After three months of steady growth and according to CoinMarketCap data, the number of SHIB crypto holders has dropped by 32,832.
Declining interest
From March 16 to March 17, according to CoinMarketCap data, the number of unique addresses on the Shiba Inu network fell from 1,199,453 to 1,166,621, consistent with the reduction in on-chain transactions on the network for the fourth consecutive month. From January to February 2022, the number of on-chain transactions actually fell from 283,268 to 257,003.
According to Google Trends, the number of users searching for the term “Buy Shiba Inu Coin” on Google decreased from a peak of 100 on November 30, 2021 to 3 on February 2022. Between January 28 and February 3, 2022, SHIB lost 4,223 addresses, which went from 1,161,662 to 1,157,438. This ended a three-month rise in the crypto’s holders, and one that began in November.
Analytics platform IntoTheBlock suggests that 95% of its holders have owned the SHIB token between one month and 12 months, indicating bullish sentiment over the long term, while short-term sentiment appears bearish. Finally, 79% of all SHIBs in circulation are held by large holders, who accumulate the equivalent of $100,000 or more.
The use of Shiba Inu
Shiba Inu is a token designed on the Ethereum network, which means that its usefulness can be enhanced by using smart contracts for decentralized financial applications. SHIB developers also launched a decentralized exchange (DEX) called ShibaSwap in the summer of 2021, offering its holders the ability to contribute to liquidity through staking and earn interest on their placed tokens.
However, SHIB sales in the market, such as the one made by Vitalik Buterin, force recipients to sell the token, which lowers its price. Only when its burn rate increases beyond supply will it regain value.
Venture capitalists are betting everything on Bitcoin
The drop in interest in memecoin may indicate that crypto traders are reducing their investments in a riskier asset. This is because SHIB’s risk lies in the fact that the smart contract code behind DEX is open to scrutiny, unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, both of which have codebases open to editing. There is evidence that long-term holders have been accumulating BTC, with the amount held peaking at 11.7 million assets on March 17, 2022, the same day that Shiba Inu lost more than 30,000 users. This could indicate that long-term investors would rather bet on BTC than SHIB.
The Turkish Minister of Economy, for his part, has shown interest in the dog-headed token, despite the significant decline in its price since its all-time high on October 28, 2021. Indeed, he discussed its adoption with a member of Turkey’s “SHIB army”, as well as with other Turkish parliamentarians.
