Korean trading wave propels Shiba Inu sharply higher

Shiba Inu surged as much as 36 per cent during weekend trading, with concentrated demand on South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges pushing the meme token to its strongest turnover levels in months despite no verified project announcement or fundamental catalyst.

The Ethereum-based token climbed to about $0.0000057 on Sunday, briefly adding close to $1 billion to its market value. Its capitalisation approached $3.4 billion at the rally’s peak, while daily trading volume rose sharply as traders rushed into a market that had spent much of the year under pressure.

The buying was heavily concentrated on Upbit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Its SHIB-to-won trading pair generated more than a tenth of global spot volume at one stage and traded at a modest premium to dollar and stablecoin markets elsewhere.

That geographical concentration distinguished the move from a broad rally across dog-themed cryptocurrencies. Dogecoin gained about 6 per cent during the same period, while several smaller meme tokens rose by less than 10 per cent. The difference suggested that Shiba Inu’s advance was being driven by token-specific speculation rather than a general shift into the sector.

No significant update emerged from Shibarium, the project’s layer-two blockchain network, to explain the sudden interest. There was also no confirmed exchange listing, commercial partnership, software launch or regulatory development capable of accounting for the scale of the price movement.

The rally began with an initial push late on Saturday, followed by several hours of relatively stable trading. A second wave arrived during the Asian session, when won-denominated activity accelerated and prices broke above levels that had capped gains earlier in July.

Trading data showed that Upbit’s SHIB market handled about $62 million during the strongest phase of the move. The exchange became the token’s largest individual market, overtaking several international venues that usually dominate liquidity.

South Korea has a large and active retail cryptocurrency sector, with traders frequently concentrating capital in smaller tokens capable of producing sharp percentage movements. Local demand has previously created price premiums in selected assets, particularly when international liquidity is thin or market positioning is heavily tilted towards declines.

Derivatives activity added force after the rally was under way. About $2.3 million of leveraged SHIB positions were liquidated over 24 hours, including roughly $1.8 million in short bets. Traders who had expected the token to fall were forced to buy back positions as prices rose, extending the upward movement.

Open interest in SHIB derivatives approached $65 million, indicating a build-up of leveraged exposure. The figures, however, remained relatively modest compared with the token’s spot turnover, supporting the view that South Korean cash-market buying initiated the move before forced liquidations amplified it.

Blockchain activity also attracted attention after a dormant wallet acquired more than 30 billion SHIB. Separately, more than 1.16 trillion tokens were transferred from wallets associated with Coinbase. The larger transfer appeared consistent with internal exchange administration rather than a fresh purchase or withdrawal by a single investor.

Nearly 2.4 trillion SHIB entered exchanges during another period of heavy activity, while a broadly similar quantity left trading platforms. The balanced flows indicated substantial two-way turnover, with buyers absorbing tokens offered for sale rather than a straightforward reduction in available supply.

The token’s burn rate rose by more than 3,000 per cent during the rally, although the absolute number of coins removed remained small compared with SHIB’s circulating supply of about 589 trillion tokens. Burn-rate spikes often attract attention within the project’s community but rarely alter supply conditions enough to justify immediate double-digit price moves.

Shiba Inu was created anonymously in August 2020 by a developer using the name Ryoshi. It began as a community-led competitor to Dogecoin and later expanded into an ecosystem that includes the ShibaSwap decentralised exchange, the BONE governance token and Shibarium.

The token remains more than 93 per cent below its October 2021 record of about $0.000086. Its price has remained highly dependent on retail sentiment, exchange liquidity, social-media activity and speculative positioning, despite attempts to build payment, gaming and decentralised-finance applications.