In the last 24 hours, Shiba Inu holders were thrown into a panic as the coin experienced a massive drop in whale holdings. The strong sell-off was a late bearish trend following the general market crash that happened on Sunday. The general bearish trend, which was thought to be recovering, has continued for days.
Over the last 24 hours, whales sold off millions of dollars worth of SHIBA tokens. The sell-off means that Shiba Inu is no longer first on the list of coins with the biggest whales. Surprisingly, it only held that position for days; it was just last week that an unknown investor bought billions of the meme coin.
Shiba Inu, built on the Ethereum blockchain, has some of the biggest wallets in the crypto market. This is partially due to its price movement in 2021 that has seen it become one of the best performing coins in the market. Whales have also got aboard Shiba Inu because of its promise of becoming a payment system in the future.
Dwindling Confidence?
A number of retail investors were wiped out as the whales went on a selling spree. It is important to note that the present market crash is the third-biggest crash in 2021 and Shiba Inu whales decided to sell off a massive amount of the token shortly after the market started recovering. According to the data, which was supplied by WhaleStats tracking service, whales dumped over $400 million worth of SHIBA in 24 hours.
Although the market sentiment for SHIBA is still confident, one cannot help but ask if the whales have lost confidence in the potential of the coin. The other explanation is that the whales were in and out for quick profits and had no plans for long-term holding. Whatever it is, the Shiba Inu community remains positive on the coin which still retains a respectable piece of the entire market cap.
Another reason that might have far-reaching implications is that the US regulators may be finally ready to regulate crypto. Regulatory concerns have increased in the last three months and played a factor in the crash that saw bitcoin lose 20% in a few hours. But on its price chart, analysts noted that SHIBA had been moving towards a slight price correction.
SHIBA Price Movement
As seen on TradingView, Shiba Inu formed a weak reversal pattern, but the price managed to keep a weak bullish trend for a little while longer. On the 4-Hour chart, Shiba Inu shows a slow but steady decline since it hit its all-time high in November. Since then, the coin has been generally bearish but hit new local weekly highs.
Analysts have identified retail bullish traders as the reason why Shiba Inu has held on to some healthy price movement despite the presence of bullish whales. With whales now selling off their SHIBA holdings, the coin might experience some price correction before it picks up in the new year.