SHIB Plunges 9% on Apparent Shibarium Bridge Issues

An important tool for the new layer 2 service went live on Wednesday to a turbulent start.

Bridge (Unsplash modified by CoinDesk)

Shiba inu (SHIB) tokens slumped some 9% in the past 24 hours as users widely reported bridging issues after the much-hyped Shibarium network went live late on Wednesday.

Blockchain data shows transactions on the network were stalled for at least five hours as of writing time. Users had transferred 954 ether (ETH), worth $1.7 million at current prices, and $750,000 worth of bone (BONE), a Shibarium governance token, to the contract.

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CoinDesk confirmed, as of Thursday morning, that a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) to add the Shibarium network to a commonly-used crypto wallet failed to work.

Users were blocked from sending messages on a community forum on Discord shortly after initial reports of the issues began, CoinDesk confirmed.

Bridges are blockchain-based tools that transfer tokens between different networks. These remain one of the most important – yet a very vulnerable – part of the crypto market.

The apparent faulty launch for Shibarium stutters what was supposed to be the gateway to a vibrant and cheap ecosystem. The network is part of a broader plan to position Shiba Inu as a serious blockchain project, away from the meme coin status it has enjoyed since its August 2020 issuance.

Shibarium joins an increasingly crowded blockchain landscape; there are at least 50 other networks hoping to lure users with low fees to an ecosystem focused mainly on financial services and gaming.

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The network utilizes bone (BONE), SHIB and leash (LEASH) tokens for applications built on the blockchain and is said to have a focus on metaverse and gaming applications.

However, each of these tokens was down in the past 24 hours. Bone dropped 13% while LEASH fell 25% as community sentiment soured.