A SHIB Whale Just Moved Nearly $3 Billion Worth of the Meme Coin

The Shiba Inu ($SHIB) cryptocurrency has shot to prominence over the past month, briefly overtaking rival dog-themed meme coin Dogecoin in market cap.

Now, one $SHIB holder who's seen their $8,000 initial investment swell to over $5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency has moved a massive $2.9 billion worth of their holdings between wallets.

According to Ethereum block explorer Etherscan, the whale's wallet address sent four lots of 10,000,000,100,000 $SHIB on Tuesday, each worth around $632 million at today's prices.

It's important to note that the whale in question hasn't realized their gains; the $SHIB hasn't been sold, simply moved between addresses.

Shiba Inu coin is an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency that has made headlines over the past several months, breaking all-time high after all-time high. It's part of the growing list of "dog coins" that appear to be powered by nothing other than its memetic qualities. According to the cryptocurrency's official website, $SHIB was created as an "experiment in decentralized spontaneous community building."

$SHIB itself has slipped in price by 8.8% over the past day, to $0.00006296, according to price tracking site CoinGecko, though its long-term performance is still on a comfortable uptrend, having risen 33.4% on the week and 645% over the past month.  Fellow meme coin Dogecoin has similarly slipped, by a less substantial 3.1% over the past 24 hours, while rival token Floki Inu (FLOKI), named after Elon Musk's dog, is up nearly 13.5% on the day.

Another Shiba Inu that has cause to celebrate is Kabosu, the face of the original Doge meme that inspired all the dog-themed meme coins, who marked her 16th birthday yesterday.