Shiba Inu No Longer in Top 20 — Here’s What Could Have Caused the Drop

As Shiba Inu continues to sit outside the top 20 ranking of crypto assets, this article highlights a few reasons impacting the token’s position. 

With a market capitalization of $7.26 billion, Shiba Inu ranks as the 22nd-biggest cryptocurrency globally and trades at $0.00001233.

Notably, Shiba Inu surged into the top 10 in 2021, rubbing shoulders with other major assets like Cardano and Solana. At one point, it even overthrew Dogecoin and ranked as the top meme coin.

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While it lost its position in subsequent years, Shiba Inu again entered the top ten in March 2024 but soon lost it again. The coin lingered in the top 20 ever since until July 2025.

Now, the two-time top 10 crypto contender currently sits out of the top 20 rankings. Several factors contributed to Shiba Inu’s rapid decline.

Why Shiba Inu is Out of the Top 20 Crypto Ranking

Internal Discord

Shiba Inu’s top developer, Kaal Dhairya, recently acknowledged that the cryptocurrency is facing internal conflicts, which undermine the collective growth of the project.

The discord within the Shiba Inu ecosystem distracts the team from continuous development while also undermining the unity required to drive the project to greater heights.

Anonymous and Inactive Leadership

Meanwhile, investors are gradually losing faith in Shiba Inu due to lead developer Shytoshi Kusama’s decision to remain anonymous.

Investors were unbothered by the leader’s anonymity during Shiba Inu’s early days. However, as the project grew, many longed to see the face behind Shiba Inu. Despite attending two crypto events, including the IVS Summit held in Japan last year, Kusama still concealed his identity behind a mask.

Moreover, Kusama’s engagement on social media has decreased recently, compared to other industry stakeholders like Cardano’s founder Charles Hoskinson, Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin, and Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse.

The absence of visible leadership has driven away several existing investors and discouraged newcomers from joining the SHIB bandwagon.

Institutional Apathy

Over five years after its launch, Shiba Inu remains a strictly retail-driven asset, with institutional clients remaining skeptical about the token. This is evident in the absence of a SHIB ETF filing. While no asset manager has filed for a Shiba Inu ETF, Dogecoin has seen multiple applications from firms like Bitwise and Grayscale.

These asset managers have ignored SHIB even though the SEC recently clarified that meme coins are not securities. This institutional apathy has limited large capital inflows into the Shiba Inu ecosystem and serves as a major factor keeping SHIB below the top 20 crypto ranking.

Enormous Supply

Shiba Inu’s enormous supply, currently around 589 trillion tokens, is also a major reason why SHIB sits below the top 20. Due to this massive supply, the token’s price and market cap are subject to greater volatility.

To potentially reclaim a spot in the top 20 — and possibly re-enter the top 10 — the Shiba Inu ecosystem may need to consider addressing internal challenges, enhancing transparency around leadership, implementing further token burn mechanisms, and exploring ways to attract institutional interest. These steps could help improve investor confidence and support long-term growth.

Encouragement From Shiba Inu Team

Even though Shiba Inu currently sits outside the top 20, the team has consistently encouraged investors to remain resilient during market downturns.

Earlier this year, after SHIB dropped to the $0.000012 region, Shiba Inu’s marketing lead, Lucie, stated that SHIB would succeed despite ongoing price challenges, suggesting that the token could eventually rise from the ashes.

Separately, she has also expressed her belief that SHIB could someday reach $0.01 and potentially aim for ambitious targets like $1. Whether these predictions will materialize remains to be seen.