The designer of the Shiba Inu logo, Sveinn Valdimarsson, recently confirmed that he isn’t happy with his creation being used for commercial purposes and noted that he will be taking legal action to stop the appropriation of the meme coin.
“You can get a tattoo, put this on your T-shirt or your car and everything is good,” the25-year-old Swede told DL News in an interview published on Monday.
However, Valdimarsson explained that he never thought the popular orange dog would be used for business purposes by other ventures.
“If you’re gonna put it on like a cigarette pack and call it Shiba cigarettes, that’s where you’re going to make money off it. And that’s where I want to see some honesty in you if you’re going to do that,” he argued.
Valdimarsson created the original logo back in 2020 and has since adjusted it multiple times before settling on the current image.
The designer told the media outlet that he provided the community with his design without expecting compensation. “...It was made as the symbol for Shiba Inu,” he asserted.
Despite not officially registering his work, most jurisdictions worldwide have a policy that automatically provides ownership rights to the artist.
Still, the report stressed it remains uncertain whether Valdimarsson will realize his plans, as there’s no data that confirms who owns Shiba Inu (SHIB) now.
The Shiba Inu coin is considered to have been created by the controversial entity Ryoshi during the expansion of the crypto market in the summer of 2020, which was marked by COVID-19 lockdowns and a widespread slowdown of global economic activity.
However, the details of the actual person or people behind the coin remain unknown.
Concluding the interview, Valdimarsson reiterated that he isn’t seeking to separate his logo from the token but only restrict companies from profiting from his design without obtaining rights to use it.
What Is Shiba Inu Coin and Why Is It So Popular?
The Shiba Inu cryptocurrency is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, which enables it to easily interact with other tokens and applications in this ecosystem.
It gained significant attention due to being inspired by Dogecoin, endorsed by billionaire inventor Elon Musk, as well as the Shiba Inu dog breed, and its enormous supply, which was designed to remain primarily in the hands of the community.
The developers often referred to it as the “Dogecoin Killer,” especially after it gained unexpected expansion in May 2021, partly fueled by the wider bull run in the crypto market.
By November 2021, it reached a record price of $0.00007489 with a market cap of $8.09 billion, according to the data shown by CoinMarketCap. However, it has lost nearly 90% of its value since this record to trade around $0.0000077 in recent weeks.
The coin was labeled as a pump-and-dump scheme by part of the crypto community following the crash, prompting concerns about its market relevance.
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