Shiba Inu (SHIB) Plunges below $15 Billion Market Cap Level

Known as the Dogecoin killer, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has faced extreme selling pressure in the last few months after a retail frenzy pushed the price of the digital asset to a record high of $0.000088 in October 2021.

CoinMarketCap’s recent data shows that the market cap of Shiba Inu has dropped below $15 billion, which is the lowest level since 12 January. During last week, SHIB’s biggest competitor Dogecoin (DOGE) witnessed a decent spike of more than 10% after Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, announced the acceptance of DOGE. In 2021, the growth of DOGE and Shiba Inu remained in tandem as both meme coins saw substantial interest from retail and institutional investors.

However, the crypto market correction during the last few weeks of 2021 caused a massive drop in the valuation of both digital assets. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are down by approximately 70% from their respective all-time highs. SHIB lost its spot in the list of the world’s top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap and slipped to 13th position due to the latest sell-off.

Correction in Altcoins

In addition to Shiba Inu, sellers have increased their short positions across the crypto market. According to Santiment’s data, BNB, ANKR, SIA, AXS and XEM witnessed a sharp rise in short trading positions.

“We're seeing a notable rise in leveraged short positions across different crypto assets currently. Average exchange funding rates are negative for altcoins such as ANKR, XEM, SIA, XMR, AXS, DGB & BNB. If these shorts are liquidated, it can lead to major price spikes,” Santiment noted.

Earlier this week, the cryptocurrency exchange, EXMO published a report on the crypto market and highlighted that Shiba Inu generated the highest return on investment (ROI) in the fourth quarter of 2021. However, this year has started on a negative note for the digital asset.