Shiba Inu Founder Makes First Ever Public Appearance

Shytoshi Kusama, the lead developer and co-founder of the dog-themed memecoin project Shiba Inu, made his first public appearance over the weekend in Japan, wearing a unique outfit.

A tweet by the official Shiba X account shared a video showing Kusama meeting and greeting crypto enthusiasts at the just-concluded Japanese blockchain conference, IVS Crypto 2024 Kyoto.

Kusama Seen in Public

Despite making his first public appearance on July 5 at the crypto event, Kusama did not reveal his face. The Shiba Inu founder wore a black and ash outfit with a matching facemask. He was covered from head to toe, and no part of his skin was visible. 

The Shiba Inu project was launched in August 2020 by an anonymous person or group of creators named Ryoshi, mimicking the situation of Bitcoin and its pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Over the years, Shiba Inu has grown significantly, evolving from a mere memecoin to a project with a layer-2 network named Shibarium that has attracted notable development. In April, Shiba Inu raised $12 million through the sale of its unreleased token, TREAT, in a funding round comprising pre-seed and seed rounds for developing a new privacy-focused layer-3 blockchain.

Industry giants like Big Brain Holdings, Animoca Brands, and Polygon Ventures participated in the funding round, and the layer-3 protocol will be built on the Shibarium ecosystem.

Shiba Inu Sees Adoption

Besides the on-chain development on Shibarium, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has become one of the most popular memecoins in the industry and is gaining significant adoption in the traditional finance space. 

Earlier this month, air purification product development company Kronos Advanced Technologies announced that it would be accepting SHIB as a payment method for its air purifiers, becoming the first United States publicly listed company to do so. Not too long after, Spanish travel agency Block Travel made a similar announcement, also accepting SHIB as a payment method.

Shiba’s growth is not without negative news. Over the weekend, a Shibarium community X account warned users of fake Telegram channels promoting airdrops, token migrations, and other offers that require the connection of wallets to gain free assets. Other updates disclosed that some Shiba community X accounts and Telegram channels had been compromised, urging users to interact carefully.

Meanwhile, SHIB has recorded substantial growth in the past year but has been down in the past month, along with the broader crypto market.