Shiba Inu, the canine-themed memecoin project, has successfully raised $12 million through a private token sale of its upcoming TREAT utility and governance token. The investors involved in this funding round are prominent venture capital firms such as Comma 3 Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Cypher Capital, Shima Capital, Hercules Ventures, Animoca Brands, Morningstar Ventures, Woodstock Fund, DWF Ventures, Polygon Ventures, Stake Capital, Illuminati Digital Capital, Primal Capital, Mechanism Capital, DWF Ventures, and Spirit Dao. It’s important to note that all participants in the private token sale were from outside the United States.
The involvement of these venture capital firms and their partners is expected to support the growth of the Shiba Inu project and enhance its capabilities for the community. Shytoshi Kusama, the anonymous core developer of Shiba Inu, expressed his optimism about the partnership, stating that it will enable the project to reach new heights.
Although Kusama has maintained a low profile this year, rumors of his whereabouts have circulated, suggesting sightings in New York, Japan, and the Maldives. However, Kusama dismissed these speculations, claiming that he is simply on vacation, enjoying his time like anyone else. Nevertheless, Kusama recently resurfaced on Telegram on April 21 to address a user’s criticism, defending his dedication to the project.
Simultaneously, the Shiba Inu team revealed that TREAT is the final token to be released by the popular meme brand. It will unlock Shiba Inu’s newly announced blockchain, which incorporates Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) technology. The project previously collaborated with Zama.ai to implement FHE technology, which forms the foundation of the protocol’s innovative privacy layer known as TREAT.
The funds raised from the private token sale will be utilized by Shiba Inu’s Panamanian entity, Shiba Inu Mint S.A., to develop the TREAT platform. The developers believe that the technology has various potential applications, including encrypted lending platforms, tokenized asset exchanges, and encrypted machine learning models.
Shiba Inu has emerged as one of the top-performing memecoins, delivering a remarkable gain of 164% over the past year. In December, the protocol introduced .shib domains for its tokenholders. Additionally, Shibarium, the project’s layer-2 scaling solution, has amassed over 1 million users since its inception.
In light of recent concerns regarding bridge issues, Shibarium has denied these claims, dismissing them as FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt).