Are you guys tracking the Shiba Inu Feeding Frenzy?

[james.hendrickson]

So, the value of Shiba Inu, an altcoin, has increased by 68,027,799% in the past few months.

Its triggering a crypto frenzy.

So, if you want an example of irrational exuberance, here it is.

[disneysteve]

Don't know. Don't care.

If people are making money with this, good for them, but it's not something I'm interested in personally.

[james.hendrickson]

Its amazing to me, Disneysteve, how markets work sometimes. The coin has limited immediate economic uses, but a 20 Billion market cap.

[disneysteve]

The coin has limited immediate economic uses, but a 20 Billion market cap.

Which means it is 100% speculation. It's the 1637 tulip mania all over again. It will likely end the same way that did. Stay away.

[james.hendrickson]

Which means it is 100% speculation. It's the 1637 tulip mania all over again. It will likely end the same way that did. Stay away.

Totally, its all speculation.

[bjl584]

I put in $100 worth on this.
Total speculation, but no different than lottery tickets or sports betting as far as I'm concerned.
Worst that can happen is I lose $100.
On the other hand, I could stand to make a pile of money if this thing goes up.
My $100 scored me over 1.5 million shares.

[james.hendrickson]

I put in like $200, was out with $456. Its just too insanely speculative and hot for me. I could be wrong but I don't see an immediate use case.

Plus, at least with a company like Tesla you know the valuation of the shares is based on some kind of real growth - with Shiba Inu I just don't see it.

[disneysteve]

I put in $100 worth on this.
Total speculation, but no different than lottery tickets or sports betting as far as I'm concerned.
Worst that can happen is I lose $100.
On the other hand, I could stand to make a pile of money if this thing goes up.
My $100 scored me over 1.5 million shares.

Nothing at all wrong with that. Speculation and gambling are just fine as long as you know that’s what you’re doing and it’s money you’re okay losing.

How does one even go about buying this?

[james.hendrickson]

Nothing at all wrong with that. Speculation and gambling are just fine as long as you know that’s what you’re doing and it’s money you’re okay losing.

How does one even go about buying this?

Coinbase or any major crypto exhange.

Seriously, even if you think Shiba Inu is speculative, which it totally is, a lot of economy energy is in Crypto these days. Capital flows, new business formation, etc. - a huge amount of it is going to the crypto space.

[kork13]

Its amazing to me, Disneysteve, how markets work sometimes. The coin has limited immediate economic uses, but a 20 Billion market cap.

Clear something up for me with crypto currency. What makes any given crypto currency more our less valid, useful, and valuable than any other? There are dozens of random, unknown crypto variants out there, created out of thin air & computer processing. What makes Shiba Inu different from Dogecoin from Bitcoin from any other?

It seems that, just like any normal currency, the value/utility comes from people/businesses being willing & able to accept it for goods & services. So you're collecting a handful of various random cryptos on your Coinbase rewards thing or whatever, saying it's "free money," but none of them are really worth anything unless you have people/businesses lined up with the desire & willingness to accept them. Otherwise, it's no different than currency speculation with USD, GBP, AUD, Yen, Yuan, Rupees, and any other.... In which most people lose their shirts. Am I misunderstanding this at all?

Sure, this Shiba Inu thing is the latest "meme stock" (crypto), but it's really worthless, just like most of the others.

[bjl584]

Nothing at all wrong with that. Speculation and gambling are just fine as long as you know that’s what you’re doing and it’s money you’re okay losing.

How does one even go about buying this?

I signed up for Webull.
You can buy crypto on there just like you can buy any security.
It's as easy to buy as shares of any stock or ETF

There are other trading platforms that allow crypto as well

[bjl584]

Clear something up for me with crypto currency. What makes any given crypto currency more our less valid, useful, and valuable than any other? There are dozens of random, unknown crypto variants out there, created out of thin air & computer processing. What makes Shiba Inu different from Dogecoin from Bitcoin from any other?

It seems that, just like any normal currency, the value/utility comes from people/businesses being willing & able to accept it for goods & services. So you're collecting a handful of various random cryptos on your Coinbase rewards thing or whatever, saying it's "free money," but none of them are really worth anything unless you have people/businesses lined up with the desire & willingness to accept them. Otherwise, it's no different than currency speculation with USD, GBP, AUD, Yen, Yuan, Rupees, and any other.... In which most people lose their shirts. Am I misunderstanding this at all?

Sure, this Shiba Inu thing is the latest "meme stock" (crypto), but it's really worthless, just like most of the others.

It seems worthless to me.
Pure speculation, and the bottom will probably fall out of most of these eventually.
But for $100 I might as well try to ride the wave on one of them

[james.hendrickson]

Clear something up for me with crypto currency. What makes any given crypto currency more our less valid, useful, and valuable than any other? There are dozens of random, unknown crypto variants out there, created out of thin air & computer processing. What makes Shiba Inu different from Dogecoin from Bitcoin from any other?

It seems that, just like any normal currency, the value/utility comes from people/businesses being willing & able to accept it for goods & services. So you're collecting a handful of various random cryptos on your Coinbase rewards thing or whatever, saying it's "free money," but none of them are really worth anything unless you have people/businesses lined up with the desire & willingness to accept them. Otherwise, it's no different than currency speculation with USD, GBP, AUD, Yen, Yuan, Rupees, and any other.... In which most people lose their shirts. Am I misunderstanding this at all?

Sure, this Shiba Inu thing is the latest "meme stock" (crypto), but it's really worthless, just like most of the others.

Kork, lets talk about that.

You're not wrong at all.

Here is my take:

What makes a currency valuable is shared universal consensus that it is valuable. The reason US Dollars are valuable is because everyone agrees dollars are valuable. Why wouldn't another form of money be the same?

And yes, you're basically correct regarding the "free cryptocurrencies" on coinbase. But, in a lot of cases, if you have a look at the issue, the cryptocurrences sometimes act like stocks - that is, holding them gives you voting rights in the enterprise or they have some kind of payments structure for holders in the currency. In other cases, its just a niche currency the company has issued - like DisneyDollars. DisneyDollars are real dollars in the Disney ecosystem. So, yes, you need businesses and a population that is willing to participate in whatever the enterprise has going on. The valuating of the cryptocurrency would then come from your assessment of factors impacting the value of the currency, e.g. user adoption, customers for the business, etc.

For most of these free cryptocurrencies you can easily convert them to USD, or to any other form of money in that regard.

[docstudent]

I have dabbled with the crypto market and it’s been an interesting journey. I purchased 20,000 plus Dodge coins for $75 back in the summer of ‘20. The coins provided me a $980 return in January of ‘21. I sold them and the same coins would have netted me about $15,000, a few months later. I learned a life lesson, don’t sell and hold for the long term. I purchased 52,000,000 Shib INU this summer for approximately $900 and my account currently stands at $3800 and it got up to $4800 last week. I’ve been following and I’m intrigued by the idea of it hitting half a penny. Also, I’m invested in ANKR, which has more utility than the other two options. One of my good friends has profited over $75,000 over the past 1yr and a half, so I’m going for the ride. Though, I’m not investing life changing money, but a few dollars here and there is not going to unhinge my long term financial plans.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

How do you even know which crypto to buy?