Ethereum Co-Founder Donated $1B Shiba Inu To Aid India In COVID-19 Battle — Money Reaching The People Is A Lot Less

Ethereum ETH/USD co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s donation of $1 billion in Shiba Inu SHIB/USD coins to an India Covid-19 relief fund about two months ago has been slow in reaching the people due to several issues, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

What Happened: Only about $20 million of the donation has been paid so far, while another $20 million is in the pipeline, the report quoted Sandeep Nailwal, the founder of the India Covid Crypto Relief Fund that received the donation, as saying in an interview.

Nailwal noted a 50% crash in the price of the Shiba Inu coins following Buterin’s donation, compliance with India’s strict regulations and cautious disbursement of the money as the top issues related to the donation.

See Also: How To Buy Shiba Inu (SHIB)

The fund has been cautious in converting the tokens into dollars and then to Indian rupees in order to comply with the country's regulations and has completed about 80% of the conversions so far, Nailwal was quoted as saying.

Nailwal also plans to hire an audit firm for complete transparency and to ensure the money reaches the grass-roots level, the report noted.

See Also: Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin To Feature Alongside Jane Fonda, Ashton Kutcher In 'Stoner Cats' NFT Show

Why It Matters: It was reported in May that 50 trillion Shiba Inu tokens, worth around $1.2 billion, were donated by Buterin to the India Covid Relief Fund. Buterin also donated over $2 million worth of Ethereum along with the Shiba Inu tokens to the fund.

Meme coins that were inspired by Dogecoin DOGE/USD, including Shiba Inu, saw their valuations fall after it was revealed that Buterin had regifted tokens that were donated to him. Buterin’s gift of the 50 trillion Shiba Inu coins amounted to 5% of the coins in circulation.

Nevertheless, the donation came at a time when India was struggling with record daily coronavirus infections. While cryptocurrency is not illegal in India, it is unregulated.

Price Action: Ethereum is up almost 3.8% during the last 24 hours, trading at $2,300.53 at press time, while Shiba Inu traded 0.8% higher at $0.000006302 over the last 24 hours.

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