The meme-inspired cryptocurrency Shiba Inu ($SHIB) has showed early signs of a potential price upswing after decoupling from other altcoins, at a time in which large SHIB holders, colloquially known as whales, keep on accumulating.

According to data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment, the group of large wallets that keep accumulating SHIB aren’t those belonging to cryptocurrency exchnages. Cryptocurrency exchanges would represent the value of SHIB owned by the exchange’s users, while non-exchange wallets represent individual whales and suggest a long-term investment strategy.

The top 150 exchange wallets, according to Santiment, have seen a sharp decline in their SHIB holdings over the past month, representing a decrease of 5.53 trillion tokens. Conversely, non-exchange whales have amassed a substantial amount of SHIB during this period, with their holdings growing by roughly 6.57 trillion tokens.

🐳😼 Shiba Inu had a mini decoupling from other altcoins over the weekend and is up a modest +5% in the past 48 hours. Holders will be pleased with the fact that non-exchange whales continue accumulating, while exchange whale bags are shrinking. 👌 pic.twitter.com/U5Ud5LfBUp

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) July 9, 2024

Traditionally, investors store cryptocurrencies on exchanges so these are easily accessible if they want to sell them. Therefore, a decrease in exchange holdings can be interpreted as a decline in the available supply of SHIB for immediate sale.

The whale accumulation comes at a time in which Kronos Advanced Technology, a firm engaged in the development, manufacturing, and distribution of advanced air purification and filtration systems, announced its decision to accept SHIB as a payment method for its air purifiers.

he company, founded in 1980, aims to address air quality issues by providing devices that eliminate allergens, bacteria, viruses, and other contaminants from indoor air. Their product line includes air purifiers and personal protective equipment like self-sterilizing graphene air purification devices.

According to the a recent press release issued by the firm, this move makes it “the first public company to accept the SHIB token.” Kronos states that, as of 2024, there are approximately 1.38 million Shiba Inu wallet holders.

Featured image via Unsplash.