The Shiba Inu community has recently been confronted with controversial claims about the ownership of large SHIB wallets.
Some individuals have claimed they own several high-value SHIB addresses. These addresses control a massive portion of SHIB’s circulating supply. This has raised concerns about the potential market impact if these wallets are used for large-scale sales.
Shiba Inu Lead Debunks Ownership Claims
However, Shiba Inu lead developer Shytoshi Kusama has recently debunked these assertions. Kusama took to X to address these claims, urging caution among community members and dismissing the idea that any individuals outside of known exchanges control these large wallets.
It’s come to my attention that individuals have claimed to own the BILLION dollar Shib wallets. I suggest interested parties confirm this is the case before blindly believing such a wild claim. Here’s an easy way to confirm: 1/2
— Shytoshi Kusama™ (@ShytoshiKusama) October 14, 2024
He challenged anyone making such claims to provide clear proof of ownership before further misleading the community. According to Kusama, the claimants can easily prove their ownership by sending a specific amount of SHIB from the alleged wallet to another address, which would clearly validate their connection to the wallet in question.
The lead developer made it clear that unless someone can verify their claims by sending a precise number of SHIB tokens, investors should dismiss these statements as baseless. He cautioned the community to avoid falling victim to these misleading assertions, which could trigger unnecessary fear and affect market confidence.
Large Shiba Inu Holders
For context, data from Arkham Intelligence shows that the top 11 largest SHIB holders are exchanges, including major platforms like Binance, Upbit, Crypto.com, Robinhood, BitGo, and OKX.
These exchanges typically hold large amounts of SHIB on behalf of their users, and as such, these wallets do not belong to individuals.
However, the top 20 SHIB holders include six addresses that are not tied to exchanges. Each of these six addresses holds 5 trillion SHIB tokens, making them some of the most important non-exchange wallets in the ecosystem.
Collectively, these addresses hold 30 trillion SHIB tokens, which represents around 5% of the total circulating supply. Interestingly, five of these addresses received their tokens in November 2021 from another address, identified by “0x2…e5E”
The “0x0…81d” address, in turn, received its tokens from yet another address between February and March 2021. Despite the large amount of SHIB held by these wallets, no tokens have been moved in nearly three years. The Crypto Basic called attention to these addresses in April.
This prolonged inactivity has triggered speculation within the community, as market participants wonder about the identity and intentions of the wallets’ owners. The lack of movement suggests that these addresses are either held by long-term investors or belong to entities waiting for a specific event before taking any action.
While the claims regarding ownership of these wallets remain unproven, the Shiba Inu community remains cautious. Large-scale sales from these wallets could potentially cause volatility in the SHIB market. However, Kusama’s response seeks to help ease some of these concerns.
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