There Are Two Shiba Inu Contingents to Watch to Gauge Price Movement

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Even with the recent selloff, it’s hard to bet against Shiba Inu (CCC:SHIB-USD) and the so-called Shib Army. 

The back of a Shiba Inu puppy in a camping tent

Source: Shutterstock

That selloff took SHIB to record highs and a market capitalization of $51 billion. That surge made it equivalent in value to Korean eCommerce giant Coupang (NYSE:CPNG).

Now that whales have moved their money elsewhere Shiba Inu has been knocked down a peg. It trades at a market cap of $32 billion, making it roughly as valuable as steel giant Nucor (NYSE:NUE) and Enphase Energy (NASDAQ:ENPH), the solar power company. 

I make this comparison for two reasons. The first is to point out the absurdity of Shiba Inu having the same utility – and therefore value – as those aforementioned companies. The second and more important is to note that demand is demand. So, if the Shib Army is behind the cryptocurrency, then its utility is fairly irrelevant. Well, the army and one other group.

Demand Swings

Whether Shiba Inu actually builds utility remains to be seen. Whether that occurs or not, prices will swing based on demand, and there is a group of Shiba Inu holders who have a lot of sway over its price for better or worse. Those are the Shiba Inu whales.

In fact, if I were a part of the Shib Army, I’d be very concerned about the centralization of power within Shiba Inu because it may be that the power of the whales is the most important factor underpinning narratives around the crypto. 

Shiba Inu certainly suffers from the fact that whales, 10 of them, control 71% of its tokens. It was movement from one of the 10 that affected SHIB prices negatively in past days. 

One of those ten whales moved 40 trillion SHIB tokens from one wallet to four separate wallets. That transferral between wallets is generally a precursor to liquidating crypto assets. 

Therefore, real concerns that the whale is going to sell were raised. That triggered the drop in price which correlated to Shiba Inu’s market cap dropping to $33 billion. 

Not only is that concerning from the perspective of immediate prices, but it also raises questions about Shiba Inu and crypto more broadly. After all, isn’t the allure of crypto its decentralized nature and the fact that it isn’t beholden to a centralized power like a central bank? Ten figures controlling 71% of anything is the opposite of decentralized. 

It has to at least be said that whales have as much sway as the Shib Armym but the Shib Army is clear in what they want, and that is a Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) listing.

Robinhood and Shiba Inu

The Shib Army is in full effect in its effort to get SHIB listed on Robinhood. As I write this, their petition on Change.org is just shy of the 500k signatures necessary to bring it to the top petitions on the site. 

If that happens it would be a boon for the ‘other’ dog-inspired cryptocurrency. The Robinhood platform boasts 18.9 million active monthly users. That would surely increase demand for the coin and liquidity as well. 

It would also further pit Shiba Inu against Dogecoin (CCC:DOGE-USD), which has been listed on the platform since 2018. 

According to Newsweek, Robinhood is awaiting more regulatory clarity before it adds newer coins to the platform. That news comes on the heels of an earlier announcement that Kraken had backtracked on its promise to list SHIB if a post of Kraken’s gathered 2,000 likes. That was a mistake.

Within minutes of posting the promise on Monday, Kraken’s tweet easily hit that target. By Tuesday, the post had surpassed the goal and garnered almost 60,000 likes.

Kraken backed out anyway.

What to Do

I think Shiba Inu is clearly going to move up again. There seems to be a concerted effort to make that happen. That is critically important to any crypto project at this point. But remember, there is still a contingent of power players who truly pull the strings. Those whales are what really matters in the bigger picture.

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 Read More: How to Avoid Popular Cryptocurrency Scams

On the date of publication, Alex Sirois did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Alex Sirois is a freelance contributor to InvestorPlace whose personal stock investing style is focused on long-term, buy-and-hold, wealth-building stock picks. Having worked in several industries from e-commerce to translation to education and utilizing his MBA from George Washington University, he brings a diverse set of skills through which he filters his writing.


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