Key Takeaways
SHIB has quietly attracted the attention of whales. Can the memecoin sustain the momentum and deliver a September rally?
Santiment recently flagged Shiba Inu [SHIB] as highly centralized.
In fact, the top ten wallets control a whopping 62% of the 560 trillion tokens in circulation. That’s roughly 347 trillion SHIB sitting in just a handful of wallets. In turn, giving whales serious sway over the market.
Naturally, if these whale wallets start stacking more SHIB, the token could be set for a directional push. With the $0.000015 resistance untested for over a month, a retest above could ignite a breakout rally.
Source: Santiment
Supporting this move, top SHIB whale cohorts have ramped up their holdings since late July, when the coin last hit $0.000015. The largest cohort (1 billion+ tokens) has added nearly 1 trillion SHIB just this month.
That said, it creates a curious setup.
Usually, smart money buying into fear signals a local bottom. Weak hands get shaken out while whales load up. Still, even with heavy whale buying,
Shiba Inu couldn’t crack the $0.000015 ceiling, sparking about a 20% pullback.
SHIB’s fragile market structure comes into focus
SHIB’s resistance is holding, and the market is clearly ask-heavy.
Its latest rebound off $0.000012 on the 25th of August saw around 20 trillion SHIB stacked, marking the fifth bounce off this level since July. In short, solidifying a short-term floor.
Still, $0.000015 hasn’t budged, with three failed break attempts pulling price back to support. At this level, traders realized nearly $9 million in gains, and SHIB’s OI shot past $300 million for the first time since Q1.
Source: CoinGlass
Simply put, even with whales stacking, selling pressure held sway.
The result? Over the next two weeks, SHIB’s Open Interest (OI) slid to $173 million, indicating that profit-taking was dominating the market. As a result, traders closed positions, stalling short-term momentum.
Worth noting, OI is back at early-July levels. If bids don’t absorb the selling pressure, this could mark a fourth failed break of $0.000015, leaving Shiba Inu’s September breakout far from certain.
