Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have posted identical price performance in January 2024 so far, on-chain data suggests that could change in February.
Dogecoin (DOGE) price dipped below the $0.08 mark as bearish headwinds swept across the crypto market in January. On-chain data trends show that Dogeoin miners’ current selling pressure could further exacerbate the downward pressure and open the doors to SHIB delivering a stronger performance in the weeks ahead.
In January 2024 so far, both DOGE and SHIB have posted a strikingly identical price performance. The chart below depicts that both assets shed slightly over 17% in value this month.
With a market capitalization of 11.4 billion and 5.3 billion respectively, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are the two largest memecoin. Both meme token ecosystems have remained closely interlinked since inception.
However, Dogecoin miners’ and mining pool’s recent trading disposition could see DOGE price fall behind SHIB in the weeks ahead.
Dogecoin miners’ current trading activity could see the price correlation decouple from SHIB in February.
Dogecoin recorded double-digit price gains in Q4 2023, as the crypto markets rallied on positive sentiment surrounding the Bitcoin spot ETF approval.
However, as many investors bought in on the hype, on-chain data reveals that Dogecoin miners instead, capitalized on the rally to book profits.
Dogecoin miners held 4.64 billion DOGE in the cumulative balances as on Nov. 21 2023, during the crypto market rally. Now, those balances have rapidly dropped to just 4.35 billion DOGE, as of Jan 27.
This essentially implies that the Dogecoin miners have sold off over 290 million DOGE worth approximately $22.63 million in the last 3 months between Nov 21, 2023 and Jan 26, 2024.
IntoTheBlock’s miners’ reserves chart tracks the real-time balances in custody of recognized mining companies and mining pools.
A selling trend among miners is interpreted as a bearish signal for the underlying asset. As the miners introduce more newly-mined DOGE coins to the market, it dilutes supply and adds downward pressure on the price.
With the overall crypto market demand now weakening, the miners’ selling trend could have a more pronounced impact on DOGE price in February 2024. This could open the door to SHIB price action potentially overtaking the pioneer memecoin.
Like the rest of the megacap cryptocurrency sector, DOGE price has endured significant downward price action in the past month. However, the miners’ $22.6 selling trend analyzed above indicates the bears look set to gain even more ground in the coming weeks.
To validate this outlook, however, the Dogecoin bears must first clear the initial support buy-wall around $0.07.
IntoTheBlock’s Global in/out of the money (GIOM) data groups the current DOGE holder wallets according to their historical entry prices.
It currently shows that 528,180 addresses had acquired 45.6 billion DOGE at the average price of $0.071. Notably, considering this is the largest cluster of current Dogecoin holders, if hey make frantic purchases to defend their positions, they could overturn the bearish trend.
However, a detour below the $0.07 support level could set off margin call triggers and open the doors to a potential $0.06 retest.
Alternatively, the bulls could control if the DOGE price can break above the $0.10 zone But in this scenario, the 786,930 addresses who acquired 14.1 billion DOGE at the average price of $0.095 will likely mount a major resistance.
Ibrahim Ajibade Ademolawa is a seasoned research analyst with a background in Commercial Banking and Web3 startups, specializing in DeFi and TradFi analysis. He holds a B.A. in Economics and is pursuing an MSc in Blockchain.