Shibarium's Funding Crisis Exposed: Single Developer Covers Maintenance Costs

On October 2, 2026, the Ethereum chain Blast announced its shutdown due to high operating costs and revenue decline. The same day, a Shiba Inu developer revealed that Shibarium's maintenance and development costs are currently being covered by a single individual. The developer, Kaal Dhairya, responded to a question about who pays for Shibarium with the words 'Yours truly.' This means that the funding for Shibarium is extremely narrow, and it's unclear how long this can sustain.

Shibarium is a second-layer blockchain that draws its security from Ethereum and charges lower fees. However, running a second-layer blockchain is expensive, with costs including server maintenance, data storage, and publishing data on Ethereum. The figures for Shibarium are striking, with only $0.4442 in fees generated per day, equivalent to about 2.5 US cents.

The developer's answer is clear: there is no revenue side to support the operation of Shibarium. This is similar to the situation with Blast, which failed due to high operating costs. The Shiba Inu contract sits on Ethereum, and holders with SHIB at an exchange or in a wallet on Ethereum are not affected by the funding question around Shibarium.