Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum ETH/USD, has donated over half a million dollars to a charity that looks after the welfare of animals.
What Happened: In an X post on Thursday, Buterin revealed sending 200 Ether, worth $524,320, to Effective Altruism Fund's Animal Welfare Fund. This stash was obtained after selling all the “animal coins” that were sent to his wallets over the past year.
His reference was most likely to Ethereum-based memecoins, which are themed on dogs, cats, and even frogs.
Over the years, billions of dollars worth of memecoins have landed in Buterin’s wallet against his wishes, possibly in an attempt by nascent projects to pique investors’ attention by leveraging on his brand value in the cryptocurrency wish.
In 2021, Buterin received nearly $7 billion worth of Shiba Inu SHIB/USD, the second-largest memecoin by market cap currently, from its developers. Of this, he donated $1 billion to aid COVID relief in India and burned the rest.
The cryptocurrency entrepreneur has frequently warned projects not to send him unsolicited meme tokens, and he used the platform to convey the message again, albeit in good spirits. “I appreciate it if coin holdings just get allocated to the charities directly,” he wrote.
Why It Matters: Buterin has expressed reservations around memecoins, despite Ethereum birthing many successful, billion-dollar projects in this category.
He has supported the charitable aspect of such coins, where a portion of the supply can be put to use for the needy. However, he criticized copy-and-paste coins that add no fundamental value and simply rely on market speculation.
Earlier in June, Buterin slammed the mushrooming of celebrity memecoins, which he believed were just benefiting powerful people and early adopters.
Price Action: This allocation to charity wasn’t taken positively by Ethereum-based coins, as most traded in red as of this writing, according to data from Benzinga Pro. Dogecoin DOGE/USD dropped 1.64% in the last 24 hours, while Shiba Inu dipped 1.45%. Frog-themed Pepe PEPE/USD plunged 5.23%.
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