Big movements in the wallets of "whale" Shiba Inu coin holders have recently been detected, indicating that there may be a possible major sell-off. The coin, which was named after the breed of dog that inspired the meme-coin Dogecoin, has recently become the star of the cryptocurrency world.
Due to the recent popularity of the altcoin, Shiba Inu coin's total market value overtook the value of Dogecoin last week. The coin's more than $51 billion market value has put it among the top 10 largest cryptocurrencies in the world, even though it really doesn't have any fundamental economic value.
As the recent surge cooled off, the coin's value has gone down by about 31%. This sent its total market value to about $35 billion. Now, several cryptocurrency watchers have noticed big movements in the wallets of so-called "whale" holders.
According to CoinMarketCap.com, there are about 872,382 wallets holding Shiba Inu coins. However, about 10 big wallets hold about 72% of all coins available. The website said the largest wallet holds about 41%, which is estimated to be worth about $21 billion at the coin's peak. The second-largest wallet holds about 7%, which is worth around $2.5 billion at current prices.
The recent movements in some of the major wallets have caused some concerns that there could be a major selloff. Cryptocurrency forensics found that there were four major transactions conducted on Wednesday. Each transaction amounted to a transfer of about $695 million worth of Shiba Inu coins each, which total to about $2.78 billion.
Shiba Inu isn't the first coin to raise concerns about high concentrations of ownership. Whales affected Bitcoin and Ethereum prices at first, and their transactions may swing market values.
Since then, as more institutions and ordinary investors have entered the crypto market, their ownership concentration has decreased. According to BitInfoCharts, roughly 2,000 addresses possess more than 40% of total Bitcoin now.
Many areas of the crypto market remain extremely concentrated in terms of coin ownership. Many of the more than 13,500 cryptocurrencies are controlled by a tiny number of wallets.
Despite this, a lack of regulation and official market surveillance makes meme currencies like Shiba Inu suspect, even as their price rises and they reach a wider, mainstream audience. While it's accessible for trading on Coinbase's platform, other exchanges, such as Kraken and Robinhood, have so far refused, despite client pressure.
