A few days ago, Morning Brew tweeted of an $8,000 investment in SHIB which, at the time of the post had a value of $5.7 billion!

Yes, you read that right — $5,700,000,000!

SHIBA INU is an anonymously created meme-themed token that came out in August of 2020 and around the same time an individual purchased approximately $8,000 worth of these tokens.

Since then, SHIB has become one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies in the world, boasting an ROI of 4,214,917% (according to CoinMarketCap).

This is possibly the single greatest investment of all time whereby this $8,000 has grown to a market valuation of (at the time of the tweet) to $5.7 billion.

So, what is the story behind one of the world’s greatest trades?

Taking a Closer Look…

If we take a closer look, this purchase was made one day after SHIB was created and accounts for ~20% of the overall supply of the token. Both the timing of the trade and the sheer volume purchased (of an unknown token) would lead one to believe this purchase was made by the developer.

Adding credibility to this claim is the fact the token was developed by an anonymous person who goes by the moniker of “Ryoshi” which makes it highly reasonable the original purchase was made by this anonymous developer (or at least someone close to the genesis of the project).

If you are wondering what has happened to that $5.7 billion, well since the news broke of this wallet address and after it was all over the internet, the majority of the funds have been moved and at the time of writing this article, only a small fraction of the original amount remains. This is the wallet address:

Props to Ryoshi(?)!

First and foremost, recognition should be given to the enterprising individual who owns this account. This has most likely been the most profitable investment of all time. In less than a year, this individual has been able to achieve a potential return on investment in multiple millions of percentages — something up until now has been considered impossible.

While this is sheer speculation (on my part) that the owner of the account is the lead developer for SHIB, it's the most reasonable conclusion.

Regardless of who this person is, recognition should be given where it is due.

If this was the developer Ryoshi, this individual found a need in the marketplace, most likely held the belief he would leverage off the prior success of Dogecoin, launched a token to rival the success of Dogecoin, purchased ~20% of the supply and then waited…and with a bit of luck his bet paid off.

Now he is a theoretical billionaire.

Not bad for less than a years worth of work.

The Difference between Speculation Vs Investing

We are presently in the middle of a dog coin frenzy where it seems that people are buying into any pet-related cryptocurrency. With the recent success of Dogecoin and Shibu Inu propelling these buying frenzies, people seem to be treating ‘investing’ in these coins as a kind of lottery ticket.

This is where the distinction between speculation and investing needs to be made. Sure, the incredible returns seen with some of these pet-related coins are extraordinary, but so is the risk.

The individual who made this $8,000 purchase of SHIB held ~20% of the supply of the coin. This person could have very easily tanked the price of the token. These are the types of risks that exist in this unregulated and highly anonymous marketplace.

However, investing is more about performing due diligence and looking into the team behind the project. It’s about understanding the real-world use-case and being aware of the community supporting the project. It’s also about considering the long-term value and potential growth of the project.

This is not to say that SHIB won’t continue to rank well within the cryptocurrency sphere however, it’s too risky for my taste as the cryptocurrency market is already a highly risky market.

Conclusion:

If you take a look at CoinMarketCaps daily gainers and losers list you will see many cryptocurrencies with plus hundred percent gains in just the last 24 hours. I don’t advise chasing these returns, as most of these projects are pump-and-dumps and the end-day value of these coins and tokens will likely be near zero.

For those into speculation, sure there can be extraordinary gains, but don’t get caught holding the bag when the bottoms fall out, like what recently happened with SQUID.

The cryptocurrency market is a highly volatile market with many shady characters and projects. To help mitigate these risks it’s far more prudent to look at these projects as investments that offer value creation, have a solid team backing the project and a strong community of support.

We are living in an age where the concept of “money” is being redefined and cutting-edge projects that can truly benefit mankind, yet the market is focused on dog meme projects.

Trade safe everyone!

Richard