- Vitalik Buterin sold over US$1M worth of at least 28 meme coins, donating the proceeds to his charity, Kanro, which focuses on pandemic prevention.
- Several tokens saw significant price drops, such as a 50% decline in DINU.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sold a hefty amount of at least 28 different meme coins on Monday, generating over US$1M (AU$1.6M) in USDC, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.
The proceeds were donated to his charity, Kanro, a non-profit organisation focused on pandemic prevention and research.
Following the sale, almost all of those memecoins saw some dramatic drops, as expected. Dodgy-Inu (DINU), for example, fell by over 50%, now 99% down from its all-time high in 2021.
Yet, unexpectedly, tokens like ESTEE, surged by over 100% in the span of several hours. The price movements were inconsistent, with several assets experiencing disruptions due to their small market values and limited liquidity.
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This isn’t Buterin’s first large-scale meme coin sale for charitable causes. In December, he donated 88 ETH to the Khao Kheow Open Zoo, resulting in a significant rally for the associated MOODENG token. In October, he sold over US$1 million in meme coins and distributed the proceeds to various charities.
Today’s sell-offs included 80.47 trillion JSHIBA tokens, which fetched 21,466 USDC, and 92,000 DOGE tokens, sold for 35,233 USDC. Most assets were sold for under 100,000 USDC, with some transactions involving trillions of tokens. The sales caused notable disruptions in smaller markets but did not lead to an overall market crash.
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Memecoin projects frequently send large quantities of their tokens to Buterin. Why? Because it’s a popular marketing stunt. It’s a way of projects to leverage his popularity to gain followers, but it usually just means the death of a coin as it happened to DINU.
This practice began in 2021 with Shiba Inu. The team sent him tokens claiming it was equivalent to “removing” them from circulation. Buterin sold and burned his SHIB holdings, causing a temporary 50% price drop at the time.
While highly unethical, and despite Buterin begging developers to stop, at least something good comes from it.
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