Shiba Inu Whale with $2.5 Billion in Assets Stirs Curiosity

A recent investigation by blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps has uncovered a significant Shiba Inu (SHIB) whale controlling $2.5 billion worth of the popular cryptocurrency.

This entity, which holds about 10% of SHIB’s total supply, operates across approximately 150 separate addresses. The discovery has sparked intrigue regarding the whale’s identity and its origins.

Shiba Inu, which launched on July 31, 2020, began as a fair launch project, providing equal access to anyone wishing to participate. Initially, the deployer wallet (0xb8f2) controlled half of the total supply. However, by late 2020, another major player emerged under the address “0x1406,” acquiring a staggering 103 trillion SHIB tokens—roughly 10% of the total supply—at the low cost of 38 ETH (about $10,000 at the time). Thanks to SHIB’s explosive rise in value, that initial investment has now ballooned by 25 million percent, reaching a current valuation of $2.5 billion.

The whale’s activity shows a highly strategic approach to asset management. As the value of SHIB surged to $5 billion, “0x1406” consolidated its holdings into a single address before diversifying it into 14 separate wallets in November 2021. By 2024, these holdings were spread across roughly 150 addresses, a move that likely aims to mitigate risk and maintain privacy. Although these transactions are visible through advanced blockchain visualization tools, they remain hidden from conventional platforms.

The sophisticated management of this wallet and its long-term holdings have led to speculation that “0x1406” could be the mysterious Ryoshi, the pseudonymous creator of Shiba Inu. Ryoshi withdrew from the public eye in 2021, adopting a strategy reminiscent of Bitcoin’s elusive founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, further fueling these theories.