Shiba Inu declined roughly 3% over 24 hours to trade around $0.00000870 on Wednesday, testing technical support levels as derivatives market activity cools.
The meme token has retraced from a Jan. 13 peak of $0.0000091 while open interest in SHIB futures declined from $145 million earlier this month to approximately $104 million, according to CoinGlass data.
SHIB underperformed Bitcoin by 3.6% and Ethereum by 2.1% during the period.
The price action follows a volatile early January that saw SHIB surge nearly 30% from late December lows before encountering resistance.
What Happened
Shiba Inu is trading near the middle Bollinger Band at approximately $0.00000825, a technical indicator that tracks 20-day simple moving averages.
The token remains capped below the upper Bollinger Band at $0.00000971, while volatility indicators show price swings narrowing after heightened activity earlier this month.
Open interest metrics reveal declining speculative positioning across SHIB futures markets.
Data from CoinGlass shows open interest peaked above $145 million in early January before falling to current levels around $104 million.
The metric tracks unsettled positions in derivatives markets and typically reflects trader confidence in directional price moves.
The decline in open interest coinciding with price weakness suggests reduced conviction among leveraged traders.
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Why It Matters
Open interest serves as a gauge for speculative activity and liquidity in derivatives markets.
Rising open interest typically precedes periods of increased volatility, while declining figures often signal reduced trader participation.
SHIB's current technical setup shows the token consolidating after its early January rally, with traders monitoring whether support levels hold.
The middle Bollinger Band has historically acted as short-term equilibrium for SHIB price action during consolidation phases.
Whale activity data shows mixed signals, with some large holders withdrawing tokens from exchanges while others remain inactive.
SHIB's 24-hour trading volume reached $204 million, representing a 15% increase from the previous day despite the price decline.
The token maintains a market capitalization above $5 billion, ranking among the top meme cryptocurrencies by valuation.
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