Shiba Inu price stuck in a range as Shibarium activity dries

Shiba Inu price remained in a tight range, underperforming some of the newly minted meme coins like Popcat, Neiro, and SPX6900.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) was consolidating at $0.00001718 on Oct. 9, down by 21% from its highest point this month. This retreat means that the second-largest meme coin has moved into a local bear market.

Shiba Inu’s underperformance is likely due to the ongoing rotation to newer meme coins that are generating strong returns. SPX6900 (SPX) has soared by over 300% in the last seven days, bringing its market cap to over $562 million.

Popcat (POPCAT), a popular Solana (SOL) meme coin, has surged by over 13,500% from its lowest point in January. Some of the other top-performing new coins are Neiro (NEIRO), Gigachad, and Apu Apustaja.

Shiba Inu’s performance has also been impacted by the waning traction in Shibarium, its layer-2 network. Data from ShibariumScan shows that the number of active accounts has dropped to below 500, while new accounts on Oct. 8 were just 33. 

Shibarium’s average transaction fee has dropped to 0.005 BONE, down from last month’s high of 0.062 BONE, a 91% plunge. The number of transactions on the network has also dwindled.

Shibarium’s transactions and fees are important for Shiba Inu because some of the BONE is converted into SHIB and burned. 

Meanwhile, Shiba Inu’s open interest in the futures market has also dropped sharply. It moved to $44 million, down from this month’s high of $70 million.

Shiba Inu price has stalled

Shiba Inu price chart | Source: TradingView

The daily chart shows that the SHIB token bottomed at $0.00000108, its lowest level on Aug. 5. It has rebounded above the upper side of the falling wedge pattern, which is shown in black. 

The token has remained above the 50-day and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages. Additionally, the MACD indicator has stayed above the zero line.

SHIB’s rebound will be confirmed if it moves above the crucial resistance level at $0.0000187, its highest swing on Oct. 6. A move above that level could point to further upside, potentially to $0.000021, its highest level on Sept. 27.