Executive Summary

Shiba Inu (SHIB) experienced a 5% price depreciation over 24 hours, leading to the liquidation of over $1 million in leveraged long bets. This downturn occurred amidst a broader cryptocurrency market correction where Dogecoin (DOGE) recorded an over 8% loss. Despite its own decline, SHIB outperformed DOGE, resulting in a recovery of the SHIB-DOGE pair from record lows. The market observed a bearish downside break of a contracting triangle pattern for SHIB, suggesting potential for further price declines. These movements are set against a backdrop of high market volatility and significant liquidation events across the entire crypto ecosystem.

The Event in Detail

Shiba Inu (SHIB) prices declined 5% from $0.000012888 to $0.000012188 within a 24-hour period, specifically from September 21, 15:00, to September 22, 14:00. This price action led to the liquidation of more than $1 million in leveraged long positions, as reported by Coinglass data, indicating a market previously skewed bullish. The decline also marked a bearish downside break of a contracting triangle pattern, which technical analysts interpret as a precursor to further losses. A significant volume surge of 5.29 trillion tokens accompanied the range breakdown, which CoinDesk's market analytics identified as an institutional liquidation event. During this period, robust resistance was established at the $0.00001237 level, with support emerging at $0.00001197.

Conversely, Dogecoin (DOGE) recorded a larger loss, exceeding 8% over the same 24-hour timeframe. DOGE faced a correction around its daily resistance level of $0.311 on September 13, declining by 8% over the subsequent two days and finding support at $0.256. It further extended its correction by 8% at the start of the current week, trading below $0.239. The substantial disparity in performance between the two meme tokens caused the Binance-listed SHIB-DOGE pair to recover from record lows, suggesting a shift in relative strength where SHIB began to outperform DOGE.

The broader cryptocurrency market experienced significant liquidations, totaling approximately $1.7 billion within the past 24 hours, according to Coinglass. Of this, about $1.62 billion originated from long positions. Within a four-hour window, approximately $1.09 billion was liquidated, with $1.06 billion attributed to long positions. Over 404,000 traders were liquidated, including a single liquidation order of $12.74 million on a BTC-USDT swap on OKX. This widespread liquidation event occurred as Bitcoin fell 2.5% and Ethereum dropped 6.2%.

Market Implications

The significant price depreciation and technical breakdown observed for SHIB indicate continued short-term bearish pressure, with potential for further price erosion. The recovery of the SHIB-DOGE pair from record lows signals a notable shift in relative strength, where SHIB is demonstrating a capacity to outperform DOGE. This dynamic may attract traders focusing on pair trading strategies seeking arbitrage or relative value opportunities.

The widespread liquidation of leveraged positions, totaling $1.7 billion across the market, underscores elevated market risk. This scale of liquidations can lead to cascading effects, amplifying volatility and potentially triggering further price declines as margin calls are met. Investor sentiment is likely to remain cautious, with the broader market demonstrating susceptibility to macro risks and sustained downward pressure.

Expert Commentary

Market analysis from CoinDesk indicated that the 5.29 trillion token volume surge during SHIB's price decline was consistent with an institutional liquidation event. Data from Coinglass further suggested that the market was skewed bullish prior to the liquidation cascade, as evidenced by the high volume of liquidated long positions. These analyses collectively point to a sudden and forceful unwinding of speculative positions.

Broader Context

Shiba Inu (SHIB), as the world's second-largest meme token by market capitalization at $7.35 billion, is currently at a critical inflection point. The token has been consolidating within a symmetrical triangle pattern between $0.0000120 and $0.0000130 for months. Technical indicators suggest that this period of indecision may resolve with either a bullish breakout above $0.0000139, potentially targeting $0.00001450–$0.0000150, or a bearish breakdown below $0.00001250, risking a retest of June lows. Historical backtests reveal that if a breakout fails within the first week, drawdowns of up to 12% were observed in 33% of cases. The recent delisting of SHIB derivatives by BitMEX introduces further liquidity concerns, potentially amplifying price volatility. Additionally, the reported $2.4 million flash loan exploit on the Shibarium bridge infrastructure has raised questions about ecosystem security and investor confidence, contributing to the meme token's susceptibility to broader market corrections and increased macro risks.