Will Shiba Inu’s ‘Shiba Eternity’ game help SHIB ascend

In the early hours of 2 August, developers behind the popular meme cryptocurrency Shiba Inu [SHIB] unveiled the name of its long-awaited CCG game.

According to the announcement, the game will be called “Shiba Eternity” and will be made available to players on the Apple app store and Google play store. However, with continued investors’ apathy, it is unclear whether this new game can help revive interest in the ailing SHIB token.

Currently trading at its October 2021 level, SHIB, the project’s native token, has been on a price decline for over nine months.

Dwindling interest in the native token has deepened despite the plethora of projects within the Shiba Inu ecosystem. For example, since the launch of its Shib Metaverse, SHIB has lost over 90% of its value.

With a steady decline in price since the beginning of the year, how did the token fare in the first half of the year?

6-month long decline

Shiba Inu started the year at an index price of $0.000033. In the first 180 days of the year, the price of the meme token declined by 69%. By 30 June, one SHIB token exchanged hands at $0.00001. 

In H1 (first half of a calendar year) 2022, as the price plummeted, trading activity for SHIB also declined. After a trading volume high of 4.79 billion on 7 February, trading activity for the token dropped significantly.

SHIB closed H1 with an 85% decline in trading volume since the high of 7 February. 

Also, in the 6-month period, SHIB’s market capitalization dropped from $18 billion to $5 billion. 

Source: Santiment

On 30 March, the developers behind the Shiba Inu launched the Shib: The Metaverse, its virtual reality project. Unfortunately, with the launch of the metaverse and the sale of virtual plots of land failing to ignite investors’ interest, the meme token has declined by 55% since 30 March.

Further, following the bloodbath that saw the prices of crypto assets recording new lows in April and June, July offered a fresh start as several cryptocurrencies registered growth in price in the 31-day period. Within that period, SHIB saw some relief. Its price grew by 20%.  

On-chain performance

Interestingly, through the thick of the crypto market bloodbath, SHIB bag holders remained resilient and continue to be. The supply of SHIB tokens on exchanges has taken on a downard slope since 11 April.

This indicates that more investors are holding on to their tokens despite the continued decline in price.

Source: Santiment

After logging a daily high of 39,209 unique addresses on March 16, daily active addresses that traded SHIB tokens declined significantly.

Closing H1 with 3867 addresses on 30 June, the metric dropped by 90% since mid march. In addition, SHIB registered a 64% decline in the number of new addresses that were created on the network in the first half of the year. 

Source: Santiment

On 20 July, Shiba Inu announced its partnership with The Third Floor (TTF) for the design and construction of its highly anticipated SHIB.io The Metaverse Project.  Coupled with the game’s release, SHIB may have some respite before the year runs out.