What happened
Over the last 24 hours, the price of the popular meme token Shiba Inu (SHIB +0.36%) fell 5.5% lower as of 11:06 a.m. ET today, as investors took a breather after a strong rally that has boosted Shiba Inu close to 34% over the last week.
So what
As one of the big meme cryptocurrencies, the ups and downs of Shiba Inu can often be hard to explain and don't always have a strong catalyst driving the move. But over the past week, it has been at the top end of the crypto market, outperforming the likes of the largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and its main meme-token rival, Dogecoin.
"Recency bias suggests to investors that a bottom has been formed with Bitcoin and Ethereum this past weekend and that the market may be poised for a short-term recovery," Edson Ayllon of the asset management platform dHEDGE told CoinDesk recently.
CRYPTO: SHIB
Key Data Points
Ayllon added: "This kind of sentiment brings back confidence in speculators, which, because of the absence of utility, SHIB attracts speculation."
Ethereum whales, which are crypto wallets on the blockchain network that hold $14 million on average, are also heavily buying Shiba Inu, which is an ERC-20 token, meaning it trades on top of Ethereum. It is whales' second-largest position behind USD Coin.
Now what
Shiba Inu has a market cap of more than $6.5 billion and is the 12th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, so it's likely to move with the broader crypto market.
But the cryptocurrency has no unique real-world uses or technical advantage over other cryptocurrencies, so I see no reason to invest in this highly speculative asset.
