A mysterious Shiba Inu ($SHIB) whale has quietly amassed a significant amount of the meme-inspired cryptocurrency in a series of transactions that lasted several hours, and prompted speculation and intrigue among observers on-chain.
According to data obtained from the Ethereum blockchain explorer Etherscan, this so-called whale, identified by the first characters of its wallet address “0x40B3,” has recently added 1.5 trillion SHIB to its holdings, a purchase valued at approximately $10 million.
This purchase was made from cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase, adding to the ongoing fascination with this figure’s activities. According to Lookonchain, the whale now holds an impressive 5.3 trillion SHIB, estimated to be worth around $35.5 million. This makes the whale the largest holder of SHIB outside of exchanges.
Interestingly, this is not the first time this whale has made headlines. On May 16, they transferred a staggering 20 trillion SHIB, then valued at $134.4 million, to another wallet addressed as “0x73AF”
The meme token’s accumulation has been set against a backdrop of legal turmoil involving Binance and Coinbase, the very platforms through which the whale made the recent acquisitions. Both exchanges are currently facing lawsuits from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). They stand accused of trading cryptocurrencies that the SEC argues are unregistered securities, among other allegations.
The SEC’s lawsuits have reignited an ongoing debate about the classification of cryptocurrencies. While the SEC contends that many digital assets should be classified as securities, consensus on this issue is yet to be reached. Some argue that cryptocurrencies more closely resemble commodities, while others posit that they constitute a unique category of assets altogether.
As CryptoGlobe reported, a SHIB whale has recently moved more than 4 trillion tokens worth over $30 million to Binance after unstaking them. With the addition of these unstaked tokens, the circulating supply of Shiba Inu has grown by 1%, bringing the total supply to 578.9 trillion tokens. In contrast, the number of staked tokens has dwindled to 10.44 trillion SHIB, as shown by Shibburn.com data.
Since the meme-inspired cryptocurrency was launched, around 410.63 trillion tokens have been destroyed, from a total supply of 1 quadrillion. The recently launched Koyo token project has moved forward with a major burn of the meme-inspired cryptocurrency last month, destroying an astounding 1.49 billion tokens in a single transaction.
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