Key Insights:
- The Meme coin market cap fell 7.4% in 24 hours after the Shibarium attack drained $3 million.
- Dogecoin dropped 8.4%, Shiba Inu 6.4%, and PEPE 7.8%, pulling the sector down.
- Despite losses, analysts see upside from Dogecoin’s ETF, SHIB’s support, and PEPE’s long-term targets.
Meme coins looked strong during the second week of September. Their total value went up by almost 9%, reaching about $77 billion. But in the last 24 hours, things turned the other way.
The meme coin market lost 7.4%. The biggest coins: Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and PEPE, all went down. Dogecoin dropped 8.4%, Shiba Inu fell 6.4%, and PEPE lost 7.8%.
Even smaller coins like Bonk and Fartcoin went down about 10%. Because these top coins hold most of the value, their fall pulled the whole meme coin market lower. The main reason for this drop is the Shibarium hack. But that might not be the only one.
What Happened in the Shibarium Hack
Shibarium is a blockchain built for Shiba Inu. It has a “bridge,” which is like a door that lets people move coins between Shibarium and other blockchains. Hackers found a way to take money from this bridge. Almost $3 million worth of coins were stolen.
Here is how it happened in simple words.
Shibarium is run by “validators.” These are special computers that sign and approve transactions. Normally, at least two-thirds of them must agree to confirm something. But one validator linked to Ryoshi Labs made a fake request. Ten out of twelve validators signed it.
At the same time, the hacker used something called a “flash loan.” This is when someone borrows a lot of tokens for a very short time, just for one action.
The hacker borrowed 6.4 million BONE tokens and gave them to the Ryoshi validator. This increased its power to more than 66%. With this control, the hacker was able to confirm fake transactions. That let them move money out of the bridge and steal it.
This was a shock because the bridge held user funds. People who had given money for trading and transfers saw about $2.3 million disappear.
Why the Response Made People Worry
The hack was bad, but the response from the Shiba Inu team raised new doubts. The team stopped staking and moved the rest of the bridge money into “cold storage,” offline wallets they control.
Many people thought Shibarium was fully controlled by smart contracts, meaning no one could change or stop it. But this showed the team still had the power to pause the system and move funds. That means it is more centralized than people expected.
For many blockchain projects, such news would kill trust.
But Shiba Inu is not like normal projects. It is a meme coin, and its community values the brand and culture more than the tech. Because of that, SHIB’s price even went up briefly after the news that funds are being moved out.
How DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, and Other Meme Coins Reacted
Dogecoin fell 8.4%, but traders are still watching it closely. The first-ever Dogecoin ETF will launch in the U.S. during the third week of September. An ETF is a financial product that lets normal investors buy Dogecoin in a safer, regulated way.
This launch could bring more demand for DOGE in the long term. Analysts also point out $0.355 as the next big barrier for DOGE to cross.
Some signals even suggest the recent dip might be a buying chance.
Shiba Inu dropped 6.4%. Right now, it trades near $0.000013. Traders say the next big “sell wall” is at $0.0000155.
If SHIB can move past that, it would show strength. Other analysts on X are also expecting SHIB to move big.
PEPE lost 7.8%, but analysts remain positive. Some believe it could rise toward $0.0001 in the short term.
The Shibarium hack shows that meme coins can face sudden problems. A single event can affect not only one coin but the whole meme coin market. At the same time, meme coins are different from other projects. They are less about technology and more about community. That is why Shiba Inu’s price did not collapse completely even after the hack.
And what’s interesting is that the Shibarium hack might not be the only catalyst for the drop. The entire crypto market seems to be in a cooldown phase, right before the FOMC meeting. With rate cuts expected to come in, cashing out and pulling the market down might be deliberate and not sentiment-driven.
Yet, Dogecoin’s ETF launch could keep attention on meme coins. Shiba Inu’s community remains strong, and PEPE still has active traders betting on higher prices. So the broader meme coin space might just be worth tracking.
DOGE ETF Could Help the Entire Meme Coin Space
In short, the market for meme coins is weak right now, but it is not finished. These coins have a history of falling fast and bouncing back just as quickly. The question is not if they can rise again after the Shibarium attack, but when.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2025/09/15/meme-coin-meltdown-dogecoin-shiba-inu-pepe-worst-hit-after-shibarium-attack/
