While the number of Shiba Inu (SHIB) coin holders has been steadily increasing over the last three months, the decentralized token just saw a significant loss of over 32,000 holders in a single day.
According to CoinMarketCap data, the number of SHIB holders decreased by 32,832 on Friday, following a steady three-month climb.
Between March 17 and 18, the number decreased from 1,199,452 to 1,166,620. Figures show earlier this month that the volume of Shiba Inu token on-chain transactions has decreased for the fourth consecutive month.
Between January and February 2022, this number decreased by 9.27%, from 283,267 to 257,002.
Shiba Inu Keyword Search Down
Additionally, Google interest in the keyword “Buy Shiba Inu coin” has been declining, with the Google Trends score dropping from 100 on November 30, 2021, to only 3 on February 28, implying a 97% decline in interest during this period.
Shiba Inu coin — created anonymously in August 2020 under the pseudonym “Ryoshi” as the “Dogecoin Killer” – shed 4,222 addresses from 1,161,661 to 1,157,437, ending a three-month increase in holders that unfurled in November.
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According to analytics platform IntoTheBlock, 95% of holders of SHIB have held the stock for between one and 12 months, showing a bullish long-term mood, while short-term sentiment is gloomy.
Almost 80% of all SHIB in circulation are held by individuals with a net worth of $100,000 or more.
SHIB total market cap at $13.34 billion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com
Crypto Traders Losing Interest In Risky Assets
The first signs of declining interest in Shiba Inu emerged in early February, when the meme cryptocurrency lost over 4,000 holding addresses between January 28 and February 3, 2022.
The decline in interest could signal that cryptocurrency traders are reducing their exposure to a risky asset.
SHIB’s risk stems from the fact that the smart contract code underlying the DEX is publicly accessible, in contrast to Bitcoin and Ethereum, which both have publicly accessible codebases.
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There is evidence that long-term holders have been amassing Bitcoin, with the total amount held reaching 11.7 million BTC on March 17, 2022, the same day SHIB lost almost 30,000 subscribers.
This could signal that long-term investors are hedging their bets against SHIB in favor of BTC.
SHIB was trading at $0.00002224 at the time of writing, down 0.045% from the previous week’s close of $0.00002225. Market capitalization for the coin is at $12.21 billion.
Meanwhile, despite the asset’s recent price decrease, the Turkish Minister of Economy expressed interest in the meme currency, considering its adoption with a member of Turkey’s “SHIB army” and other Turkish Parliament officials.
Featured image from Yahoo News UK, chart from TradingView.com