Shiba Inu Pumps 2X: Are You Late to the $SHIB Rally?

Last week, it was PEPE sparking the meme coin market frenzy. This week, the second-largest meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB) is leading the pack.

Over the past seven days, as of March 5, 2024, dog-themed $SHIB gained nearly 280% to cement its place in the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies and one of the most prominent meme coins as well as one of the most popular shitcoins in the world.

In this article, we analyze Shiba Inu’s price movement and decipher whether it is too late to profit from the high-flying SHIB token.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. Meme Coin Market Frenzy: The Perfect Speculative Asset?
3. Shib Token Price Analysis: Funds Move From Pepe to Shib
4. Shiba Inu Outlook: Are You Late to the Shib Party?
5. The Bottom Line

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. Meme Coin Market Frenzy: The Perfect Speculative Asset?
3. Shib Token Price Analysis: Funds Move From Pepe to Shib
Show Full Guide
4. Shiba Inu Outlook: Are You Late to the Shib Party?
5. The Bottom Line

Meme Coin Market Frenzy: The Perfect Speculative Asset?

Bitcoin (BTC) may be grabbing the news headlines lately with its move towards all-time highs, but it’s meme coins that are capturing retail investor attention due to their potential to provide outsized gains in a short period of time.

Take a look at the price action of various cryptocurrencies in the past 30 days for reference, according to CoinMarketCap as of March 5, 2024:

The table above shows that the top three meme coins have outperformed big crypto names like BTC, ETH and SOL by a wide margin over the last month. Arguably, there is no financial asset in this world that can post absurd returns in such short periods of time as meme coins.

PEPE’s mouth-watering 748% gains in the last one-month period were borderline ludicrous. No wonder many crypto traders are flocking to meme coins to make a quick buck, well-knowing the high volatility and market risks involved.

A pseudonymous crypto enthusiast called artchick.eth aptly expressed the meme coin investor viewpoint by calling them “perfect speculative assets.”

Memecoins are becoming a crypto liquidity black hole

In previous bull runs capital was over-allocated into all sorts of altcoins as investors craved more risk – there was even something called Dentacoin that in 2018 went to $1.6B, a coin for dentists or something

This cycle we…

— artchick.eth 🔥👠 (@digitalartchick) March 2, 2024

Shib Token Price Analysis: Funds Move From Pepe to Shib

When PEPE ushered in the meme coin frenzy in February 2024, it was outperforming older, bigger meme coins Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu by a large margin. For reference, PEPE posted a monthly gain of 197% in February 2024, Binance data showed, while DOGE and SHIB posted gains of 49% and 40%, respectively, during the same period.

However, as the month of February 2024 closed, we saw crypto whales with large exposures to PEPE take profits and change their position to then-underperforming SHIB.

According to blockchain data firm Lookonchain, a whale sold their entire PEPE holding worth $6.07 million on February 29, 2024. The whale later bought SHIB worth $893K the same day using their PEPE winnings.

The same whale used the rest of their PEPE profits to gain exposure to other tokens, including Decentraland’s MANA, The Sandbox’s SAND, and GALA.

A smart whale changed his position from $PEPE to $SHIB, $MANA, $SAND, and $GALA.

The whale sold all 1.97T $PEPE($6.07M) and made a profit of $3.49M.

Then bought 75.9B $SHIB($893K), 1.6M $MANA($1.07M), 2.43M $SAND($1.48M) and 36.88M $GALA($1.46M).https://t.co/TsQgABvjIt pic.twitter.com/PbWGVtOVOZ

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 1, 2024

The shift of capital into Shiba Inu, its reputation as a popular meme coin that surged in the 2021 bull run and its token listing across major crypto exchanges, including Coinbase and Robinhood has helped the SHIB token more than double its price in the first five days of March 2024.

Now, the price surge has prompted investors to take profits from their SHIB trade. Among the SHIB profit takers was the top Shiba Inu holder and Tron (TRX) blockchain founder Justin Sun, who sold SHIB tokens worth over $600K over the three days, on-chain data showed.

Meanwhile, a crypto trader withdrew $1.93 million worth of SHIB tokens that had been staked for over two-and-a-half years. The trader deposited their entire SHIB holding on Coinbase on March 5, 2024, suggesting that he could book profits on it soon.

This trader spent only 1.51 $ETH($2,521) to buy 49.8B $SHIB($1.93M currently) in 2021!

After 2.6 years of staking, he withdrew all 40.5B $SHIB($1.58M) and deposited it into #Coinbase 30 mins ago.

If he sells, he will make ~$1.58M, a gain of 628x!https://t.co/oE4sETZwa4 pic.twitter.com/4O7cxM6PRB

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 5, 2024

Shiba Inu Outlook: Are You Late to the Shib Party?

There is a common saying in the world of investing: “If it’s in the news, it’s too late.” Could it be that you reading this article is a signal that you are too late to profit from the Shiba Inu rally?

Well, the world of crypto investing is erratic and unpredictable. Take PEPE as an example. The frog-themed meme coin scaled a new all-time high on March 4, 2024, despite seeing increased selling pressure at the start of the month.

Could we see SHIB surging higher in the coming days as well?

Tony Severino, a CMT candidate, technical analyst, and the author of the CoinChartist VIP newsletter, told Techopedia:

“SHIB is currently showing its second consecutive week of surging prices. The high volume breakout combined with a growing weekly average directional index suggests the trend is only strengthening further and will continue for near-term future.”

Whether the rally continues is yet to be seen, but it doesn’t hurt to diversify and look to other meme coins that could outperform a token that has had a run-up in the market.

Data compiled by crypto analytic firm Nansen suggested that “smart money” is moving away from SHIB, as of March 5, 2024.

Nansen labels “smart money” as crypto wallet addresses that have “a proven history of making savvy investment decisions and being one step ahead of the game.”

According to Nansen, SHIB has seen a net “smart money” outflow of $4.37 million over the last 24 hours, as of March 5, 2024. The meme coin has also lost about 2,458 unique holders over the last 24 hours.

But where is the “smart money” flowing to, you ask? According to Nansen, the meme coin projects that have attracted “smart money” over the last 24 hours were:

The Bottom Line

The main difference between meme coin investing and Bitcoin investing is the lack of a “HODL” culture in the former. Meme coin investors are active in the market for the sole purpose of making profits. Therefore, the churn in meme coin token holders is typically high compared to BTC and ETH holders.

In contrast to the harmless appearance of meme coins, the meme coin market is home to rational and cut-throat crypto traders. Newcomers are advised to invest in meme coins with caution. Meme coins are highly volatile and risky cryptocurrencies. Most meme coin projects enjoy a short period of fame and may become irrelevant after the market loses interest in them.