Did the world’s richest man partner with a leading cryptocurrency founder to create a meme cryptocurrency? Here’s what the internet says.
What Happened: A 2022 report from Watcher Guru made the case connecting the creation of Shiba Inu SHIB/USD to Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk and Ethereum ETH/USD co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
On April 30, 2019, Musk tweeted out a one-word post that read “Ethereum.” The tweet got a ton of responses including one from Buterin who invited Musk out to Devcon in October 2019. Musk later responded with “What should be developed on Ethereum?”
These tweets have since been deleted.
Shiba Inu was launched in August 2020 with founder Ryoshi publishing a Medium post titled “all hail the SHIBA! (an experiment in decentralization).”
Among the details from the post were Ryoshi saying he met a friend at Devcon Osaka the previous year. Ryoshi said the friend “has some influence in the (crypto) space.” Ryoshi also highlighted the wealth of the friend.
“He is a successful businessman so 10 ETH is nothing for him.”
A Ryoshi blog post in May 2021 highlighted that despite being a founder of Shiba Inu coin, they owned 0 SHIB tokens.
“But the reality is still to this day I own 0 SHIB. Why? Well if I did, then I can’t be who I am and for now I know that I have a role to play.”
Musk confirmed in October 2021 that he owned 0 Shiba Inu.
The wording in the post also led some to believe it was talking about Musk and followed similar wording he has used before.
“Usually when we see some ‘project’ there is some CEO important guy and some tech guy and some roadmap. And hence someone plebs can b*tch at and in their minds make ‘accountable’ for the success or failings in their life and results of token purchases.”
Related Link: The 7 Most Tweeted Topics By Elon Musk: How Do Tesla, SpaceX, Bitcoin And Dogecoin Rank?
Why It’s Important: Musk has been known to tweet about several cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin BTC/USD and Dogecoin DOGE/USD.
Musk’s first tweet about Dogecoin came on April 30, 2019, when he replied that it might be his favorite crypto when he was named the CEO of Dogecoin by members of the community on Twitter.
Coincidentally, the first call for Robinhood Markets Inc HOOD/USD to carry Shiba Inu on the platform can be traced back to the replies to a Musk tweet.
Many coincidences link Musk and Buterin, but it could be unlikely that they were the founders of the meme coin.
Like Bitcoin though, the anonymity of the founder could lead to no one truly knowing who really created the Shiba Inu coin.
Originally published April 22, 2022.
