20th October 2021 > > Shiba Inu.

tl;dr

Why the attraction for Shiba Inu?

Market Snap

Market Wrap

The debut of the ProShares BTC exchange traded fund (ETF) – ticker BITO - saw volumes of over $1bn. Later this week we will see a second ETF launched by Valkrie with a cheekily named ticker BTFD.

Oh, those bankers sure know how to have a laugh.

BTC is up a little, so my initial concerns that this would be a buy the rumour, sell the news situation have been roundly dismissed. The price action for both the ETF and spot was orderly, which is very cheering news.

And over in the options market, the calls with expiry 31st December 2021 with the highest open interest have strikes at … drum roll … $100k and $200k.

All in all, my negativity towards a futures-based ETF looks misplaced right now. I am very pleased to have got it so wrong.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Shiba Inu

One of the meme coins styled on a cute dog inspired by DOGE, the success of this coin is nothing short of miraculous.

Launched in November 2020, the market cap is now $14 billion and ranks at #12. One quadrillion (that is 1 followed by 15 zeros or 1,000 trillion) coins were issued of which 50% were transferred to Uniswap as a liquidity pool, 50% were gifted to Vitalik Buterin (not that he needs any more cash) who then gifted 10% to India Covid Relief Fund.

11-month returns are a ridiculous 50818842%. Elon Musk has been tweeting in its favour, and its attention on social media is second only to BTC. Granted extra credibility by being listed on both Binance and Coinbase, it can now be bought at 4,000 ATMs across the US and Brazil.

One buyer has accumulated 49.8 billion coins since the beginning of October 2021, costing close to $1.2 billion. That is one very large, and very specific bet.

I struggle to understand the utility of a coin whose price is 0.00002854.

I struggle to understand the utility of a coin for which $100 buys 3.5mm coins.

I just can’t see how these types of numbers allow for ease of use for payment purposes.

What am I missing?