Shiba Inu launches on Solana via Wormhole-backed Sunrise gateway
Shiba Inu (SHIB), the Ethereum-based meme coin, has launched on Solana through Sunrise, a cross-chain token gateway backed by Wormhole Labs, abandoning its years-long strategy of steering holders only toward its own Shibarium network. The move drops SHIB into Solana’s meme-coin arena just as Bonk (BONK), the chain’s dominant dog-themed token, trades at its weakest level since November 2023.
- SHIB gained 3.89% in the 24 hours after the Solana listing went live, per BeInCrypto price data, and is up 2.69% over the past week.
- SHIB remains roughly 93% below its October 2021 all-time high despite the short-term rally.
- Solana base transaction fees run 0.000005 SOL, a fraction of a cent, versus Ethereum fees that fluctuate with network demand.
- 3.89% SHIB’s 24-hour gain after the Solana listing went live
- 93% SHIB’s decline from its October 2021 record high
- Aug ’23 BONK slid to its lowest level since November 2023 after Upbit announced a delisting
SHIB is now live on Solana for the first time, routed through Sunrise, a token gateway that lets assets move between blockchains as the original, or canonical, token rather than a wrapped copy. The bridge runs on Wormhole’s Native Token Transfers standard, and Solana confirmed the listing on its official account on Sunday, October 4, 2026, first reported by BeInCrypto. The SHIB team followed up the next day with its own post on Monday, October 5, 2026, confirming the expansion.
Sunrise Makes SHIB a Canonical Asset, Not a Wrapped Token
Sunrise’s design matters for institutional desks because it avoids the custody and redemption risk tied to wrapped assets, where a bridge contract holds the original token while issuing a synthetic version elsewhere. Monad’s MON token was Sunrise’s first listing before SHIB became its second, giving the gateway an early track record with at least one other major asset.
Wormhole Labs built the underlying NTT standard specifically to let tokens retain a single, verifiable supply across chains rather than fragment liquidity into competing wrapped markets.
For SHIB, that distinction is the entire pitch to traders.
Shibarium’s Collapse Pushed SHIB Toward a Rival Chain
The expansion breaks years of SHIB strategy that funneled holders exclusively toward Shibarium, the project’s in-house layer-2 network. Earlier in 2026, on-chain data showed Shibarium usage collapsing at the same time SHIB traded near multi-year lows, leaving the token without a strong home-chain narrative.
Solana offers a ready-made alternative audience and a cost advantage: its 0.000005 SOL base fee per transaction compares favorably with Ethereum, where fees swing with network congestion and can spike during busy periods.
That cost gap is the same dynamic drawing other projects to Solana’s infrastructure, including the OUSD stablecoin launch and the rise of perpetuals trading tools built for the chain’s retail user base.
Solana Warns of Fake SHIB Tokens on tokens.xyz
Unofficial tokens using the SHIB name already circulate on Solana, a risk the network addressed directly by urging traders to verify the official contract address on tokens.xyz before transacting.
That warning underscores the practical hazard of chain-hopping meme assets: liquidity migrates faster than verification tools can keep pace, leaving an opening for impersonator contracts to capture mistaken volume.
Whether SHIB’s Solana debut draws durable trading volume, rather than a one-day price pop, will determine if other Ethereum-based tokens follow the same Sunrise route.
The CCS read. We read this less as a Solana story than a Shibarium one. A token team abandoning its own layer-2 for a rival chain’s liquidity signals Shibarium failed to generate the usage needed to retain holders, and treasury strategy built around that network now looks weaker than the price chart suggests.
The next signal to watch is whether SHIB’s Solana trading volume holds once the announcement-driven rally fades, and whether Sunrise lands a third major token after Monad’s MON and SHIB to prove the gateway can scale beyond its first two listings.