Shiba Inu Faces 18% Plunge—Yet Whales Gobble Up More. What’s Their Play?

Market jitters hit Shiba Inu as analysts flag an 18% downside risk—but crypto whales aren’t blinking. They’re doubling down.

Why the confidence? Either they’ve got insider alpha or they’re playing a long game the retail crowd can’t see. Or, you know, they’re just addicted to volatility like the rest of us.

Meanwhile, traditional finance folks clutch their pearls. ‘Irresponsible speculation!’ they cry—right before checking their own stagnant bond portfolios.

Whales participation skyrockests

According to IntoTheBlock, SHIB transaction counts in the $100K–$1M range jumped 175.86% in the past 24 hours. The $10K–$100K bracket also saw a 147.79% spike.

In contrast, smaller transactions, linked to retailers, tumbled. The $10–$100 and $100–$1K bands fell 69.62% and 21.10%, respectively.

Clearly, retail is exiting, while whales are buying the dip.

Source: IntoTheBlock

This surge in whale transactions, alongside the significant decline in retail transactions, comes at a time when the memecoin was sinking.

It indicated that whales are taking advantage of the price dip, while retailers appear to be panic-selling.

At press time, SHIB was trading NEAR $0.0000124 and had registered a price decline of over 7.50% in the past 24 hours.

During the same period, traders and investors found themselves fearful and avoided participation, resulting in a 10% drop in the recorded trading volume.

Shiba Inu price action and technical analysis 

AMBCrypto’s analysis suggests that if SHIB closes a daily candle below $0.00001240, it could continue to decline, potentially dropping 18% in the coming days.

Source: TradingView

On the other hand, if the SHIB memecoin sustains itself above the $0.00001240 level, a price reversal is also possible, and the asset may see a price jump of 18%, repeating its earlier pattern and history.

Amid the market uncertainty, SHIB has fallen below the 200 Exponential Moving Average (EMA) on the daily timeframe, indicating that the asset is in a downtrend.

Traders’ eyes on short positions 

Meanwhile, CoinGlass data showed traders are stacking short positions aggressively.

Around $0.00001306, cumulative short liquidations now stand at $942K, compared to just $612K in long liquidations.

Source: CoinGlass

This imbalance shows strong downside bias. If the price slips further, short pressure could cascade into more selling.

Given the current market structure and on-chain metrics, the bearish outlook seems to be on the verge of execution.