Key moments

• SHIB has experienced substantial price fluctuations, mirroring the wider cryptocurrency market’s volatility, with a notable decline in recent weeks.
• A significant SHIB transaction involving nearly 174.6 billion tokens, deposited into a Coinbase hot wallet, has raised questions about the holder’s motives.
• The timing and nature of the whale’s activity, including a potential loss, have fueled speculation about market conditions and potential insider knowledge.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) Sees Volatility Amid Market Downturn and Whale Activity

Shiba Inu (SHIB), a prominent meme coin, has navigated a turbulent period alongside the broader cryptocurrency market. With Bitcoin’s dramatic swing from a January peak of $110,000 to below $84,000 in early March, SHIB experienced a significant price decline, touching $0.000013. Despite this volatility, some analysts maintain a bullish outlook, forecasting a potential 118% surge in SHIB’s value.

Over the past 30 days, SHIB has registered a decline exceeding 23%, according to CoinMarketCap data. In the last week alone, the token shed nearly 12%, struggling to find stability amidst challenging market conditions. As of February 25, 2025, SHIB was trading at $0.00001410, reflecting a 3.37% daily increase.

Intriguing on-chain data from Arkham Intelligence reveals a substantial SHIB whale transaction. Approximately 174.6 billion SHIB, valued at around $2.53 million, was deposited into a Coinbase hot wallet from the address “0x45492” just 10 hours ago. The motivation behind this significant transfer remains unclear.

Notably, this substantial SHIB holding was accumulated only two weeks prior, including withdrawals from Coinbase itself, raising questions about the wallet’s ownership. The lack of prior transaction history for this address adds to the mystery. The wallet’s activity—withdrawing 175 billion SHIB from Coinbase, holding it for two weeks, and then returning it at an estimated $100,000 loss—is particularly unusual.

The recent market rebound may have offered a timely exit, allowing the whale to offload their holdings without incurring a total loss. The timing, however, is perplexing, exhibiting a precision that suggests intent but lacking the smoothness of a strategic maneuver.