Dogecoin vs Shiba Inu: who wins as a payment method?

After attracting the attention of many traders and investors in the last period, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are also starting to be accepted as payment methods.

Shiba Inu accepted in a Paris restaurant

For example, yesterday a restaurant in Paris apparently decided to accept Shiba Inu (SHIB) as a payment method. 

CoinMarketCap reports this by referring to a video shared on Facebook showing two “SHIBA INU accepted here” stickers on the window of Le Bistrot d’Eleonore et Maxence.

In reality, this is not a particularly relevant news item, because there are tens of thousands of restaurants in Paris, and one example does not make a difference. 

The price of Shiba Inu (SHIB)

However, it seems that this news was enough to send the price of SHIB soaring that it reached a new all-time high today at 0.058 thousandths of a dollar. 

In fact, the price of SHIB has been rising since last Saturday, almost doubling over the past week. 

The value has increased by 660% in the last 30 days, putting the token in 11th place overall by market cap, behind Dogecoin. 

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu as a means of payment

The use of SHIB tokens as a means of direct payment is actually not widespread. That is, merchants who accept it are still rare exceptions, and are often motivated mainly by marketing reasons, considering the hype surrounding Shiba Inu in the crypto sector these days. 

Even Dogecoin is only rarely accepted as a direct payment method, but it is much more widespread than Shiba Inu. 

To date, it is not possible to say that DOGE or SHIB are really usable as means of payment, except in rare exceptions, which in the case of SHIB are even rarer. 

Bitcoin is still the most widely accepted cryptocurrency in the world as a means of payment, mainly due to its legal tender in El Salvador, followed by ETH and stablecoins. 

Paying in cryptocurrencies with credit cards

There is another aspect to this. It is now possible to easily use many cryptocurrencies, all over the world, to make payments, thanks to Visa or Mastercard that can be powered by crypto.

Certainly using a card that converts crypto into fiat before spending it is another matter than spending it directly by sending it to the seller’s wallet, but the difference between the volumes of payments made with these cards, and those made directly without intermediaries or conversions, is still such that only Bitcoin can be considered really usable as a daily payment method, and only in El Salvador. 

The strong and fast price movements of cryptocurrencies such as Shiba Inu, or Dogecoin, not only make them not particularly interesting means of payment, but show that they are still mainly speculative assets whose main purpose is to allow someone to trade them on the markets in the hope of making a profit. 

This is a feature common to many cryptocurrencies and tokens, not just Shiba Inu or Dogecoin, but while it may make sense for cryptocurrencies that don’t aim to be transactional currencies, it loses credibility for those that do. 

Even for more established cryptocurrencies, such as ETH, it is not easy to find someone who will accept it as a direct payment, but given the existence of fiat cards that can be funded with cryptocurrencies, this problem doesn’t really arise anymore. 

The main difference in this respect is made by Bitcoin in El Salvador due to its legal tender status, which makes it de facto compulsory to accept it as a means of payment for anyone with the ability to cash it.