Some crypto stories read more like a movie script than real life. One of the most striking belongs to an early Shiba Inu (SHIB) backer who placed roughly $13,000 on the project and, at one point, was sitting on nearly $8.9 billion. This was not a seasoned trader or a finance expert, just an ordinary investor who happened to bet right at the right moment.
Shiba Inu launched in August 2020 and quickly came to be seen as a meme coin built to challenge Dogecoin. Within months of going live, it posted six-digit percentage gains. Even people who put in tiny sums walked away with enormous profits, which is exactly why fans started calling the project a 'millionaire-maker.' Plenty of folks with little or no trading and investing background made millions of dollars, and some quit their day jobs entirely.
How $13,000 Turned Into $8.9 Billion
This long-time holder invested $13,000 in the earliest days of the project. When Shiba Inu touched its all-time high of $0.00008616 in October 2021, that modest stake had ballooned into $8.9 billion. Over the past few years, though, SHIB's price has taken a heavy beating.
On 30th April 2026, the whale sold around 800 billion SHIB tokens worth roughly $4.9 million. Even after that sale, Arkham data shows the investor still holds approximately $625 million in Shiba Inu tokens.
Can You Still Strike It Rich With the Meme Coin?
Shiba Inu became hugely popular with younger investors hoping to make it big in crypto on a small budget. Many were drawn in by the dazzling 2021 rally, but the trouble was that most of them bought in right at the top. CoinGecko data shows SHIB is currently down by nearly 95% from its peak, which means the majority of holders are nursing steep losses right now.
One of the biggest triggers behind the 2021 surge was Vitalik Buterin's token burn. The Ethereum co-founder received half of SHIB's entire supply after the launch. Buterin chose to burn 90% of the coins handed to him, which caused a sudden and sharp drop in circulating supply. Strong demand colliding with that abrupt supply squeeze sent the price soaring.
Shiba Inu still has about 589 trillion coins in circulation today. Another Buterin-scale burn looks unlikely. Given the enormous supply and the weak demand of the moment, it is hard to see SHIB repeating its 2021 bull run.
