Excitement is building within the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency community following comments made by lead developer Shytoshi Kusama hinting at an upcoming “major announcement” and “year-ending surprise” for SHIB holders.
In a recent viral tweet, Kusama stated it was “leak time” and promised to unveil a big reveal in the coming week that would showcase Shiba Inu’s leadership and innovation in the Web 3.0 sphere. This announcement is expected to drop around December 20th, coinciding with a planned “Special Shibarium Christmas Giveaway Party” where 10 custom Shiba Inu themed cryptocurrency wallets will be gifted to attendees.
While full details remain unknown, investors have already begun speculating what this surprise end-of-year update may entail.
Some theories being discussed include potential new technological developments like upgrades to the platform’s Layer 2 scaling solution, Shibarium. Others have suggested forthcoming partnerships that could increase mainstream adoption and use cases for the meme-inspired token.
Kusama’s hints come on the heels of him being named one of the 50 most influential figures in cryptocurrency this year for his integral role in evolving Shiba Inu into a leading decentralized finance player. The award specifically highlighted the fully decentralized, community run “Doggy DAO” ecosystem he helped architect as well as the runaway success of Shibarium.
Shibarium Numbers Continue Breaking Records
Launched earlier in 2022, Shibarium has rapidly become one of the most used Layer 2 solutions, cementing itself as a true leader in blockchain innovation.
At time of writing, Shibarium has facilitated over 111 million transactions from more than 1.3 million unique wallet addresses. These figures eclipse activity on all competitor networks and show no signs of slowing even amidst the ongoing crypto winter.
Such tremendous on-chain usage offers credibility to Kusama’s claims that next week’s announcement will further showcase Shiba Inu’s technical capabilities and cement its status as the top dog in Web 3 advancement.
This also gives weight to theories that the announcement may relate to expansions or improvements of Shibarium itself.
As a quick primer, Shibarium works by taking transactional pressure off the main Ethereum-based Shiba Inu network and onto a custom built layer that offers greatly improved throughput and reduced fees. This helps solve the blockchain trilemma relating to scalability and has proven massively beneficial for developers looking to build apps and users wanting to swap tokens or provide liquidity.
Introducing new features or partnerships to this ecosystem would align well with Kusama’s stated goals for the project and could spark even greater interest at a time when rivals have slowed development due to inhospitable market conditions.
The SHIB token itself has also begun demonstrating momentum not seen since last year’s metaverse and NFT fueled boom. Over the past week, SHIB has rallied more than 15%, significantly outperforming both Bitcoin and the wider altcoin market.
This renewed strength has been partially attributed to excitement about the incoming announcement as well as rumors regarding planned manual coin “burns” which permanently remove tokens from circulation thereforeincreasing scarcity and value.
Manual Burns Could Further Catalyze Price Action
Late last week, Shiba Inu marketing head Lucie confirmed that manual burns eliminating billions of SHIB tokens were scheduled on December 14th, 15th and 16th.
While figures are not yet available, completion of these promised token removals could further galvanize investors and offer fundamentals supporting a year-end price surge.
Historically, coin burns and hyped announcements have worked symbiotically to trigger epic rallies for meme coins like SHIB. The dual impacts may be enough to help the asset finally break out from its long-standing channel between $0.000009 – $0.000014 and kickstart a new bull run.
Nevertheless, some veterans warn about getting overhyped before details emerge. But given lead developer Kusama’s track record of delivering and the immense capabilities showcased by Shibarium thus far, hopes remain high across the SHIB investor community.
Many also seem thrilled at the prospect of ending 2022, one of crypto’s most brutal years on record, with major positivity and a showcase of true innovation. If this helps spur a wider mini-altseason, it would certainly be a welcome holiday gift for numerous holders down 70-99% purely looking to recoup some losses and restore morale before next year.
For now, analysts uniformly agree traders should temper expectations and wait for official confirmations next week regarding the exact nature of the teased surprise. Those interested can mark December 20th on their calendars as the date when all should be revealed.
As a final bonus, the Shibarium Holiday Party taking place then may also drop hints for eagle-eyed attendees. Just remember -Loose Lips Sink Ships!
