Shiba Inu has lost its long-held position as the second-largest meme coin by market capitalization, overtaken by MemeCore after a divergent month of price performance. While SHIB posted an 8% weekly gain, it lagged many altcoins, and its market capitalization now stands near $3.37 billion, placing it third in the meme coin sector and 34th among all cryptocurrencies, according to CoinGecko data.
MemeCore, by contrast, surged roughly 35% over the same monthly period, pushing its market capitalization to almost $3.5 billion. That shift marks a symbolic setback for SHIB, which previously reached market caps above $20 billion in 2024 and briefly exceeded $40 billion during the 2021 cycle. Although SHIB still maintains a roughly $1.3 billion cushion over fourth-place PUMP, the loss of its runner-up status raises questions about the token's near-term momentum.
The bearish case extends beyond ranking. Shibarium, the layer-2 network tied to Shiba Inu, received what the team called a small but useful update to its RPC listing in the Ethereum-lists/chains registry, but daily transaction activity remains negligible. At the same time, CryptoQuant data shows SHIB balances on centralized exchanges climbed to around 87.6 trillion tokens, the highest level since early August, signaling that investors may be moving assets to exchanges and increasing potential selling pressure.
Seasonal patterns add another cautionary signal: SHIB has finished September in the red in three of the past five years. Still, the broader market backdrop has improved, with Bitcoin trading above $80,000 during the September 18 session, and derivatives expiration tied to triple witching creating short-term volatility. SHIB closed near $0.00000546 that day, up 5.81%, according to Investing.com.
The Shiba Inu ecosystem narrative continues to emphasize utility through Shibarium, BONE and TREAT, but the latest data suggests that near-term token performance and longer-term ecosystem adoption remain separate questions.
