Shiba Inu Jumps 40% in Unexplained Rally Driven by South Korean Trading

Shiba Inu surged 4% to about $0.0000058 on Sunday, adding roughly $1 billion in market value without any clear announcement or development behind the move.

No Fundamental Catalyst Found

The token’s market cap now sits near $3.4 billion on close to $380 million in daily trading volume, its strongest turnover in months. Nothing has emerged from Shibarium, the network’s layer-2 project, and other dog-themed tokens failed to keep pace. Dogecoin gained just 6% over the same period, while smaller-cap tokens moved as much as 10%, suggesting the rally was specific to SHIB rather than a broader memecoin rotation.

South Korean Exchanges Lead Volume

Upbit’s SHIB/KRW trading pair emerged as the single largest market at roughly $62 million, more than a tenth of global volume, and traded at a slight premium to Binance and other dollar-based exchanges. South Korean traders have previously driven sharp rallies in volatile tokens, and the price action followed a similar pattern, with an initial push late Saturday, a quiet stretch, then a second surge during Asian morning hours.

Liquidations Followed the Price, Didn’t Cause It

About $6 million in SHIB positions were liquidated across roughly 2,300 traders, with most of that from short sellers caught off guard. Given the size, the liquidations appear to have followed the rally rather than triggered it.