Bitcoin News Today: Privacy Demands Drive Monero Past Shiba Inu in Market Shift

The Shiba Inu (SHIB) community is emphasizing long-term utility over short-term price fluctuations, as the meme token navigates a turbulent market landscape marked by phishing threats, surging token burns, and shifting investor priorities toward privacy-focused cryptocurrencies. While SHIB's market cap remains at $5.87 billion, trailing Monero (XMR) at $6.11 billion, the project's leadership has called for patience, highlighting structural advantages amid broader sector trends.

Monero's recent 8.22% price increase to $331.52, reported by Coinotag, has propelled it to 21st on CoinMarketCap, surpassing Shiba Inu for the first time since its launch. This shift reflects a broader reallocation of capital toward privacy coins, which offer fungibility and confidential transactions. Monero's 24-hour trading volume of $210 million outpaced SHIB's $181 million, underscoring growing demand for assets with inherent utility. Analysts like Mert from Solana's Helius argue that privacy is "non-negotiable" for mainstream adoption, predicting sustained growth for tokens like Monero despite regulatory challenges.

Meanwhile, Shiba Inu faces its own challenges. The project issued an urgent warning about a phishing scam mimicking official platforms, with scammers luring users to connect wallets to fraudulent sites. The Shiba Inu team reiterated that Shib.io remains the sole verified hub for ecosystem activities, urging users to report suspicious links and revoke token approvals via tools like revoke.cash.

Despite these risks, Shiba Inu's token burn rate has surged dramatically, offering a counterbalance to market volatility. Data from Shibburn shows a 1,224.3% spike in burns over 24 hours, removing 920,761 SHIB tokens from circulation. While some reports cite an 836,955% surge, the discrepancy highlights the volatile nature of burn metrics, driven by low baselines and community-driven efforts to reduce supply. Over the past week, 229 million SHIB tokens have been burned, representing 1,290.42% growth. These deflationary measures aim to enhance scarcity, though SHIB's price remains below $0.000010, reflecting broader market weakness.

The broader crypto ecosystem is also evolving. Traditional asset managers are entering the space, with T. Rowe Price filing for an actively managed crypto ETF covering assets like SHIB, XRP, and Solana. This move, part of a $1.8 trillion firm's expansion into digital assets, signals growing institutional legitimacy for cryptocurrencies. However, the SEC's backlog of 155+ ETF applications-including those for XRP and Solana-remains stalled due to the U.S. government shutdown.

Bitcoin's trajectory also dominates the narrative, with analysts forecasting that Bitcoin could reach $160,000 in 2025. Bull Theory projects that even a 0.2% reallocation of global assets into crypto could inject $93.8 billion into Bitcoin, leveraging its liquidity multiplier to boost market capitalization. This optimism is bolstered by institutional inflows exceeding $100 billion and declining volatility, narrowing Bitcoin's gap with traditional safe-haven assets like gold.

For Shiba Inu, the path forward hinges on balancing community-driven initiatives with macroeconomic headwinds. While burn rates and ecosystem upgrades like Shibarium's plasma bridge aim to stabilize value, the project must contend with whale selling and stagnant TVL. Smart money traders have dumped 10% of their SHIB holdings in 30 days, reducing their stake to 46.8 billion tokens.