Shiba Inu, once a standout in the cryptocurrency world, garnered significant attention as one of the most popular meme coins. However, recent market movements have seen its fortunes decline, particularly as Bitcoin (BTC) dropped from an intraday high of $62,000 to below $60,000. This downturn in Bitcoin has had a ripple effect across the crypto market, impacting the demand and performance of various tokens, including Shiba Inu. The volatility in the broader market has raised concerns about the sustainability of Shiba Inu’s earlier gains, with traders and investors closely watching its next moves.
Shiba Inu faces dwindling demand and falling open interest, but technical indicators hint at a possible recovery.
Examining the coin’s volume data reveals that demand for Shiba Inu has been tepid in recent days. In the spot market, Shiba Inu recorded a 24-hour trading volume of $321 million, which is relatively modest for a cryptocurrency boasting an $8.2 billion market cap.
In comparison, Floki (FLOKI), with a market cap of $1.2 billion, achieved a 24-hour volume of $320 million, while Pepe (PEPE) and Dogwifhat (WIF) saw volumes of $1.7 billion and $1 billion, respectively.
A similar trend was observed in the futures market. Data from CoinGlass shows that Shiba Inu’s open interest dropped to just $22 million on August 9, down from a July peak of $53 million. Back in March, the open interest had reached over $114 million.
Most of Shiba Inu’s futures open interest is concentrated on OKX, a leading centralized crypto exchange. Unlike major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Shiba Inu’s open interest on other large exchanges like Binance, Bybit, and Deribit is not reflected in CoinGlass data.
Interest in Shiba Inu among traders has waned over the past few years as many have shifted their focus to newer tokens like Pepe, WIF, Bonk, and Popcat. Consequently, Shiba Inu’s price is currently about 70% below its March high and 85% below its all-time peak.
Other aspects of the Shiba Inu ecosystem are also underperforming. Shibarium, the network’s layer-2 solution, has only attracted $1.2 million in assets, while the total value locked in Shibaswap has declined to $17.45 million.
This downturn represents a significant fall for a cryptocurrency that was once among the industry’s most popular. At its zenith, Shiba Inu had a market cap exceeding $13 billion. Its decline mirrors that of Dogecoin, which has seen its valuation plummet from nearly $90 billion to $15 billion.
On a more optimistic note, technical analysis suggests that the SHIB token has formed a falling wedge pattern on the weekly chart, which could signal a potential bullish breakout later this year.
