Shiba Inu (SHIB) has been lagging behind lately, even though Bitcoin and the broader crypto market are showing signs of recovery. What’s going on? Let’s break it down.
The WazirX Hack: A Major Blow to SHIB
Earlier this week, WazirX, a popular Indian crypto exchange, was hit by a massive hack, losing around $235 million. Among the stolen cryptocurrencies were some big names like Polygon and Ethereum, but the biggest chunk of the loot was Shiba Inu. The hackers made off with a whopping $96.7 million worth of SHIB, which is no surprise considering it’s the most traded cryptocurrency on WazirX.
This hack sent shockwaves through the SHIB community, especially since WazirX is a major platform for trading the meme coin. Investors were understandably worried about what the hackers might do with their stolen SHIB. While the broader crypto market experienced a dip after the hack, it quickly recovered. However, Shiba Inu couldn’t shake off the bearish pressure and lost around 10% of its value.
The Hacker’s Next Move: Selling SHIB for ETH
Even though the crypto market is moving on from the WazirX hack, the pressure on SHIB continues. Why? Because the hackers are busy converting their stolen SHIB into Ethereum (ETH). They’ve already sold off a significant portion of the stolen SHIB, converting around $90.2 million worth into ETH, along with some Polygon (MATIC) and Pepe (PEPE). This has put immense pressure on the SHIB price, as the hackers are flooding the market with SHIB to get their hands on ETH.
So far, the hackers have converted around $150 million worth of stolen crypto into ETH, and they now hold a hefty $201 million worth of ETH. This massive sell-off is pushing SHIB down, and the meme coin is currently testing the $0.000017 support level. Despite the recent decline, this support level has held strong so far.
