Shibarium has been in the headlines since Shytoshi Kusama, the founder of the Shiba Inu ecosystem, teased about the project back in December. Ahead of this, SHIB – the native token of the ecosystem – gained 27% in the last 30 days.
This placed the token in the eyes of whales which made it in their top five list of most held tokens. According to whale tracker WhaleStats, the average quantity held by whales is at 178 billion SHIB which is valued at $1.8 million.
While significant whale activity is a bullish development, is it enough to sustain the memecoin’s rally?
Image: WhaleStats
The Gist On Shibarium’s Launch
There is no absolute date when the Shibarium upgrade was going to be released to the public, but the upgrade’s beta is said to be near its launch date. This would give SHIB holders a taste of what the Layer 2 network solution for Shiba Inu would perform.
Based on the latest ShibaSwap blog post, the launch of the beta will give the community an idea of how the various concepts behind the upgrade will work. From the lower gas fees to how validators and delegators contribute to the ecosystem, community members would have an idea on how these roles are entangled to make the ecosystem function at peak performance.
Image by Watcher Guru
The Shibarium upgrade was already underway when the Shiba Inu development team released Shiba Eternity back on October 6th of last year. Shiba’s burn mechanism was also implemented back in 2021, making the SHIB token deflationary.
Shiba Inu’s current burn rate at the time of writing is at 50% according to ShibBurn, a website dedicated to tracking the burn rate of the SHIB token. When Shibarium’s beta launch occurs, we might see a higher than expected burn rate especially in the actual launch of the ecosystem.
What Does This Mean For SHIB?
The SHIB token is currently trading at $0.00001052 and has been trying to consolidate above the $0.00001038 support level. At the current price of the token, it may face a stronger correction in the short and mid term. This is especially true since the bears are about to retest the current support level.
SHIB total market cap at $5.8 billion on the daily chart | Chart: TradingView.com
If the token continues to sustain its momentum, it might retest the $0.00001192 price resistance which, if broken, would result in regaining lost ground when the market crashed following the fall from grace of FTX.
With Bitcoin breaking its $21,000 resistance level and SHIB’s high correlation with BTC, Shiba Inu might continue to follow the top coin’s drive to higher highs in the coming days or weeks.
Featured Image by Getty Images