important to note that the decline took place rapidly. By November 2021, TVL had halved down to $648 million, and by January 2022, it was under $200 million. Its current range at $26 million has been nearly consistent for over a year as illustrated in the chart above.
Now, in comparison, its competitors were head and shoulders ahead. Taking the case of Uniswap. The largest DEX by volume currently boasted a TVL of $4.021 billion, with its all-time high being around $10 billion. Pancakeswap displayed a strong TVL of $1.57 billion, even though its CAKE token only had a $300 million market cap, ranked 110th at press time.
Now, these comparisons might seem unfair to ShibaSwap. Both Uniswap and Pancakeswap have established DEXes. Hence, let us compare it to a DEX, which 90% of the readers might have not heard of, Velidrome.
With a market cap of $13.04 million, ranked 851th, Velodrome currently has a TVL of $220 million. Its active addresses were also around 10 times higher than ShibaSwap. The statistics do not favor ShibaSwap in any shape or form.
But Does It Matter?
It is such a shame that most of these projects named not ‘Uniswap’, would never receive the level of attention as Shiba Inu does. Irrespective of its appalling DEX data, which basically communicates that ShibaSwap is dead, Shiba Inu will rally when the next bull run comes around. Its community image and meme-culture establishment are enough for users to not care about technical metrics such as TVL. The only argument that rises, is any relevancy derived from being a ‘viral crypto asset’ has its downfall as well. ShibaSwap being irrelevant is not surprising at all, but the candle is burning on both sides for Shiba Inu, and it’s either going to another take-off to the moon or further detriment towards the dark side.
Also Read: Shiba Inu Faces Resistance from 24 Trillion Tokens