Shytoshi Kusama is a fictitious name used by a SHIB co-founder and one of the leading developers of the Shiba Inu project developers. This is similar to the case of the Bitcoin founder, who used the name Satoshi Nakamoto as a pseudonym to hide their real identity.
Despite their massive success and a social media reach of over a million followers, the real identities Shiba Inu cryptocurrency project’s founders have remained shrouded in mystery to this day. While we know that Shytoshy Kusama is the lead developer and co-founder of the Shiba Inu ecosystem, we don’t know his name, age, or any other personal information.
In this article, we will examine Shytoshi Kusama’s background, net worth, and more.
Key highlights:
- Shytoshi Kusama is the pseudonym used by the lead developer of the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency project.
- Shytoshi Kusama’s real identity is still unknown, although he remains active on multiple social media platforms, sharing news about Shiba Inu’s progress.
- It’s important to understand that Shytoshi Kusama is not the founder of Shiba Inu. The project was founded by someone using the pseudonym Ryoshi, who left the cryptocurrency space in 2022.
Who is Shytoshi Kusama?
Shytoshi Kusama is the lead developer and co-founder of the Shiba Inu project. While Shytoshi Kusama’s identity remains a mystery, the developer has consistently remained committed to the project’s development since its inception while refusing to disclose his name or any other personal information.
While it is still unclear whether the name Satoshi Nakamoto refers to a single person or a group of people, it seems pretty clear that the Shytoshi Kusama pseudonym is used by a single individual, deducing from some of his statements. Here’s one of Shytoshi Kusama’s earliest tweets:
Oh man… 3500 followers. Nice to meet you all. Now that I’m not on the official @Shibtoken Twitter anymore…this is just my little corner of the world to vent and talk. Life is crazy right now but I’m so proud of the community I am humbly part of.
— Shytoshi Kusama™ (@ShytoshiKusama) April 21, 2021
Shytoshi Kusama has been present on the X (formerly known as Twitter) social media platform since January 2021. However, he started becoming very active on the social media platform in April 2021. He continues to be highly active on X as of January 2025, publishing posts on a practically daily basis.
According to Shytoshi, he was an active community member and social media poster on the Shibtoken X account before becoming the lead developer for the project.
From that point on, he has continued to use the same X account to unveil several updates to the SHIB community. Shytoshi has gained massive popularity on X as he continues to use the platform to address questions from the Shiba Inu community and receive feedback about the project’s progress. Shytoshi Kusama is also very active in providing the latest updates on Shiba Inu, Shiba coin burns, and Shibarium, which has helped grow his X following to over 1 million users. Recently, Shytoshi’s public communication has focused on TREAT, an upcoming token in the Shiba Inu ecosystem.
In addition to his Twitter presence, the Shiba Inu co-founder is also active on Instagram and Medium. Shytoshi Kusama also occasionally publishes posts on the official Shiba Inu blog. His most recent blog post was published in November 2024, and outlined a strategic plan to create a Strategic Hub for Innovation and Blockchain (S.H.I.B) in the United States.
Who created the Shiba Inu coin?
Opening statements from the Shiba Inu whitepaper.
Although the creator of the Shiba Inu coin has refused to reveal his identity to the public, he is widely known for his “Ryoshi” handle. Since the emergence of the Shiba ecosystem in August 2020, the project has managed to attract the interest of many crypto users and has grown to become one of the most popular crypto projects in the world.
Ryoshi, Shiba Inu’s creator, and Shytoshi Kusama, the project’s lead developer, have worked to build new features, optimize existing protocols, and galvanize the community to promote SHIB on the internet. In a way, it is very surprising they have managed to remain anonymous so far. In May 2022, Ryoshi stated that he would get out of crypto. Since then, Shytoshi Kusama has taken on the mantle to lead the Shiba Inu project.
What do we know about Ryoshi, the founder of Shiba Inu?
Ryoshi has been confirmed as the creator of the Shiba Inu coin. Following many efforts and various inquiries to disclose more details on his true identity, Ryoshi published a blog post in May 2022, letting the community know that it was enough to know his fake name and that making efforts to uncover his identity was unnecessary. Although the blog post has since been deleted, his statement is quoted below:
“I have said from the beginning, I am a nobody, I am not important. The efforts to unmask my “identity” even if successful would be underwhelming. I am just some guy of no consequence tapping at a keyboard and I am replaceable. I am Ryoshi.”
Announcing his decision to exit the crypto space, he encouraged the community members to take the SHIB journey forward, noting that he is not paramount for the success of the project, and would be gone without notice. While the motivation for his actions is not clear, the fact remains that the SHIB founder abruptly disappeared and deleted his tweets and Medium blog.
Although the reason for Ryoshi’s exit and decision to stay anonymous remains unknown, it appears that Ryoshi used the sudden departure as a way to highlight the point that SHIB is a decentralized token that belongs to the community and not him alone. By staying anonymous and making the development of the project open to the community members, Ryoshi believes that this will make everyone accountable for the progress of the network and its future.
After Ryoshi’s departure, Shytoshi Kusama said that the Shiba Inu developers would “actualize Ryoshi’s vision and plan for this grand experiment.”
Shytoshi Kusama’s net worth
Shytoshi Kusama’s exact net worth is not publicly known, although it’s fairly safe to assume he owns a substantial amount of cryptocurrency thanks to his close involvement with Shiba Inu, a project that went from being completely unknown to hitting a multi-billion dollar market capitalization in just a few short years.
The blockchain intelligence platform Arkham Intelligence tracks a wallet that’s tagged as belonging to Shytoshi Kusama. At the time of writing, this wallet only holds a modest $6,300 worth of cryptocurrency, but it made much larger transactions in the past. At its peak, the wallet held crypto assets totaling close to $6 million, but the tokens have since been moved to other wallets and to cryptocurrency exchanges. We believe it’s still likely that Shytoshi Kusama owns millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency, but tracking his net worth is difficult.
At one point, a wallet identified as belonging to Shytoshi Kusama held nearly $6 million worth of cryptocurrency. Image source: Arkham Intelligence
In any case, given the large exposure to the price movement of SHIB, Kusama’s net worth almost certainly hinges upon Shiba Inu’s market performance.
The bottom line: Shytoshi Kusama is anonymous lead developer in the Shiba Inu ecosystem
Although some bad actors may have adopted the anonymous trend to rip people off, anonymity in and of itself does not automatically imply scams, nor does it indicate malicious intent. In the case of Shiba Inu, this could not be more apparent. The team behind Shiba Inu has managed to build one of the biggest ecosystems in the crypto market despite not putting themselves in the limelight as individuals.
Their decisions echo the core principle of Shiba Inu – a cryptocurrency that is owned by and developed by its decentralized community.
If you want to learn more about Shiba Inu, check our SHIB price predictions for 2040 and 2050, and what factors could help Shiba Inu reach 1 cent.
