In his year-end letter, Shiba Inu developer Karl Dahlia talked about the recovery plan for Shiba Rium users after the September hacking incident.
Dhairya mentioned “SOU”, a system aimed at making affected Shibarium users whole. This means “Shib Owes You”.
In this system, all affected users have SOU NFTs. This is an on-chain, verifiable record of exactly what the Shiba Inu ecosystem owes its users. SOUs are not promises residing somewhere in a database, but are cryptographically proven to Shibarium users that they own rights, and are permanently recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.
SOU tracks the principal amount, which is the value still owed to Shibarium users. The principal decreases when payments are made, and the same goes for donations from the community. Users can also see their initial bill, what was received and what is left. SOUs can also be combined, split, or transferred.
Shiba Inu team members shed light on SOU
Shiba Inu team member Lucy shares a personal explanation about SOU in a tweet. According to Lucie, Shib Owes You has two layers: an official layer and a community-powered layer.
SOU recovery framework
Official Ethereum Claims and Community BSC FundingShib Owes You has two layers.
One is official.
One is through the power of community.they do different jobs.
1) Official layer
SOU NFT on Ethereum
Shiba Inu team system.
What do these NFTs represent… pic.twitter.com/nEkeWbeXGh
— 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐄 (@LucieSHIB) January 10, 2026
Official layer marks SOU NFT on Ethereum, Shiba Inu Team System. These NFTs represent what people lost in the Plasma Bridge exploit. Additionally, they are auditable and dynamic on-chain, defining exactly who is responsible for what. According to Lucie, the SOU NFT on Ethereum represents the accounting layer, but does not raise funds when tracking debt.
The second layer is a community resiliency layer, with one project (Woofswap) committed so far. This represents the SOU on the BSC chain. Lucie clarifies that this is not a replacement for NFTs, but a liquidity and fee generation mechanism. Its role, Lucey said, is to generate volume and generate fees as part of the recovery and ecosystem support efforts.
Lucy further explains that BSC’s SOU stands for recovery support for the Shiba Inu community. This is not a loan, invoice, or official SHIB product. Rather, it is a funding rail that allows trading activity to be directed towards donations and rebuilding.
SOU NFT on Ethereum is a layer of truth, but on the BSC chain it is a liquidity engine. One represents the amount you owe and the other helps generate funds.
