Shiba Inu’s highly anticipated layer-2 scaling solution, Shibarium, has encountered a tumultuous journey shortly after its mainnet launch on the Ethereum network. The platform’s bridge, a critical component facilitating seamless asset transfers between Shibarium and Ethereum, reportedly faced technical difficulties, leaving users and investors concerned.
According to Colin Wu, a Chinese crypto reporter, in an X post, the incident coincided with a surge in user activity and transactions, leading to $1.7 million worth of Ethereum trapped within the bridge. As a result, Shiba Inu’s value plummeted by 14%, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding the situation.
According to Beosin monitoring, the transaction on Shibarium, Shiba Inu's Layer 2 solution, is in a pending state. Currently, $1.7 million in ETH is locked on the Shibarium cross-chain bridge. Users are advised to temporarily stop using Shibarium. During the Shibarium testnet,…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) August 17, 2023
However, in response to these challenges, Shytoshi Kusama, the lead developer of Shibarium, took to a blog post to address the community’s concerns. Kusama emphasized that the problems were not intrinsic to Shibarium’s design but rather arose from the overwhelming demand that followed the platform’s launch.
“Our team has been working tirelessly to bolster our infrastructure and accommodate the influx of users into our decentralized ecosystem,” Kusama reassured.
The scale of the incoming traffic left analysts astounded. According to data from Alchemy, Shibarium encountered 160 million compute units within a mere half-hour, rivaling the activity levels of the most bustling layer-2 blockchains. Kusama highlighted the disparity between their expected and actual traffic, stating, “While we were anticipating heightened activity, the sheer volume of traffic exceeded our wildest projections.”
One noteworthy development from this incident is Kusama’s intention to introduce Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) to all Shiba Inu projects. This blockchain-based digital identity solution promises to revolutionize security measures across the ecosystem, potentially mitigating similar incidents in the future.
Amid these technical challenges, the market reacted with a 7.83% decline in Shiba Inu’s value over the past 24 hours, pulling the price to $0.000008374, per CoinMarketCap. Technical indicators have portrayed a bearish trend, with the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) signaling a crossover and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) stabilizing around the midpoint.
The focus now shifts to the potential price trajectory. Shiba Inu hovers below the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), so a reversal rally could reclaim the $0.000010 mark.
Amid these obstacles, Shibarium’s developers remain resolute in their commitment to resolving the technical glitches and scaling the platform to meet the ever-growing demand. While the recent turbulence may have shaken investor confidence, the underlying potential of Shiba Inu’s ecosystem and its ambitious scaling solution continue to captivate the crypto community’s attention.
