The Shiba Inu community faces renewed scrutiny after fresh allegations emerged about the team’s response to the Shibarium Bridge exploit. Shane Cook, founder of Pulse Digital Marketing, raised concerns about why the developers have not engaged law enforcement despite extensive evidence linking the attacker to several wallets. His criticism follows a new investigative report that mapped the hacker’s laundering trail. The debate now centers on whether the team intends to recover the stolen funds as promised.
Investigator Traces Laundered Funds to KuCoin Accounts
Nearly three months have passed since the Shibarium Bridge hack drained more than $3 million in user funds. At the time, Shiba Inu developer Kaal Dhairya confirmed the exploit and stated that the team had contacted relevant authorities and blockchain security firms, including PeckShield and Hexens. Yesterday, on-chain analyst and Shiba Inu community figure Shima released a detailed breakdown of how the hacker laundered the stolen assets. His report traced the funds from the initial exploit wallet through Tornado Cash to dozens of KuCoin deposit addresses.
According to Shima’s findings, the attacker moved 260 ETH through Tornado Cash and later funnelled 232.49 ETH into KuCoin. He also identified 111 wallets linked to the laundering chain and 45 unique deposit addresses on the exchange. Shima said one mistake exposed the attacker’s hidden network when an accidental transfer of 0.0874 ETH connected the supposed “secret” wallets. He explained that this error unravelled the obfuscation strategy and allowed the full laundering map to take shape.
After completing the analysis, Shima shared the dataset with the Shiba Inu ecosystem team to support coordination with law enforcement. Soon after, a K9 Finance team member, DeFi Turtle, contacted KuCoin to request that the exchange freeze the funds. However, KuCoin insisted on a formal law-enforcement case number before taking any action. Without this requirement, Shima reported that the exchange declined to intervene.
Lack of Formal Complaint Raises Questions Within the Community
Pulse Digital Marketing founder Cook reacted to the report and questioned why the Shiba Inu team had not filed an official complaint despite holding substantial on-chain evidence. He suggested that the absence of law enforcement involvement prevented any progress toward fund recovery. Shima also noted that KuCoin could not freeze accounts or share internal data without a police report. As a result, the lack of a case number halted attempts to secure the stolen assets.
Shima stated that the investigative roadmap was “handed to them on a silver platter,” yet no escalation took place. His remarks intensified concerns about whether the Shiba Inu team intends to pursue the attacker. Since the developers have not filed an official report, Shima is urging victims to take action individually. He offered the complete dataset, methodology, and MetaSleuth mapping to any affected user or law-enforcement agency willing to pursue the case in their own jurisdiction.