Shiba Inu’s investor ecosystem is undergoing a significant transformation in the first quarter of 2025. Long-term holders now hold over 80% of the total SHIB supply, indicating a shift away from short-term speculative trading. Despite a 45% price drop in Q1 2025, SHIB whales increased their holdings by 7.5%, suggesting growing confidence among long-term investors. Mid-term holders reduced their positions by 18%, while short-term traders saw a 43% decline in their holdings.
Data from CryptoQuant shows a 37.6% decrease in SHIB exchange reserves, indicating a tightening of sell-side liquidity, which is typically seen as bullish in volatile conditions. Despite this trend, SHIB’s price continued to fall, suggesting that larger market forces or insufficient demand may be influencing the price. IntoTheBlock’s large holder netflow data reveals conflicting behavior among whales, with significant inflows in January followed by a sharp decline in February and March.
The decoupling of large holder behavior from SHIB’s price stability suggests that retail sentiment and broader market conditions may be overriding the influence of big players. Speculative trading has slowed down, while accumulation has strengthened, indicating a more mature market for SHIB. Despite major netflow spikes in January and March signaling potential sell-offs by whales, exchange reserves have shrunk, indicating ongoing withdrawals that overshadow the impact of whale sales.
Despite an 18% drop in SHIB’s price, the daily chart shows that it remains above key support levels. On-balance volume is indicating growing accumulation, while holding durations are increasing, exchange reserves are decreasing, and netflows point to a structural change in the market. With long-term holders dominating the supply and speculative players decreasing, there is a sense of strengthening confidence in SHIB. If accumulation continues and exchange liquidity tightens, Shiba Inu could experience more stable market behavior in the near future.
