The Shiba Inu ecosystem’s long-running tension between “official messaging” and meme-coin marketing resurfaced this week after Oscar (@oscar_shibainu) published a public break with the @Shibtoken X account, accusing it of drifting into promotional behavior that benefits individuals rather than the broader SHIB community.
In a statement posted on X, Oscar said it had previously defended the Shiba Inu account “in good faith,” but now considers that effort misplaced.
OSCAR Blasts Shiba Inu Account
“For a long time, we believed that something positive could emerge from the SHIB account,” the Oscar team wrote. “We defended it in good faith, even at a high personal cost, trusting that past mistakes had been left behind and that something constructive could flow from that platform. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Nothing changed. For that, we sincerely apologize.”
The group then drew a hard line: “The OSCAR community — the same community that has consistently stood up for SHIB and, in many cases, personally financed initiatives to defend both SHIB and this specific account — no longer supports this account,” the statement said. “It does not represent Ryoshi’s vision, it is not aligned with the interests of the SHIB Army, and it has become a stage for personal financial interests. This is not SHIB. It never was.”
The immediate catalyst was a Dec. 17 post from the official @Shibtoken account amplifying a separate token, Hachiko (HACHI), with messaging that some Shiba Inu holders interpreted as promotional. The post read: “$HACHI X95 🤝 $SHIB 0X95,” referencing a superficial similarity between contract/address prefixes highlighted by the Hachiko account: “Only $HACHI contract created on November 2nd: ... Starting X95 ... $SHIB starts 0x95.”
@Shibtoken included a disclaimer underneath: “Friendly heads-up: This post is from a partner project, not an official Shib token. Always DYOR, frens.”
Even with that caveat, the reaction in the comment section was sharply negative, with several users arguing the account has increasingly functioned as a marketing channel rather than a source of official ecosystem updates.
“Very irritating to the Shib community,” one user wrote. “The reason I followed @shibtoken account many years ago because it stated it was the official account. I would be able to get official updates. Now it appears that it is marketing other projects. (for a while) Go back to your roots.”
Another commenter urged holders to ignore promoted projects altogether: “I encourage all #SHIBARMY to don’t buy anything that the @Shibtoken account promotes. Just give up on that account.”
Oscar’s statement attempted to separate the dispute from Shibarium-related efforts, saying it will continue building support infrastructure while distancing itself from the main account’s messaging strategy.
“That said, we want to make it clear that we will continue to support Shibarium through our charity portal, as we have done since day one,” the Oscar team wrote. “The SHIB community will always be welcome within our ecosystem. However, the time has come for us to follow our own path and focus on the interests and values of our own community.”
At press time, there was no visible public response from the official @Shibtoken account addressing the allegations, and no reaction from any Shiba Inu developer or marketing lead. SHIB traded at $0.00000726.
