SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) - It's risky, volatile, it attracts the attention of a lot of people around the world, and right here in Utah, it's launching into the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency.
When scrolling through your social media feeds, you've probably seen something about Shiba Inu or SHIB for short.
"It's something that people see as an opportunity, a buying opportunity to basically change their lives," says Yosiah Solk of GGM Investments.
Solk says that he knows what life changes in cryptocurrencies, adding: "I'm 24 years old now and I've been in this space for five and a half years, and I'm a billionaire."
But even he is waving the caution flag.
"Just because they see it on Twitter and they see it on YouTube, whatever it is on Facebook, you really need to do your research before investing your hard-earned money," he says. "It's crazy, you know, it's a meme token."
โThe pay can be astronomical as long as it keeps going up. When is it going to collapse, no one knows? โSays Salt Lake Community College Business School professor Lon Schiffbauer.
You get students asking you about crypto all the time, and there are tens of thousands of them.
โEven if we say that cryptocurrencies will have a long-term future in our economy, what? The vast majority of them will disappear, โsays Schiffbauer. โThe truth is that cryptocurrencies are an economic bubble. This is a speculative bubble. "
The professor says that other examples of speculative bubbles include the real estate market and the Internet.
Experts said SHIB soared more than 30 percent in 24 hours on Wednesday, breaking all-time highs. And that generates a lot of concern.
โWe all suffer to some degree from FOMO, fear of missing something, and memes really hang onto that because they really tell you on a new level: Am I missing this? Am I the only person who is not investing? "says Schiffbauer." It's like any other investment, with the reward comes the risk. "
If you are thinking about investing, Schiffbauer recommends being careful with MEMES and recognizing that cryptocurrency is volatile.
"Understand that some fool is going to be sitting there with a bunch of worthless nothing until this levels off and becomes reasonable," he says.
Advisers say there is no get-rich-quick plan and that you should talk to a financial advisor about your money and investments. Most of ABC4 News talked to let's say starting with index funds.
