The mysterious leader of the Shiba Inu team, who uses social media under the pseudonym Shytoshi Kusama, has finally presented himself to the public and has even been taped in Japan during his appearance at the major annual Web3 start-up event in Japan – IVS 2024.
However, there is a big catch here – nobody can really tell if that was the real SHIB leader since it was impossible to see his face hidden behind two masks.
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Mysterious Shytoshi Kusama appears in SHIB booth
Japanese SHIB fan @kuro_9696_9696 has shared a video from the above-mentioned Japanese event, where a man in black clothes, two masks and a hood is talking to IVS 2024 participants who are visiting the SHIB booth at this conference.
The man is wearing what looks similar to a Batman costume, with a mask that reminds one of a Black Death plague doctor mask covering the upper part of his face, which is on top of a mask that hides his entire face and only has slots for him to look through.
みなさん、この方がSHIBのリーダーのShytoshiさんです！うおーーー！！🔥🔥🔥動画提供元 : @SatoshiSisters0 #柴犬コイン #SHIB #IVS2024 #IVSCrypto pic.twitter.com/P18Mx3N6mJ
— KURO🐾SHIBARMY JPN🇯🇵 (@kuro_9696_9696) July 5, 2024
Earlier this week, Kusama teased his very first public appearance at IVS 2024. On Thursday, he wrote in a tweet that around noon at local time, the SHIB army are welcome to come to his “first ever meet and greet.”
See you tomorrow at around noon in the @IVS_Official Shiba Inu booth for my first EVER meet and greet! I'm excited to meet you all in Kyoto #shibarmy. @Shibtoken @sheerazhasan @treatsforShib @kaaldhairya @LucieSHIB @shibarium_
— Shytoshi Kusama™ (@ShytoshiKusama) July 4, 2024
Shytoshi Kusama remains pseudonymous
The SHIB lead has been concealing his real name and appearance since he took over from the enigmatic founder Ryoshi in 2021. He then revealed that "Shy" stood for his natural desire to avoid the public, and "toshi" was in honor of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, and Kusama was Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whom he liked.
At one point over the past few years, Shytoshi tweeted that his mentor had advised him to reveal himself, and so the SHIB lead was thinking about doing that. However, last August, he promised to give a speech at the ETH Toronto event while presenting Shibarium, but in reality he did not make an appearance but just presented a recording of his speech processed by AI software.
The SHIB price has sort of responded positively to this “coming out” by Kusama. After a massive 15% plunge overnight, the meme coin has regained 5% of its losses.