Shibarium is the Layer 2 chain of Shiba Inu in the Ethereum blockchain, launched in August 2023 to facilitate cheaper transactions and provide an execution environment for Shiba Inu. There was a sharp increase in the number of wallets on Shibarium from approximately 100,000 to over 330,000 in late August 2023.
However, the platform has seen much growth since then. Shiba Inu’s website currently features more than 800 million transactions and 2 million activated wallets.
Shibarium was built to move Shiba Inu beyond a meme token
Shibarium is a Layer 2 blockchain built upon Ethereum but which enables processing of transactions outside of Ethereum’s main execution layer. Chain ID 109 and BONE are identified by the official documentation of Shiba Inu as the currency used in the network.
Such an approach provides the Shiba Inu ecosystem with an opportunity to run decentralized applications, token transfers, decentralized finance, and other on-chain operations without having all of them processed on Ethereum. SHIB is still the most recognizable token of the ecosystem, but BONE serves as the gas in Shibarium.
The wallet surge happened shortly after the 2023 launch
The phrase “tripled overnight” concerns Shibarium’s first days and not an event scheduled for 2026. The number of wallet addresses grew from slightly over 100,000 to over 330,000 in less than two days after the Shibarium Bridge became available.
This growth took place against the backdrop of a difficult launch, as Shibarium launched on August 16, 2023, but the next day saw heavy traffic on the network, resulting in slow transactions, with some users finding their funds stuck in the bridge between Ethereum and Shibarium.
Current Shibarium metrics show a much larger network
The scale of the network has significantly increased since the early days. The most recent statistics for Shiba Inu’s ShibOS state that there have been over 800 million transactions performed on the blockchain and over 2 million activated Shibarium wallets, thus indicating that the network has surpassed its initial millions-of-wallets milestone.
Furthermore, independently available data points to the fact that one cannot rely solely on wallet numbers to measure activity on the network.
Source: DefiLiama
As recently reported by DefiLlama, Shibarium’s DeFi TVL stood at around $193,000 and decentralized-exchange trading volume stood at $6.15 per day.
Wallet counts do not equal active users
Blockchain addresses do not necessarily represent a distinct human user; a single individual can operate multiple addresses, as well as automatic programs can create and use various addresses. It makes cumulative wallet number statistics important when evaluating the network reach, but insufficient for proving adoption.
The importance of such separation became apparent when estimating Shibarium’s growth due to the possibility of rapid increases in the number of addresses without an increase in transaction volumes. Present network statistics should be taken into account together with active addresses, transactions, fees, DeFi liquidity and usage.
Shibarium also carries security and execution risks
The progress of the network has not always gone smoothly. In September 2025, a hacker was able to hack Shibarium’s validators’ signing rights, exploiting the bridge, and the developers had to suspend staking and transfer funds into a multisig wallet.
The event proved that the Layer 2 architecture and bridge may present security threats despite the good usage numbers. The episode is a caution for users and investors evaluating Shibarium. Low fees and high address counts can support utility, but they do not eliminate smart-contract, validator, bridge or liquidity risks.
Shibarium is moving toward privacy-focused infrastructure
In addition, Shiba Inu is moving toward a privacy-oriented approach for Shibarium using fully homomorphic encryption, known as FHE. The project claims that the upcoming testnet using FHE will give developers and users an opportunity to conduct experiments involving transaction data and computation using an environment compatible with EVM.
The significance of the initiative comes from the fact that competition in the Ethereum Layer 2 space no longer rests on transaction fees alone. Shibarium will need apps, liquidity, sound infrastructure, and real users to prove its viability.
FAQs
What is Shibarium?
Shibarium is a Layer 2 blockchain that was created exclusively for the Shiba Inu blockchain network. Shibarium blockchain was designed to allow fast and inexpensive transactions for various applications.
How many transactions have been performed on the Shibarium?
Shibarium has reached the milestone of having 1 billion transactions recently according to their network reports. Before reaching this milestone, the number of transactions in the Shiba Inu network was over 800 million transactions.
How many wallets does Shibarium have?
There are currently more than 2 million activated wallets reported in Shibarium by Shiba Inu. But activated wallets do not always mean 2 million individual active users.
