Shiba Inu has plunged more than 65% this year and is now trading near its all-time low as demand for one of the market’s most recognizable meme tokens continues to fade. SHIB recently slipped to $0.0000080, its weakest level since November 2023, and now sits roughly 90% below its peak.
Shibarium upgrade set for 2026
A key driver behind SHIB’s prolonged weakness is the underperformance of Shibarium, the project’s layer-2 network. Despite initial hopes of becoming a vibrant ecosystem, Shibarium has struggled to attract developers and users, with most key activity indicators trending lower throughout the year. Sentiment deteriorated further in September when ShibaSwap, the ecosystem’s flagship platform, was hacked, forcing developers to temporarily halt network operations.
Although Shibarium has since resumed activity, it currently holds just $1.8 million in total value locked – a stark contrast to Monad, which launched this week and has already accumulated more than $200 million in assets.
Shibarium’s limited traction has weighed on SHIB’s token economics, as a portion of network fees was designed to be converted into SHIB and burned. With the network generating minimal revenue, this burn mechanism has delivered little impact.
Developers are now preparing the network’s most significant overhaul to date, scheduled for rollout in the second quarter of next year. The upgrade, called Zama, aims to transform Shibarium into a privacy-focused network leveraging advanced encryption. However, it remains uncertain whether this shift will meaningfully improve SHIB’s outlook.
Competition across the privacy-chain landscape has intensified, with established names like ZkSync, Linea, and Scroll already entrenched, while Cardano’s zero-knowledge chain, Midnight, is set to debut in December.
This uncertainty has contributed to sustained selling pressure from whales and institutional traders. Smart-money participants recently offloaded millions of tokens and now hold 43.15 billion SHIB, down from 44 billion at the start of the month.
Shiba Inu price technical analysis
The weekly chart suggests SHIB may be approaching a deeper bearish breakdown. The token has formed a double-top pattern at $0.00003365, with a neckline at $0.00001090 – a classically bearish reversal structure. SHIB has already fallen below this neckline, reinforcing downside momentum.
The token also trades firmly beneath the 50-week and 100-week Exponential Moving Averages, while the rising Average Directional Index signals a strengthening downtrend. If this trajectory continues, sellers may target $0.0000063, the key support level from 2023 and the next major downside objective.
