The performance of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu This cycle has been disappointing for investors, who have waited years for the possibility of new all-time highs. Nevertheless, these two remain the largest meme coins by market capitalization and are often the first stop for investors looking to enter the meme market. Using predictions from the CoinCodex machine learning algorithm, this report will focus on the two leading meme coins and which one could yield the most returns in 2026.
Dogecoin could be a better investment than Shiba Inu
Since the beginning of the year 2026, both Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have struggled as their prices failed to show any significant recovery. But even this hasn’t deterred expectations that meme coins will recover. According to the CoinCodex website, both Dogecoin and Shiba Inu will see double-digit gains this year, but one will perform better than the other.
Related reading
Looking at the prediction for Shiba InuIt shows that the highest point the meme coin could reach this year is at $0.000009277. Although this is a 56.90% increase from current levels, it is still more than 80% below the all-time high price of $0.00008.
Since this is the highest the meme coin is expected to reach, investing in Shiba Inu could at best only deliver a 50% return on investment if bought at this level. While this is a reasonable return, it pales in comparison to where the algorithm predicts Dogecoin could be in the same period.
Similar to Shiba Inu, Dogecoin’s recovery is expected to start slowly. However, the algorithm predicts that the rally will pick up towards the end of the year. In contrast to Shiba Inu’s highest return of just 56.90%, the algorithm predicts that the Dogecoin price would rise by 124.71% in the third quarter of the year.
Related reading
This means that investing in Dogecoin could ultimately double investments when purchased at current levels. Not only this, the algorithm predicts that the rest of the year will be green not only for Dogecoin, but also for Shiba Inu, suggesting that 2026 could be the year of recovery for the crypto asset.
For now, however, both Dogecoin and Shiba Inu continue to struggle without any sign of recovery. This is largely due to the poor performance of Bitcoin, which is on the verge of crashing below $60,000, sending the crypto market into another bear cycle.
Featured image of Dall.E, chart from TradingView.com