Shiba Inu’s value is now down by about 35% on a yearly basis, with the meme coin trading around $0.000006 as of early April 2026, a far cry from the $0.00000923 range it touched in early January.
The meme coin has spent the past three months on an extended decline, which has continued into the recent weekend. Several converging developments explain why the decline has been so persistent and why the road to recovery is currently uncertain.
On-Chain Weakness And Stalled Shibarium Adoption
The most damaging blow to SHIB’s fundamental case is from its own Layer-2 network. Since Shibarium’s launch in August 2023, the meme coin’s price movement has been tied to interest and the activity on the Layer-2 network.
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However, on-chain data shows a clear drop in user activity and demand across the network. This drop in Shibarium user activity kicked off in September 2025, when the network faced one of the largest attacks in its history, and the consequences extended beyond the immediate financial loss.
Prior to the incident, daily transactions processed on Shibarium were in the millions; after the exploit, they plummeted to mere thousands. Currently, daily transactions sit at around 1,230 over the past 24 hours, with activity dipping as low as 557 transactions on April 4, according to data from Shibariumscan.
That said, it is also worth noting that Shibarium recently underwent a major infrastructure upgrade, including a full reindexing of its backend systems, which may have contributed to the temporary slowdown in transaction throughput in the past few days.
Traders Continue Pulling Out With Fading Confidence
The derivatives market is also showing signs of fading confidence in Shiba Inu. Recent data reveals a noticeable drop in open interest, meaning traders are closing positions and stepping away from Shiba Inu. According to data from Coinglass, Shiba Inu’s open interest across major exchanges currently stands at $54.25 million, representing a 16% decline from the $65.23 million recorded around this time last month.
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The decline is even more pronounced when looking at its yearly high. Back in January, open interest was sitting at $145.40 million, which means current levels reflect a steep 63% drop since then.
Even more concerning is the rise in exchange inflows, with large amounts of SHIB being moved into trading platforms, which is typically a precursor to selling pressure. According to data from CryptoQuant, the Shiba Inu netflow to exchanges is at a positive 6.9 billion SHIB in the past 24 hours, which means more Shiba Inu is being sent to crypto exchanges than those leaving. Interestingly, this netflow figure recently reached as high as 39 billion SHIB within a 24-hour period.
However, SHIB’s price troubles are structural to the entire meme coin niche. The market capitalization of all meme coins is currently at $34 billion from a year-to-date high of over $109.7 billion, according to data from Coingecko.
Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com
