• Shiba Inu price is rising amid ETF speculation and whale accumulation signs.
• Shibarium activity has, however, plunged 82%, weakening token utility and burns.
• Key support at $0.0000095 could decide SHIB’s short-term direction.

Shiba Inu price has bounced back following a wave of renewed institutional attention sparked by crypto ETF speculation, though its long-term outlook remains mixed.

The SHIB token has climbed 3% today, outpacing the broader crypto market’s 2.03% gain, as traders reacted to T. Rowe Price’s proposed $1.6 trillion Active Crypto ETF filing — a move that officially lists Shiba Inu among potential holdings.

Despite the short-term rebound, the broader memecoin trend still shows signs of strain, with on-chain weakness, declining network activity, and lingering security concerns tempering optimism about a sustainable recovery.

Beneath the headlines, supply and liquidity metrics paint a more cautious picture.

Exchange reserves have also fallen sharply after an 84.55 trillion token decline from September 2024 to September 2025.

Such a supply shock often foreshadows short-term spikes as available sell pressure thins, but those same withdrawals raise volatility risk and can amplify swings if whales decide to redeploy balances into markets rather than hold.

Whales, Shibarium and the possibility of dropping another ‘zero’

Technical indicators tell a nuanced story.

SHIB found support near the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement and bounced from a key area around $0.0000095–$0.0000098, with the RSI sitting near 30 and the MACD histogram recently turning positive.

Short-term projections point to $0.00001078 and higher if buyers can clear immediate resistance at the 7-day and 30-day SMAs.

However, resistance remains stiff, and the 200-day and 30-day moving averages present obstacles that could stall rallies.

At the same time, on-chain fundamentals and development metrics limit conviction.

Shibarium activity cratered in October after a reported 82% decline in daily transactions, undercutting burn mechanics and utility-driven demand.

Token burn totals collapsed from tens of millions earlier in the week to just 2.57 million SHIB on October 31.

Combined with falling whale holdings and low open interest, that deterioration makes a sustained, ETF-fueled rally less certain and raises the possibility that SHIB might slide another decimal place if market conditions sour.

Compounding the uncertainty is a security incident: multiple signer keys associated with ShibaSwap appear compromised, and estimated losses approached $2.8 million in that event.

The project’s community response and any follow-up audits will be closely watched, because governance and custody issues can quickly sap institutional appetite for memecoins despite ETF windows.

Key Shiba Inu price levels to watch

Short-term traders should focus on whether SHIB can hold the $0.0000095 support and reclaim the $0.0000102–$0.0000109 zone on stronger volume.

On the other hand, longer-term traders should watch ETF progress, on-chain activity, and governance fixes to gauge whether Shiba Inu can move past its memecoin label and attract meaningful institutional flows.

A failure to cement technical gains or to restore Shibarium utility could mean SHIB slips toward another decimal decline, even as crypto ETFs keep the narrative alive.

The post Shiba Inu price forecast: SHIB could drop further amid the crypto ETF buzz appeared first on CoinJournal.

The Shiba Inu open interest has been one of the worst-performing among the top cryptocurrencies by market cap in the year 2025. While there has been a general increase in open interest across the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum, pulling the market up with them, Shiba Inu has not followed this trajectory. Instead, the meme coin’s open interest has crashed significantly, making new 2025 lows in the process.

Shiba Inu Open Interest Crashes Below $100 Million

At the start of the year, on January 16, 2025, the Shiba Inu open interest had hit a new all-time high above $519 million despite the SHIB price action remaining relatively muted. It wasn’t long until the open interest began to decline, and it has been mostly downhill from there since.

By the start of February 2025, the Shiba Inu open interest had crashed by more than 50%, recording one of the sharpest declines in the market. However, the open interest had managed to stay above the 2024 lows as the SHIB price fluctuations kept traders interested.

Now, however, the majority of the open interest that was seen in Shiba Inu at the start of the year is almost completely gone. Data from the Coinglass website shows that the open interest has now fallen below $100 million for the first time in 2025, marking a new yearly low.

The current average of around $89 million translates to an over 80% decline in the last 9 months, painting a similar picture to the alt coin’s price, which is down 88% from its 2021 all-time highs. As this decline continues, it continues to impact the price, affecting its ability to stage a meaningful recovery.

SHIB Could Be At A Pivotal Point

As mentioned above, the last time that the Shiba Inu open interest was this low was back in 2024, but the interesting thing is that periods of low interest have often preceded some of the biggest moves. Back in August 2024, the Shiba Inu open interest had fallen to its lowest levels since 2023, but the next three months would see a rapid increase in both interest and price.

Times of low interest, such as these, have often been breeding grounds for accumulation ahead of the next move. Thus, the Shiba Inu open interest dropping to yearly lows could be setting the stage for another price rally.

Shiba Inu’s effort to grow beyond being a meme coin is struggling. Its blockchain network, Shibarium, was created to bring real use and value to the project, but it has not gained much attention or activity. Developer interest and user engagement are very low, and the network’s overall growth has slowed down sharply.

Recent network issues, including technical troubles and security problems, have made things worse. Many users have left, and new projects are not joining. As a result, Shibarium now shows very little activity, leading many in the crypto community to call it a “ghost chain.” 

Shiba Inu’s Struggle To Evolve Beyond A Meme Coin

Shiba Inu tried to change its image from a simple meme coin into a real blockchain project capable of competing with other networks. The team launched Shibarium, a layer-2 blockchain, in 2023 to help make this move. However, this plan has not worked as expected, with Shibarium failing to attract developers, projects, or users and gaining no market share.

According to data from DeFi Llama, Shibarium has only 18 developers since it began. It is a much lower number than on other blockchains, which have hundreds or even thousands of active developers. The total value locked (TVL) on the network, which shows how much money people have invested in it, has fallen to just $878,000. 

Shibarium has also failed to attract any stablecoins, which are among the most widely used tokens in decentralized finance. Not a single stablecoin project has deployed on the network, reflecting Shibarium’s lack of presence in one of the most critical areas of the crypto world. Other newer and more active layer-2 networks like Base, Arbitrum, Plasma, and Linea have already moved far ahead, leaving Shibarium behind.

Hacks And The Decline Of Shibarium Network Activity

Things got worse for the network when ShibaSwap, the most popular decentralized app (dApp) on the Shibarium network, was recently compromised. The attack eroded user confidence and forced developers to pause a key bridge connecting Shibarium to other networks. Even with the bridge now active, most of the network’s activity stopped. Many users could not move their tokens or use apps, making the network almost entirely silent.

Because of this drop in network activity, Shibarium is no longer helping burn SHIB tokens. Typically, a portion of network transaction fees goes toward buying and burning Shiba Inu tokens, helping reduce supply and support the token’s price. But now, with very few transactions, the burn process has slowed down significantly.

The decline in users, developers, and activity are indicators that Shibarium’s dream of becoming a strong, useful blockchain has not come to fruition. Instead of growing into a central crypto platform, it has become what some would call the real ghost chain.