Shiba Inu announced a successful $12 million funding round to spearhead the development of a novel Layer 3 blockchain focusing on privacy, according to an April 22 report by The Block.

The recent capital infusion came through the sale of the TREAT token, involving prominent venture capital firms such as Polygon Ventures, Mechanism Capital, and Big Brain Holdings. 

Despite confusion regarding the geographical base of these investors, Shiba Inu's lead developer, Shytoshi Kusama, clarified that no U.S.-based entities participated. 

TREAT Token: Dual Utility

TREAT, the token sold in this round, plays a crucial role within the Shiba Inu ecosystem. It functions as both a utility and a governance token, enhancing its operational versatility. 

The project plans to introduce a second token called SHI later in 2024, in addition to TREAT, which is a non-stable token. 

As part of the Shiba Inu ecosystem, a number of tokens are currently available, including the popular SHIB memecoin, BONE, Shibarium's governance token, and LEASH, Shibarium's loyalty token that awards BONE rewards to loyal users.

Technical Advancements

The new Layer 3 blockchain will be built on Shibarium, Shiba Inu’s existing Layer 2 solution built on Ethereum. 

By using fully homomorphic encryption, this layer-3 blockchain aims to enhance privacy and trust. This technology enables computations on encrypted data without the need to decrypt, thereby strengthening privacy.

"It's important that we maintain a project that conforms to international law while protecting the privacy of data, and security of individuals," Kusama told The Block. "By allowing people to both be private yet still gain credentials to verify their identity, our entire system extends security and compliance at the same time."

Following the fundraising announcement, Shiba Inu's token, SHIB, saw an increase in market price by 5%, and trading at $0.00002719, at the time of writing.