Shiba Inu (SHIB), a dog-inspired meme coin, originally dismissed by many as just another fleeting fad, is now drawing serious attention from big players, or “whales,” in the crypto space. This attention comes amid the tokens’ recent sloppy launch of its other project, Shibarium.
Blockchain security team Beosin recently reported that the newly deployed Shibarium platform has had transactions stalled in a pending state, tying up approximately 1,003 ether, equivalent to $1.8 million in locked funds.
🚨Transactions on #Shibarium are stuck in a pending state.
$1.7M are currently locked on ETH.Users are advised to temporarily stop using shibarium.https://t.co/io5puAibBc https://t.co/q2SXqtthoO
— Beosin Alert (@BeosinAlert) August 17, 2023
This sloppy launch has affected the SHIB token negatively seeing the tokens’ price decline by nearly 10% over the past 24 hours. However, despite this plunge whales are reportedly still making moves on Shiba Inu.
Shiba Inu Whale Activity Surges
According to Santiment, a prominent blockchain data firm, there has been a noticeable increase in transaction activity by whales across several digital currencies, including SHIB and XRP.
🐳 As the crowd feels the pain, there are several assets seeing an increase in whale activity. As they attempt to capitalize on the discounted prices, read about the four projects we’re seeing some notable activity rises: $SHIB, $XRP, $SAND, & $CAKE https://t.co/SnuKebg7h1 pic.twitter.com/VWKlH95yU0
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) August 17, 2023
Specifically, for Shiba Inu, the numbers are compelling. Santiment’s data shows that there’s been a surge in transfers of SHIB valued at $1 million or higher.
According to Santiment, a possible reason for the increase in whale activity could be that these large investors are attempting to “capitalize on discount prices” of Shiba Inu and the other cryptocurrencies recording a surge in whale activity
Furthermore, this uptick in activity closely follows significant events in the Shiba Inu ecosystem, particularly the mainnet launch of Shibarium, which could be another contributing factor.
Shibarium represents a crucial advancement for the SHIB community and its broader ecosystem. And though its launch didn’t go as planned, its introduction likely plays a role in attracting these large investors and traders to SHIB, looking to capitalize on new opportunities brought about by the platform’s capabilities.
SHIB Declines Nearly 10% In The Past Day
Over the past 24 hours, Shiba Inu has been in red regardless of the surging whale activity. Particularly, the dog-inspired meme coin has recorded a loss of 9.9% over this period and with a current market price of $0.0000087, at the time of writing.
This plunge is also reflected in the asset’s market capitalization which has seen a substantial loss of more than $600 million in the past day. Interestingly, despite the blood bath, Shiba Inu’s daily trading volume has remained resilient.
Over the past day, SHIB’s trading volume has hovered above $450 million and currently stands at a value of $461 million at the time of writing.
Featured image from Unsplash, Chart from TradingView