Shiba Inu (SHIB) probably doesn’t strike most as the preferred crypto for whales, but surprisingly its popularity among whales has led it to becoming the second-largest meme token on the market.
One of these said whales brought a staggering 42 billion SHIB over the weekend (an amount worth approximately $1 million), despite the dip. Though the buyer’s identity remains unknown, this phenomenon is anything but. Join us as we look at the whales making these huge transactions, along with a deep dive into why.
Billions of SHIB are being brought
Data from WhaleStats (a service that tracks the 1000 largest ETH whales) shows that the 42 billion token purchase was made by an anonymous no-name whale on March 5. According to Etherscan, the receiving wallet currently holds a little over $100 million in various tokens, mainly distributed between Tether (USDT), Sand (SAND), and of course Shiba Inu (SHIB).
This purchase isn’t dissimilar to a SHIB transaction made on February 1, in which the 8th-largest whale (according to WhaleStats) ‘Jiraiya’ purchased an extravagant 49.9 billion SHIB tokens.
And what’s more, is that this isn’t just a one-off case every month. Rather, we have whales betting on the meme cryptocurrency practically daily. On WhaleStats rankings, SHIB is consistently in the top 10 most purchased tokens every day and is currently ranked second (only behind ETH) in terms of holdings. It’s safe to say that Ethereum whales are betting on Shiba Inu with little reservation, which only leaves the question of “why?”.
Why are whales buying SHIB?
Future Developments
There’s likely strong optimism regarding Shiba Inu’s upcoming developments. For one, the Shibarium Layer-2 solution, which is a project seeking to lower transaction fees within the Shiba ecosystem. The excitement for Shibarium was only stoked further by recent coverage from The Motley Fool along with the Shibarium Testnet launch last month. SHIB fans are also eagerly awaiting Shiba Inu’s ‘Shiberse’, a metaverse project that is apparently on par with triple-A games.
Whales are probably anticipating that the rollout of these developments will act as a catalyst for widespread adoption down the line, and are therefore buying up as many tokens as they can now.
Affordable Diversification
The importance of diversifying holdings is particularly prevalent within crypto, and it becomes ever more necessary the larger the position. For whales, Shiba Inu is without a doubt a fantastic choice for diversification – at least in terms of cost.
Shiba Inu is a digital token that boasts a far more attractive price than its competitors, and to that, it’s also the lowest it’s been in a long while, having plunged over 70% in the past three months. While Ethereum has experienced some turbulence, it still remains significantly costlier than SHIB, which at the time of writing is only around $0.0000230, the lowest its been since October 2021.
Whale Manipulation
Although the increasing utility and affordability are solid reasons for a bullish attitude, could there actually be a hidden agenda under the surface when it comes to whales?
In late October last year, crypto data firm IntoTheBlock revealed that 70.52% of SHIB’s circulation is controlled by just eight whales, which means all of them made returns of over 800% during SHIB’s October price surge. This is problematic, as they basically have the ability to manipulate the price however they choose to – including putting in huge buy orders (i.e. possibly the 42 billion SHIB token purchase from earlier) to artificially inflate desire for the tokens.
This highlights the importance of remaining cautious when it comes to news about whales purchasing large amounts of SHIB tokens – or any crypto really. In the end, do your own research and focus on the fundamentals, rather than chasing the candles.
