Shiba Inu (SHIB), the world’s second-largest meme coin, has been grabbing attention in the cryptocurrency markets lately, sparking curiosity and raising questions about its potential.

On July 6, crypto onchain analytics firm Santiment highlighted the significant rise in the creation of new daily addresses for Shiba Inu, averaging over 2,500 per day in the past couple of weeks. In a tweet, the firm noted that while the price performance of SHIB may have been underwhelming in the past year, there is hope behind one of 2021’s favourite meme coins.

Delving deeper into the underlying trends, the firm highlighted several factors contributing to the positive spin on Shiba Inu’s recent developments. First, the network growth of SHIB has been quite high lately, indicating increasing interest and engagement. Additionally, the network realized profit loss is completely underwater, which suggests that investors who bought SHIB are still holding onto their tokens despite potential losses. Furthermore, the supply of SHIB on exchanges is at its lowest point since 2022, indicating a decrease in available tokens for trading.

According to the firm, the implications of this situation can be interpreted from two different perspectives. On the one hand, the sudden attention on meme coins like SHIB could be seen as “a toppish indicator”, potentially signalling a market top or peak, which could imply market saturation or a future decline.

On the other hand, Santiment argued that the recent surge in interest could also bring new life into SHIB, which was flying under the radar.

“As suggested by our proprietary metrics, daily active addresses for SHIB were lacklustre before this surge in interest, indicating a newfound demand for the token,” the firm wrote.

Moreover, the surging interest in Shiba Inu can also be attributed to anticipation around the mainnet launch of Shibarium, the ecosystem’s layer-2 scaling solution. Over the past few months, speculations around the product have been on the rise, with several proponents in the community, including Shiba Inu devs, suggesting that release dates may be closer than expected.

Notably, in the latest blog, Shytoshi Kusama dropped another hint at Shibarium launching in August while announcing Shib’s sponsorship of the Blockchain Futurist Conference, Eth Toronto, and Eth Women, set to be held in Toronto that month. According to the lead developer, the event will serve as a platform to showcase completed projects, including Shibarium.

Furthermore, Shibarium Beta Testnet, or Puppynet, has also seen significant adoption and engagement. According to data from Puppyscan, the total transactions and the number of wallet addresses connected to the Shiba Inu layer-2 test network have reached new highs of $27.37M and 17M, respectively.

These developments, combined with the ongoing substantial investments in SHIB by investors, are anticipated to ignite the upcoming bull run for the cryptocurrency to the highly envisioned $0.001 price point. At press time, SHIB traded at $0.000007518 after a 0.36% drop in the past day.