The Shiba Inu (SHIB) price slipped by more than 3% on Sunday, erasing some of the gains made on Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole Summit. SHIB’s retreat mirrored moves in bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), suggesting broader market weakness.
However, SHIB’s pullback also came as whale and smart money investors reduced their holdings. According to on-chain data from Nansen, smart money wallets currently hold around 40.42 billion SHIB tokens, down from a July peak of 48.6 billion.
Similarly, whale wallets now hold 45 billion coins, compared to 47.6 billion last month. This reduction signals that large investors remain cautious, especially after SHIB’s 60% decline from November highs.
Shibarium Struggles to Gain Momentum
The broader Shiba Inu ecosystem isn’t providing much optimism either. Shibarium, the project’s layer-2 network, launched in 2023, has seen a decline in adoption. Despite surpassing 1 billion transactions in June, the network’s total value locked (TVL) has dropped to just $1.79 million, with no stablecoin activity recorded.
As of August 24, Shibarium hosts only 17 decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, including WoofSwap, ChewySwap, and DogSwap. While the network was designed to transition Shiba Inu from a meme token into a utility-driven asset, growth has stalled. This leaves investors questioning whether SHIB’s long-term scarcity model, which burns tokens via Shibarium transactions, will gain enough traction to move the price meaningfully. Recall that Shiba Inu burn rate spiked over 16,000% in late July, resulting in over 602 million SHIB tokens being burned.
Shiba Inu Price Analysis and Investor Outlook
From a technical perspective, SHIB’s daily chart shows a symmetrical triangle pattern forming as price consolidates along the 50-day and 100-day EMAs. Volatility has also dropped, reflected in a declining Average True Range (ATR).
Notably, such chart setups often lead to significant breakouts. Particularly, a bullish move could push SHIB to $0.00001600, its highest point since July 22. Meanwhile, a bearish breakdown could drag the price down to $0.00001015, the low reached in June.
On the whole, Shiba Inu faces challenges on two fronts, including reduced whale accumulation and sluggish growth of Shibarium. Until either smart money starts accumulating again or Shibarium attracts stronger adoption, SHIB’s price may remain under pressure.
For retail investors, the key levels to watch remain $0.00001600 on the upside and $0.00001015 on the downside. Any breakout from the current symmetrical triangle could dictate SHIB’s next big move, with Bitget CEO and 25 experts submitting their price SHIB forecasts for 2025.
