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The Shiba Inu community is bullish on the new year, anticipating the release of the layer 2 Shibarium and potential new payment integrations. Token prices are suffering, though, down more than 75% this year.
2023 is just around the corner, and the Shiba Inu community is bullish for the new year. Excitement is growing around various developments within the project, but the SHIB token has suffered the wrath of the 2022 crypto winter.
The token is down by more than 90% from its all-time high made in October 2021. Will it be able to deliver on the community’s high expectations in 2023?
Shiba Inu Developer Hints Shibarium Release in 2023
Lead developer Shytoshi Kusama took to Twitter and informed the community that Shibarium would come very soon but not during the New Year’s party. He further mentions that next year is ‘important for humanity,’ likely hinting at a 2023 release for Shibarium.
Shibarium is a layer 2 scaling solution being developed by the Shiba Inu team.
Many community members claim that Shibarium is ready now but say that the development team is waiting for the right time to deploy. Others believe it will take longer because the anonymous Shytoshi is a ‘classic procrastinator.’
An unverified screenshot of a Discord message from Shytoshi from January 2022 has been floating around where they claim they would unveil their real identity by the end of the year. But this has yet to occur.
Businesses to Accept Payments in SHIB?
The popularity of Shiba Inu has attracted various businesses to accept payment through the memecoin. Companies like GameStop and Nordstorm accept payments in SHIB via Flexa, while Twitch allows users to support their favorite streamers with the memecoin. NOWPayments, a crypto payment gateway, is pushing for popular subscription services like Netflix and Spotify to accept payments in Shiba Inu.
But this all comes with challenges for businesses amid regulatory uncertainty and a high concentration of Shiba Inu tokens in whale wallets. Nearly 70% of the SHIB supply is controlled by whales that have the potential to damage the price further if they were to sell en masse.
