Recent figures released by blockchain analytics platform Santiment highlight the significant concentration of Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens among a handful of addresses.
Analysis of Top SHIB Holders
According to the update, the ten largest wallets together account for 62.3% of the total SHIB supply, significantly higher than many other leading Ethereum-based assets. The largest single holder is Shiba Inu’s official burn wallet, created when Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent over 410 trillion SHIB to the address in 2021. That wallet now contains approximately 410.43 trillion tokens, permanently removing them from circulation.
Comparison with Ethereum and Uniswap
Santiment’s report also examined ownership concentration across other major tokens. The top 10 Ethereum wallets control roughly 51% of ETH’s supply, while the leading Uniswap addresses collectively hold about 52.2% of UNI tokens. By contrast, Shiba Inu’s 62.3% concentration among its ten largest wallets represents a higher level of centralization.
Impact of Concentration on the Market
While such a concentration might raise concerns about the potential for price volatility if large holders decide to sell, context is important. The single largest address is the burn wallet, which will never release tokens back into circulation. Additionally, many of the remaining top holders are centralized exchanges that custody SHIB on behalf of thousands of retail traders, rather than individual 'whales'. This reduces the likelihood of a sudden mass liquidation event.
The latest Santiment data underscores the dominance of the top 10 Shiba Inu addresses, which together hold more than 623 trillion SHIB out of the asset’s initial supply of one quadrillion. Although this concentration places SHIB above Ethereum and Uniswap in terms of top-holder share, the inclusion of a burn wallet and exchange custodians provides a level of reassurance that risks of abrupt large-scale selling are limited.
