Shytoshi Kusama is a fictitious name used by a SHIB co-founder and one of the leading Shiba Inu developers to veil his or her identity. This is similar to the case of the Bitcoin founder (or a group of founders), who used the name Satoshi Nakamoto as a pseudonym to hide their real identity. 

Despite the massive market success and over a million-strong social media following, the real identities of the Shiba Inu (SHIB) cryptocurrency 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.

Who is Shytoshi Kusama?

Shytoshi Kusama is the lead developer and co-founder of the Shiba Inu ecosystem and SHIB token. 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 Satoshi Nakamoto refers to a single person or a group of people, Shytoshi Kusama appears to be a single person, 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 in the Twitter space since January 2021. However, he started becoming very active on the social media platform in April 2021. 

According to Shytoshi, he was an active community member and social media poster on the Shibtoken Twitter account before becoming the developer for the project. 

From that point on, he has continued to use the same Shytoshy Kusama Twitter account to unveil several updates to the SHIB community. Shytoshi has gained massive popularity on Twitter as he continues to use the platform as an opportunity to attend to whatever complications are faced by members of the community. Shytoshi Kusama is very active in providing the latest updates on Shiba Inu, Shiba coin burns, and Shibarium, which has grown his Twitter followings to over 920,000 members.

In addition to his Twitter presence, the Shiba Inu co-founder is active on Instagram – under the “shytoshikusama” handle – and on Medium.

Who created the Shiba Inu coin?

Opening statements from the Shiba Inu whitepaper.

Although the creator of the Shiba Inu coin has refused to unwrap 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 lead developer in the Shiba Inu network, have worked effortlessly 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 over the volunteer project lead mantle.

What do we know about the Shiba Inu founder Ryoshi?

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 was thought to be in control of a blockchain address with over $200 million worth of crypto assets. However, the address was later linked to the Crypto.com exchange.

For years, the Shiba Inu community members had speculated about Shytoshi Kusama's net worth. Initially, clues for one of the wealthiest individual SHIB token holders were found through the Shiba Inu contract address on the Ethereum blockchain. In addition to being the address with the most SHIB tokens, many believe that the wallet address belongs to Shytoshi Kusama because it was discovered to have held SHIB since the coin was first released. 

At the time of writing, the blockchain wallet address which has been linked to Shytoshi Kusama has more than $56,000,000 in Shiba Inu coins. Accounting for other coins, the address holds digital assets worth more than $207,000,000.

However, in November 2022, Crypto.com released a list of cold wallet addresses in their possession. One of those addresses was none other than the address that was initially linked to Sythoshi.

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. It is worth noting that despite the 2022 market crash, SHIB performed better this year than numerous other cryptos, including crypto staples like Cardano, Solana, Avalanche, Polkadot, and Bitcoin Cash.

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 have been more apparent. The lead developer of Shiba Inu, Shyotshi Kusama, its creator, Ryoshi, and the broader Shiba Inu team, have managed to build one of the biggest ecosystems in the crypto market despite not putting themselves as individuals in the limelight.

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.