Shiba Inu (SHIB) is grappling with a significant wave of selling pressure, as on-chain data reveals a stark imbalance between exchange inflows and outflows. According to CryptoQuant, SHIB's exchange netflows have turned positive, with a difference of approximately 39 billion SHIB moving onto trading platforms, signaling heightened distribution by holders. Santiment data from March 28 corroborates this trend, showing exchange inflows of 69.2 billion SHIB vastly outpacing outflows of 30.74 billion.
This sell-off coincides with a broader market downturn influenced by geopolitical tensions, including the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict, which has sparked bearish sentiment across crypto assets. The price of SHIB has reflected this pressure, declining by over 3% to trade around $0.000005737, with a weekly loss of 5%.
Compounding the issue is a dramatic cooling in the derivatives market. Data from CoinGlass shows that futures open interest, which had surged past 12 trillion SHIB last week, has plunged by roughly 26% to approximately 8.87 trillion SHIB. The 24-hour change in open interest has stagnated at zero, indicating a complete lack of new speculative positioning and a market in "wait-and-see" mode. This sharp pullback suggests weakened trader conviction and follows broader crypto market volatility that has made directional bets difficult.
Further on-chain metrics paint a picture of cautious whale behavior. Daily whale transactions for SHIB have plummeted to single digits, a stark drop from an average of over 100 transactions in December 2025. While the total supply held by large wallets remains steady at 774.25 trillion SHIB—above recent lows—their inactivity suggests accumulation has halted.
The ecosystem's underlying utility is also under scrutiny. Activity on Shibarium, Shiba Inu's Layer-2 network, remains highly volatile. Daily transactions briefly spiked to nearly 11,000 on March 26 before crashing to around 1,230 the following day. A significant portion of these recent transactions were zero-dollar contract calls, indicating limited real-world use. This decline in network activity has directly impacted the token's burn mechanism, with SHIB burns crashing by 66% in 24 hours to just 2.7 million tokens burned.
