Shiba Inu, the team behind the popular memecoin project, has successfully raised $12 million through a token sale to develop a new Layer 3 blockchain. The funding round was done by selling its unreleased TREAT token to non-U.S. VC firms, such as Polygon Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Animoca Brands, and Shima Capital.

Despite some questions over the geographical locations of some investors, Shiba Inu's lead developer, Shytoshi Kusama, said that all investors were non-U.S. based. The token sale, which began a few months back, was structured in multiple tranches. 

The TREAT token acts as a utility and governance token for the L3 blockchain, Shibarium. According to Kusama, TREAT will be the final non-stable token issued within the Shiba Inu ecosystem. As of now, the platform has already issued tokens such as SHIB, BONE, and LEASH.

Shiba Inu also plans to deploy advanced encryption technologies through its new blockchain. The project uses fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) from Zama, a technology considered the pinnacle of data security since it allows encrypted data to be processed without having to decrypt it. 

The project aims to cater to its vast community and attract the next billion users in Web3. Shiba Inu's approach is reportedly legal-compliant, making sure that the platform not only protects privacy but also adheres to international laws. 

"It's important that we maintain a project that conforms to international laws while protecting the privacy of data, and security of individuals," said Kusama. "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."

With a testnet set for Q3 2024, followed by a mainnet release after extensive testing, Shiba Inu is setting the stage for a major expansion.