Why is SHIB up 35%? Shiba Inu rockets higher as S.Korean traders lead mystery rally

The rally has no announcement behind it, other dog tokens haven't matched it, and Korean venues are carrying the volume.

Why is SHIB up 35%? Shiba Inu rockets higher as S.Korean traders lead mystery rally

Markets

Shiba Inu surges 36% as South Korean traders fuel mystery rally

The rally has no announcement behind it, other dog tokens haven't matched it, and Korean venues are carrying the volume.

By

Shaurya Malwa

Updated

Jul 26, 2026, 7:31 a.m.

Published

Jul 26, 2026, 7:29 a.m.

2

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Shiba inu, the dog breed that inspired the SHIB memecoin. (Getty Images)

Summary

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Shiba Inu jumped about 36 percent to $0.0000057 on Sunday, adding roughly $1 billion in market value in a day without any clear fundamental catalyst.

The token’s market capitalization is now near $3.4 billion on almost $380 million in daily trading volume, its highest turnover ranking in months.

South Korean traders on Upbit, where the SHIB/KRW pair accounts for more than a tenth of global volume and trades at a slight premium, appear to be driving the move, while liquidations of short positions followed the rally rather than causing it.

Shiba Inu rose 36% to about $0.0000057 on Sunday, adding roughly a billion dollars to its market value in a day, with no announcement or development to account for it.

The token now carries a market cap near $3.4 billion on almost $380 million of daily volume, its highest turnover ranking in months.

SHIB prices are up 35% in the past 24 hours. (CoinDesk Data)

Nothing has emerged from Shibarium, the network's layer-2, and the wider dog-token complex has lagged. Dogecoin gained 6% over the same stretch, and smaller-cap tokens moved as much as 10%, which pointed to something specific to SHIB rather than a rotation into memecoins.

South Korean buying

stands out. Upbit's SHIB/KRW pair is the single largest market at about $62 million, over a tenth of global volume, and it prints a slight premium to Binance and the other dollar venues.

The country’s traders are known to drive

exuberant rallies

in high-volatility tokens, and the token's climb fits that pattern, with a first push late Saturday, nine flat hours, then a second move through the Asian morning.

Short sellers paid for the jump, however. About $6 million in SHIB and 1000SHIB positions were

liquidated across roughly 2,300 traders

, some $5 million of that shorts, with the heaviest hour landing squarely on the second leg. Those liquidations followed the price up rather than causing it, and at that size they cannot explain a move this large.

Shiba Inu launched in August 2020 as an Ethereum token created by an anonymous developer known as Ryoshi, pitched openly as a "Dogecoin killer" with no product behind it.

The project has since built out Shibarium, a layer-2 network, and a broader token ecosystem, though SHIB remains far below its 2021 high and trades primarily on retail sentiment rather than anything the ecosystem produces.

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Latest Research

Crypto Flows, Share and the Selective Rotation

Crypto Flows, Share and the Selective Rotation

Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.

By

CoinDesk Research

Jul 22, 2026

Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.

Why it matters

:

Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.

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