- Shiba Inu’s long-delayed SHI stablecoin is on hold due to unclear U.S. algorithmic stablecoin regulations.
- Progress on U.S. stablecoin laws is accelerating, with the GENIUS and STABLE Acts advancing through Congress and bipartisan support growing.
- SHI’s launch is expected once regulatory clarity is achieved, as developers continue testing to avoid past failures like TerraUSD.
SHI, the project’s center-pegged algorithmic stablecoin, is the subject of a long-awaited explanation over the delay from the lead developer in the Shiba Inu ecosystem, Kaal Dhairya.
SHI is being rolled out by the Shiba Inu community, a concept that was first pitched in 2021 during an ecosystem expansion. The development roadmap at the time consisted of some different projects, such as the SHI stablecoin, a collectible card game (CCG), and a reward token.
Four years later and the team has succeeded in a few parts of that roadmap, having sent out the Shiba Eternity video game or TREAT tokens. But the release date for the SHI stablecoin back in 2022 has passed, and only a trickle of updates on the project has been reported in recent years. People living in the community are becoming more concerned and speculating on this silence.
Stablecoin Progress Stalls as SHI Awaits U.S. Clarity
When asked to comment on the mounting queries, Dhairya had recently disclosed that the SHI project is held back due to the absence of specific regulatory guidelines for stable coins. He explained that the team decided to wait until stable coin regulations become more rigid, which could imply that the SHI stable coin may roll out only once the regulatory landscape is figured out.
At the same time, it looks like the United States is landing on the brink of a major milestone in stablecoin legislation. Congress has seen the filing of two bills that could serve as the GENIUS and STABLE Acts, each aimed at introducing robust federal regulation for dollar-pegged stablecoins. These bipartisan proposals are already yielding victory: the GENIUS Act passed the Senate Banking Committee on an 18-6 margin, STABLE bill passed the House Financial Services Committee on a 32-17 vote.
Both bills are now moving ahead in their chambers. Instead, the provisions must pass, and then lawmakers are expected to merge the provisions into one piece of unified legislation that will be sent in for approval by the U.S president. But President Donald Trump, a prominent champion of stablecoins backed by the dollar, is expected to sign the measure into law, saying a nascent digital currency can spur the dollar and expand its sway globally.
SEC Clarifies Stablecoin Status as SHI Readies for Launch
Most stablecoins do not seem to be securities under the recent clarification by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, therefore are not covered by the Commission’s jurisdiction. This further momentum to the legislative push is due to this regulatory clarification.
Regarding SHI, the token is meant to be an algorithmic stablecoin for the U.S. dollar at $0.01 per unit. The top marketing official of Shiba Inu, Lucie, stated last year that the team hadn’t reached the point of finalizing a mechanism to uphold SHI’s $0.01 peg.
Although there is no official release date announcement, SHI has been thoroughly tested internally by the developers. The idea is to protect the project against vulnerabilities that led to the downfall of other algorithmic stablecoins such as TerraUSD (UST).
The launch of SHI depends on establishing the supporting regulatory atmosphere, and it seems that this is an opportunity—recall that U.S. legislation is advancing for a federal stablecoin regime.
