Billions of SHIB Moving Between Exchanges and Cold Wallets
Large-holder activity around SHIB has been unusually heavy over the past 24 hours, explaining why price is drifting lower but not collapsing. One report tracked 2.20 trillion SHIB leaving Coinbase's "0xA9D" hot wallet in six tranches, landing in a single fresh address worth approximately $18.76 million at the time. The receiving wallet has no history of quick cash-outs, suggesting accumulation or strategic repositioning rather than immediate selling.
The outflows extend well beyond that single transaction. Another analysis highlighted more than 8 trillion SHIB withdrawn from exchanges in one day, one of the largest single-day outflows in months. Exchange balances dropped sharply, effectively erasing about a week's worth of SHIB that had been sitting on trading venues. Price remained below the 200-day moving average with weak momentum but stabilized in a short-term consolidation range, suggesting selling pressure is easing even though the trend has not turned bullish.
Yet the picture is not uniformly positive. Santiment data cited in a separate piece shows whale activity at the highest level since June alongside a 1.06 trillion SHIB increase in some exchange balances, signaling potential short-term selling pressure and heightened volatility. Some large players are moving tokens off exchanges for long-term holding, staking, or DeFi use, while others are sending tokens to exchanges or leaving enough there to trade around the range. That heavy but two-sided whale flow helps explain why SHIB is stuck in a narrow band and can drift down a few percent without any single headline or clean breakout.
A Textbook Rejection at the $0.0000090 Ceiling
Technicals for SHIB lined up almost perfectly with the small negative move. A recent market prediction piece notes that SHIB tried to break above a $0.0000090 to $0.0000091 resistance zone that has capped price for almost a month but failed to close above it, immediately drawing in sellers. The structure remains bearish with lower highs and lower lows on the chart, volume is weakening into resistance (a classic sign that demand is not strong enough to force a breakout), and SHIB remains below key exponential moving averages that continue to act as dynamic resistance.
The 24-hour pattern fits that script almost exactly. SHIB traded near $0.00000857 early in the window, briefly pushed as high as $0.00000872 (still below the resistance ceiling), then rolled over and finished near $0.00000828. That landing zone sits right in the $0.0000082 to $0.0000080 pullback area that the same analysis flagged, with deeper support near $0.0000075 where buyers last defended strongly. A weak breakout attempt that gets rejected at well-known resistance in a down-sloping structure will often produce a modest 3% to 5% fade.
A Range-Bound Market Is Not Rewarding Meme Coins
SHIB is trading in a macro environment that offers little tailwind for high-beta speculative assets. A Matrixport-linked outlook expects Bitcoin and the broader crypto market to remain range-bound in December after the FOMC meeting, even with another 25 basis point Fed cut. Implied volatility is fading, traders expect BTC to stay below $100,000 for months, and without strong ETF inflows or new catalysts, upside momentum is limited. The Fear & Greed index sits at 29 ("Fear") and the Altcoin Season index reads 18, firmly in "Bitcoin Season," meaning flows are skewed toward BTC and away from speculative alts like SHIB.
A separate macro analysis notes that stablecoin inflows into exchanges have halved since August, signaling weak new liquidity coming into crypto overall. Recent rebounds are more about reduced selling than fresh buying. In that environment, even high whale activity does not translate into sustained rallies because there is not much new retail capital chasing SHIB. Meme coins are competing with newer narratives and with BTC and ETH ETF flows for attention, making SHIB more likely to chop sideways and slightly underperform than to decouple to the upside.
Repositioning Without New Demand
SHIB's 3.4% decline over the past 24 hours reflects cumulative pressure rather than a single catalyst: a failed breakout at resistance, range-bound macro conditions, and large but mixed whale flows that shift supply around without bringing in much new demand. The net result is a modest downside drift in a token that remains technically weak and stuck in a consolidation band until something changes the equation.