The Shiba Inu (SHIB) price has remained under strong pressure this year as weak demand and fading market momentum continue to weigh on the meme coin. Beyond the price decline, new data now show that Shiba Inu’s Open Interest (OI) has crashed by more than 30%, while its burn rate has also slowed significantly. The decline in these key metrics points to weakening investor interest, lower trading activity, and reduced network engagement. Combined with Shiba Inu’s ongoing price struggles, these growing bearish signals have raised concerns about whether Shiba Inu is losing the strength that once made it the second-largest meme coin in the crypto market.
Shiba Inu Open Interest Crashes As Price Plummets
On May 27, data from Coinglass revealed that Shiba Inu’s Open Interest had dropped by 6% to $49.4 million, signaling weakness in futures activity and a decline in investor confidence in the meme coin. During the same period, Shiba Inu’s futures flow plunged by a staggering 190%, with outflows reaching $5.6 million, far exceeding the previous inflows of around $4.74 million.
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Notably, this sharp decline pushed the net difference to $865,790 in total closed Shiba Inu contracts within 24 hours. The heavy outflow also wiped out roughly 156.56 billion SHIB tokens from the futures market, underscoring the ongoing decline in speculative trading activity.
Fast forward to today, Shiba Inu’s Open Interest has dropped an additional 5.6% to around $46.44 million. This suggests that traders are still closing positions at a rapid pace as bearish sentiment continues to dominate the market. The continued decline in leverage activity also reflects weakening sentiment among short-term investors, with many appearing unwilling to place strong bullish bets on SHIB’s near-term recovery.
This bearish shift comes as the meme coin’s price experiences prolonged volatility and market swings. According to CoinMarketCap’s data, Shiba Inu has been on a steady decline throughout this month. Its price has fallen by over 14% in the last 30 days and by more than 63% year-to-date.
At the time of writing, the meme coin remains in the red, with its recent price correction driven by increased selling pressure and a drop in Bitcoin’s price. Other factors contributing to SHIB’s low price are the broader weakness in the meme coin market, which has also affected coins like Dogecoin (DOGE).
SHIB Burn Rate Dwindles To Surprising Lows
Another metric that has surprisingly taken a hit is Shiba Inu’s burn rate. According to the meme coin’s burn tracker, Shibburn, just $2 worth of SHIB tokens were burned on May 26, highlighting a sharp slowdown in activity and adding more pressure to the already bearish market.
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Notably, the Shiba Inu ecosystem is widely known for conducting large-scale token burns, with many community members believing that a continued decline in supply could create sufficient scarcity to support a future price explosion. However, recent on-chain reports now show that this usually active burn mechanism has taken a pause.
Shibburn also revealed that only about $11 worth of tokens were burned over the last 24 hours, representing just over 2.05 million SHIB. In the past week, less than $100 worth of tokens was removed from circulation, indicating weakening interest in the meme coin and a clear lack of interest in helping reduce SHIB’s supply.
Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com