Shiba Inu (SHIB) traded largely sideways Thursday after a volatile week that saw the broader cryptocurrency market come under renewed selling pressure.
Notably, the second-largest meme token has declined by nearly 3% over the past week, reflecting cautious sentiment across the digital asset market even as investors continue to monitor whale activity and broader macroeconomic developments.
Meanwhile, blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence reported that the U.S. government moved approximately 54.9 billion SHIB tokens, worth about $250,000, across two transactions. Most of the tokens were transferred in a single large movement, followed by a smaller transfer that finalized the shift.
Following the transactions, the government-controlled wallet no longer held any SHIB, while the receiving address became exclusively funded with the transferred meme tokens.
Notably, the SHIB movement was part of a broader reshuffling of digital assets linked to the FTX bankruptcy estate. Blockchain records also showed millions of dollars’ worth of Ethereum and Tether being transferred to Coinbase, fueling speculation that authorities are preparing additional asset liquidations tied to creditor repayments.
 
The transferred SHIB tokens originated from assets confiscated after the collapse of FTX and its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research, in late 2022.
Although the latest wallet activity has sparked concerns among SHIB holders, the transfers appear consistent with the ongoing administration of recovered FTX assets rather than an isolated decision targeting the meme token.
Historically, the FTX bankruptcy estate has largely converted recovered cryptocurrencies into cash before distributing proceeds to eligible creditors. Instead of receiving digital assets directly, creditors have generally been compensated in U.S. dollars based on claim valuations established during the bankruptcy process.
The repayment program has already returned billions of dollars to creditors through multiple distribution rounds, with the estate steadily unwinding recovered crypto holdings as part of the court-approved process.
Large transfers involving government-controlled wallets often attract significant market attention because investors fear that tokens could eventually be sold into the open market.
However, the size of the latest SHIB transfer remains relatively modest compared to the token’s daily trading volume, meaning any immediate market impact could be limited unless additional transfers follow.
Even so, traders will likely continue to monitor government wallets for signs that the assets are moving toward centralized exchanges, where liquidation becomes more likely.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution declaring that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried should under no circumstances receive a presidential pardon or sentence commutation. Although the measure is nonbinding, it signals broad political support for maintaining his 25-year prison sentence and upholding the rule of law.
For Shiba Inu, however, the token’s near-term price direction is likely to remain driven more by broader cryptocurrency market sentiment than by the transfer alone.
At the time of writing, SHIB was trading at $0.000004158, reflecting a 1.21% drop in the past 24 hours.
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