Shytoshi Kusama, the lead developer of Shiba Inu, has publicly addressed growing concerns within the community regarding his commitment to the project. After a prolonged period of silence on social media—his last post was on August 5—speculation mounted that he might be distancing himself from SHIB, especially following a recent security incident.
Kusama firmly denied these allegations, calling them "utterly preposterous" in a tweet on September 15, 2025. He clarified that his absence was due to a focused effort on developing artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives intended to benefit all tokens within the Shiba Inu ecosystem, including SHIB, BONE, and TREAT. He emphasized ongoing collaboration with key developers like Kaal Dhairya and assured the community that official updates would be shared through proper channels.
The concerns were exacerbated by a flash loan attack on Shibarium that resulted in losses of 224.57 ETH and 92.6 billion SHIB (totaling nearly $3 million). The attacker borrowed 4.6 million BONE tokens to gain validator control, though proactive measures prevented a larger breach. Kusama confirmed that the team is actively addressing the incident and planning next steps.