Dogecoin and Shiba Inu fell sharply on June 5 as Bitcoin slid toward the $60,000 level, with SHIB dropping nearly 10% and DOGE losing over 8% in 24 hours amid a broad crypto deleveraging event.
The selloff hit meme coins harder than the wider market. Shiba Inu traded at $0.000004537, down 9.70% in 24 hours, while Dogecoin fell to $0.08199, a decline of roughly 8% over the same period. CoinDesk framed both tokens as dropping about 9%, though independently sourced market data showed DOGE’s move was slightly smaller.
SHIB’s market cap fell to roughly $2.68 billion, while DOGE held at approximately $12.6 billion. The declines came as heavy volume and liquidations overwhelmed support levels for both tokens, according to CoinDesk.
Bitcoin’s Slide Toward $60,000 Set the Tone
Bitcoin was the anchor for the broader move. BTC traded near $61,142, down about 3.9% in 24 hours, with an intraday low of $60,137.84, just above the psychologically important $60,000 threshold.
The day before, Bitcoin had briefly dropped below $62,000 as more than $1.5 billion in leveraged crypto long positions were liquidated across exchanges. That wave of forced selling set the stage for continued weakness in risk-on assets like meme coins.
Bitcoin dominance climbed to roughly 56%, a sign that capital was rotating out of altcoins and into BTC during the selloff. The pattern is typical of broad deleveraging episodes, where smaller-cap tokens lose ground faster than major assets.
Extreme Fear Grips Crypto Sentiment
The Crypto Fear and Greed Index sat at 12, deep in “Extreme Fear” territory. That reading reflected the risk-off mood across both meme coins and the broader market.
No single regulatory catalyst drove the decline. The fetched evidence pointed instead to ETF flow weakness, macro rate expectations, and broad risk-off positioning as the backdrop. Separate developments on exchanges, including Bybit’s decision to terminate withdrawals for several smaller tokens, underscored the cautious environment across the industry.
The meme coin pullback also arrived as the broader crypto ecosystem dealt with infrastructure shifts. Binance’s upcoming support for the NEAR network upgrade and Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot with Brale highlighted that institutional activity continued in the background, even as speculative tokens sold off.
For traders watching DOGE and SHIB, the immediate signal was clear: meme coins amplified Bitcoin’s losses by a factor of two to three. Until BTC stabilizes above $60,000, that leverage cuts both ways.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.
