Shiba Inu whales accumulate 880 billion SHIB after botched Shibarium launch

• Shiba Inu price recovered from its August 17 low of $0.00000725, the meme coin faces its next hurdle at $0.00000904.
• Shiba Inu developers are set to announce the relaunch date for Layer 2 Shibarium after its botched mainnet launch. 
• Whales added 880 billion SHIB tokens to their holdings in the past ten days, while the token’s supply on exchanges declined.

Shiba Inu Layer 2 scaling solution Shibarium is gearing up for a relaunch of the protocol after the mainnet launch on August 17 got botched. SHIB investors lost 1,000 Ethereum tokens and nearly 600,000 BONE (a Shiba Inu ecosystem token) on the Shibarium bridge as the protocol was overwhelmed with user activity. 

Shytoshi Kusama, lead developer of Shiba Inu, shared updates of the testing and recovery of Shibarium, and a relaunch of the Layer 2 protocol is likely. In anticipation of the relaunch, large wallet investors have accumulated $7 million in SHIB tokens. This is considered a bullish sign for SHIB price recovery.

Also read: Shibarium “almost ready” to reopen after initial network-related woes

Shiba Inu community prepares for Layer 2 Shibarium relaunch 

The Shiba Inu community, led by lead developer Shytoshi Kusama, is anticipating the relaunch of Shibarium. After a botched mainnet launch on August 17, Kusama announced a $2 million insurance fund to make users whole, and the team continued scaling Shibarium with the help of developers at Unification.

In a recent blog update, Kusama explains that the testing phase is nearly complete and Shibarium is ready to launch for SHIB holders. A close look at Shiba Inu’s on-chain metrics reveals a bullish narrative at play. 

Shiba Inu whales bought 880 billion SHIB tokens since the botched Shibarium launch

Based on data from IntoTheBlock, Shiba Inu’s large wallet investors scooped up 880 billion SHIB tokens, worth $7 million between August 14 and August 24. Accumulation of an asset by whales is typically considered a bullish sign. 

Historical concentration of investors as seen on IntoTheBlock

Alongside whale accumulation, the supply of the meme coin on exchanges has decreased from 82.19 trillion on August 17 to 80.96 trillion, as of Thursday. Based on data from crypto intelligence tracker Santiment, SHIB supply on exchanges is in a steady decline, as seen in the chart below. 

Shiba Inu supply on exchanges (grey) as seen on Santiment 

A reduction in SHIB supply on exchanges decreases selling pressure on the meme coin, supporting its recovery in the short term. 

Shiba Inu price eyes rally to $0.0000117

Shiba Inu price nosedived to its August 17 low of $0.00000725 after the botched Shibarium launch. Since the crash, SHIB price has attempted a recovery. Akash Girimath, a technical analyst at FXStreet, notes that $0.00000904 is the next hurdle faced by SHIB price. According to Girimath, if the SHIB price flips the hurdle into the support floor, it would be a crucial buy signal.

The three-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) sits at the mean level of 50, and Girimath argues that bulls and bears have equal opportunity to control SHIB price movement here.

Bulls could push SHIB price 30% higher to the next hurdle at $0.0000117.

SHIB/USDT perpetual contract three-day price chart on Binance

On the downside, SHIB could revisit its June 18 low of $0.00000713.

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