Crypto influencer Ben Armstrong, also known as BitBoy Crypto, recently asserted that Neyma Jahan, founder of public/private blockchain hybrid Unification, is the mysterious creator of the meme coin Shiba Inu. Initially, BitBoy noticed a connection between Sam Bankman-Fried and Shiba Inu through an OpenSea account named “Alameda Research.” However, BitBoy’s sources later confirmed no link between SBF and Shiba Inu, attributing the confusion to a wallet discrepancy in Shiba Inu’s early days.
Instead, BitBoy suggested that the professional networking chat group Karma DAO could reveal Shiba Inu’s founder. Its member index included former FTX executives Sam Bankman-Fried, Ryan Salame, and the aforementioned Neyma Jahan. According to Armstrong, Karma DAO incubated Project Serum, a Solana DEX created by Bankman-Fried, and Unification, a project that was crucial in developing Shibarium and ShibaSwap.
Jahan Refutes Claims
BitBoy highlighted that a community organizer within Karma DAO’s Telegram account had “fund” appended to their name, the ticker symbol for Unification. Based on firsthand screenshots, he claimed that the community organizer had sent $6 billion in SHIB to Vitalik Buterin to generate hype around the token. As per reports, SHIB’s founders sent Buterin the SHIB in May 2021. However, the Ethereum co-founder burned 90% of the tokens, asserting that no one should have that much power.
In a Twitter thread, Jahan denied BitBoy’s claims that the Unification CEO had business ties with Sam Bankman-Fried, stating that he had only been in the room once with the former FTX co-founder. Despite his enthusiasm for blockchain technology, Jahan affirmed that he had withdrawn from the public eye due to the attention. Armstrong contended that Jahan posted the disclaimer to deflect attention from his family because he is a SHIB billionaire.
A pseudonymous Twitter user, IamT, identified four individuals believed to be associated with founding SHIB: Jahan, his partner, Andrew Lee, and Michael Song.
Enter Shib Original Vision ($SOV)
In response to the controversy, Shytoshi Kusama — the pseudonymous lead developer for the Shiba Inu ecosystem — criticized BitBoy on Twitter for spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) within the Shiba Inu community. He also took a swipe at BitBoy, who is named in a $1 billion class-action lawsuit against alleged paid FTX promoters. BitBoy has denied the allegations in the lawsuit and announced plans to file a countersuit for defamation.
Following these events, Karma DAO launched Shib Original Vision ($SOV) to dismantle Shiba Inu’s existing framework and revert to a community-focused approach. Decisions regarding $SOV are made by the Inu Economic Forum, which has over 50 members, as opposed to a single person like Ryoshi.
As part of its launch, $SOV intended to airdrop 80% of its supply to active SHIB wallet holders. Additionally, some users had a random chance to receive 100x the base airdrop, potentially valued at over $10,000 — but six days later, due to the discovery of a possible exploit (which was promptly mitigated), the airdrop was halted, and any remaining tokens burned.
Lastly, it bears mentioning that since its debut, $SOV has continued to hit new price highs seemingly every other week. To this point, over the last 20 day stretch, the currency has gained over 22% in value, reaching a cumulative valuation of $36.26 million and a fully diluted valuation of over $93 million.
$SOV’s Continued Popularity
$SOV has gained substantial popularity amid the ongoing controversy, accruing $12 million in volume within the first day of its launch and consistently ranking among the top three highest-viewed Uniswap V3 pairs on GeckoTerminal. Moreover, the unfolding drama surrounding Shiba Inu’s founder’s identity and the ascent of $SOV — combined with the public disputes between BitBoy and Shytoshi Kusama — contributes yet another layer to the ever-evolving narrative of meme coins and the cryptocurrency landscape at large.
