Shiba Inu’s prominent lead developer Shytoshi Kusama finds himself at the center of controversy following a barrage of accusations levied by the account @shibburn on X (formerly Twitter). The alleged improprieties—ranging from unauthorized project endorsements to misleading the community—have reignited debates about transparency and leadership within the popular memecoin ecosystem.
In a series of pointed posts, @shibburn, widely regarded as the most popular SHIB burn tracker, criticized Shytoshi Kusama and unnamed associates, describing them as “scammers” and accusing them of manipulating narratives around the SHY token. The account wrote: “Utter ridiculousness from these two scammers. I also see @ShytoshiKusama and his inner circle trying to convince YOU that SHY wasn’t launched by him, that it was the ‘Solana Community.’ In other words they think you’re too stupid and will believe anything they tell you.”
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@shibburn further alleged that Shytoshi Kusama and his peers improperly declare certain projects as “official” Shiba Inu initiatives, stating: “These two are not leaders of SHIB, they have no authority to assign any project as ‘Official’ including their own projects.”
According to @shibburn’s posts, a new platform intended to serve the SHIB community is in the works—one that aims to be “free from misinformation” and without promotion of any “deceptive projects” tied to Kusama. The account elaborated: “I will be launching something for the community, providing a reliable and secure platform free from misinformation… strictly focused on SHIB, with no promotion of deceptive projects including Shytoshi’s Polygon clone or fake OS… There will be some control to prevent anyone spreading misinformation about these projects.”
The burn tracker also singled out specific ventures such as K9 finance, alleging the project is misleading the SHIB community by tying itself to the wider ecosystem: “The same goes to all projects claiming to be ‘Official SHIB projects’ like K9 finance. Whatever you’re promoting is directly tied to the pretend ‘SHIB leader’ @ShytoshiKusama, not to SHIB itself. Stop misleading the community by claiming SHIB’s backing. There are no official IP crossovers involved here.”
The drama unfolded over the past days amid speculation surrounding the SHY token. While Shytoshi Kusama’s high-profile presence often brings additional scrutiny to new Shiba Inu-adjacent projects, the SHIB team has repeatedly emphasized that SHY is not part of the official Shiba Inu token trio (SHIB, BONE, and LEASH) nor is it formally affiliated with the overarching Shiba Inu ecosystem.
Nonetheless, posts on X show that Kusama has engaged with SHY, including burning half of its supply—tokens allegedly sent to him via airdrop without prior notice—further fueling speculation that he may have a more direct role. Official channels, however, maintain that SHY is not an authorized offshoot of the Shiba Inu platform.
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Lucie (@LucieSHIB), Shiba Inu’s marketing lead, offered some clarity regarding the SHY token, reiterating that Kusama’s involvement does not equate to formal support: “SHY didn’t launch anything on Solana—someone just sent him half the supply, and he reacted in his usual way: burning, observing, and then stepping in when things started looking chaotic. Classic Shy move. Then, as the drama unfolded with rogue admins trying to scam their own community.”
When questioned by community members about why SHY was deployed on Solana instead of Shibarium, Lucie highlighted a post by fellow SHIB team member @Mazrael, who underscored the official Shiba Inu gateway “SHIB.IO is where it’s at.”
These statements appear designed to reinforce the notion that the SHIB ecosystem remains centralized around its core tokens and the nascent Shibarium Layer 2 network, despite splinter projects claiming affiliations
Notably, this is not the first time @shibburn has confronted Shytoshi Kusama and associated projects. Just last week, the burner account declared: “The self-entitled ‘Shib leaders’ and their fraudulent team are now creating pump-and-dump scam tokens of themselves, and using what many considered the ‘main account’ to shill it. What an absolute joke! To those who ignored the warnings… have your eyes finally been opened?”
In another message, @shibburn expressed disappointment: “Absolute joke! This whole situation is a real bummer. It’s disappointing to see people trying to exploit the community. We can learn from this and move forward with a stronger, more trustworthy community.” So far, Kusama has not publicly addressed these pointed critiques from @shibburn.
At press time, SHIB traded at $0.00001477.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
