In a letter addressed to the SHIB army, Shiba Inu developer Kaal Dhairya noted that the year 2025, especially the last few months, has been the hardest period in Shiba Inu’s history.
The Shibarium hack happened, Dhairya added, because the leadership that was supposed to be available to help pull through a difficult time was not there.
The Shiba Inu developer addressed speculation regarding an allegation made against the SHIB team of not filing official complaints with the authorities regarding the Shibarium hack, saying he was personally interviewed by federal agents.
Dhairya said he has shared all information as well as details gathered during and after the incident, adding that “the official process is happening. It has been happening.”
In an update to the Shibarium bridge incident, Dhairya said that the technical recovery was largely complete. Hexens also reviewed every major change, with the checkpoint system functioning again.
Dhairya also revealed plans for SOU, “Shib Owes You,” where every affected user has an SOU NFT that is an on-chain, verifiable record of exactly what the ecosystem owes them.
SOUs can be merged, split or transferred, and users can sell their claim on supported marketplaces.
What’s ahead?
Dhairya said the Shiba Inu vision is not dead, but it has just been through something hard. Going forward, the Shiba Inu team will focus on being the technology arm for the ecosystem.
The Shiba Inu developer revealed a decision to pause and sunset projects, systems and processes that are not generating revenue or not hitting break-even. “If it’s not contributing to making users whole or keeping the core infrastructure running, it’s not a priority right now,” Dhairya said, highlighting a priority now on projects that can actually generate revenue to flow back into SOU.
Dhairya added that the year ahead will not be about hype; it will be about repair, focus and building something that can actually last.
“There will be hard decisions ahead,” the Shiba Inu developer warned, adding that old systems that no longer serve the ecosystem’s future will be retired.
“We will revisit tokenomics to align incentives properly. We will potentially merge or CTO some systems so that value flows to where it should: back to the network and to the users who were affected,” Dhairya said.