If You Invested $100 in Shiba Inu 15 Months Ago, Here’s How Much

The stock market has been one of the greatest wealth creators on the planet for longer than any American has been alive. Stocks might not be the top-performing asset every year, but they’ve consistently outperformed bonds, housing, and other investment tools over the very long term. In fact, the benchmark S&P 500 has averaged an annual total return, including dividends, of greater than 11% since the beginning of 1980.

But over the past couple of years, a number of brand-name cryptocurrencies have absolutely run circles around Wall Street. Although Bitcoin‘s gains from its debut more than a decade ago are impressive, it’s the returns of Shiba Inu (CRYPTO:SHIB) since its debut last year that are truly jaw-dropping.

The Japanese Shiba Inu dog breed is the inspiration behind the world’s hottest cryptocurrency. Image source: Getty Images.

Here’s how much $100 invested in Shiba Inu on its debut day is worth now

Meme coin Shiba Inu first hit select cryptocurrency exchanges for trading on Aug. 1, 2020, with a first-day print of $0.00000000051 per token. At the time of this writing, late in the evening of Oct. 31, SHIB tokens were being purchased at $0.00007163. It might be difficult to do the math with all of these zeroes, but this 15-month increase since its debut equates to 14,044,998%. For comparison, the S&P 500 is up about 41% over the same period.

To put this mammoth increase into perspective, imagine you had the wherewithal, stomach, and luck to invest $100 into SHIB on Aug. 1, 2020, at the above-stated price and held for the past 15 months. Your $100 investment would now be worth (drum roll)…$14,045,098. Yes, over $14 million! This would firmly place you in the top 1% of the wealthiest American households, which has a cutoff of around $11 million.

How exactly does a $100 investment turn into a $14 million moonshot in 15 months? Let’s take a closer look.

Image source: Getty Images.

This is what’s driven Shiba Inu’s historic gain

One factor working in SHIB’s favor is increased awareness. Over the past 15 months, a growing number of cryptocurrency exchanges have listed Shiba Inu for trading. There are even rumors that leading crypto exchange and ecosystem Coinbase Global will list SHIB at some point in the not-too-distant future. This isn’t such a far-fetched idea, considering Shiba Inu is now the ninth-largest digital currency by market cap.

The July launch of decentralized exchange ShibaSwap has also played a role in SHIB’s moonshot to the heavens. ShibaSwap allows investors to stake their coins in order to earn interest. Though staking is nothing new in the cryptocurrency landscape, it’s an important step in encouraging investors to hold on to their SHIB tokens for longer periods of time. Having more long-term Shiba Inu investors should result in fewer violent price swings.

As I’ve mentioned previously, there’s also an inherent buy bias present with cryptocurrencies. While investors can easily…