Shiba Inu Whales Are On The Move Again, 361 Billion SHIB Stuns Community

Shiba Inu’s on-chain data shows an interesting dynamic among SHIB holders and their relationship with crypto exchanges. Recent metrics from CryptoQuant show sustained withdrawals from exchanges alongside a noticeable increase in burn activity in the past few days, all of which are signs of tighter supply conditions. 

This dwindling exchange supply reflects hundreds of billions of SHIB tokens removed from exchanges in recent days in a trend that dates back up to a year.

According to data from on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, SHIB exchange reserves have declined noticeably as whale wallets withdraw large amounts of tokens from trading platforms. On January 16, the total Shiba Inu exchange reserves stood at approximately 82.6 trillion SHIB. As of January 20, that figure has fallen to about 82.23 trillion SHIB.

This change means that roughly 370 billion SHIB has been removed from exchanges in just a few days. Such movements are typically attributed to whale activity, as transfers of this size are rarely caused by retail traders. When whales move SHIB off exchanges, the tokens are often sent to cold storage or long-term holding wallets, reducing the amount of supply immediately available for selling.

SHIB Exchange Reserve. Source: CryptoQuant

This short-term outflow also fits into a much larger trend of outflows from crypto exchanges since January 2025. CryptoQuant data shows that SHIB exchange reserves were close to 140 trillion tokens in early January 2025. Since then, however, SHIB whales have steadily reduced exchange balances, and this has pushed the reserves down to current levels around 82.2 trillion SHIB. The consistency of this decline suggests deliberate accumulation or long-term positioning by large holders.

SHIB Exchange Reserve. Source: CryptoQuant

Burn activity across the Shiba Inu network has intensified alongside whales withdrawing SHIB from exchanges. According to recent on-chain data, the SHIB burn rate has witnessed a jump of more than 1,200% in the past 24-hour period, with almost 29 million SHIB permanently removed from circulation. 

Although burns are not exclusively initiated by whales, large holders often play a role by sending large tokens to burn addresses or interacting with ecosystem mechanisms like Shibarium that lead to burns. Data from the burn tracker website Shibburn shows that the bulk of these burns were made with one single transfer of 28 million SHIB tokens sent to burn address CA.

SHIB Burn Rate. Source: Shibburn.com

According to CryptoQuant data, over 51.2 billion SHIB tokens have been withdrawn from crypto exchanges in the past 24 hours alone. So far, Shiba Inu’s price action has not made a decisive move in response to these changes. At the time of writing, Shiba Inu is trading at $0.00000794, up by 1% in the past 24 hours but down by 7.6% in a seven-day timeframe.

SHIB Exchange Netflow. Source: CryptoQuant