Shiba Inu Tokens Donated By Vitalik Buterin To Bolster India's COVID-19 Relief Funds

Vitalik Buterin, the co-creator of Ethereum ETH/USD, has pledged an additional $10 million to CryptoRelief, an India-focused coronavirus prevention initiative. 

What Happened: Buterin said in a tweet on Thursday that it was part of a $100 million tranche of donations. 

The initiative, led by Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder of Polygon MATIC/USD, will add $90 million in USDC to the donation.

Buterin explained that the funds would be used to improve indoor air quality to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, as well as to support research into inhibiting the long-term effects of the virus. 

All the funds donated to CryptoRelief were generated solely from the sales of Shiba Inu SHIB/USD tokens. These tokens were sent to CryptoRelief by Buterin at the beginning of 2021.

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Why It Matters: After the issuance of the Shiba Inu token supply in 2020, the creators of the token sent half of it, or 50%, to Buterin. 

This move created a significant stir and hype around the project. In 2021, Buterin burnt these tokens, in other words, permanently destroyed – Shiba Inu tokens worth more than six billion dollars. 

This move represented a massive 90% of the tokens held at the time. Buterin then proceeded to donate the remaining Shiba Inu tokens, which were valued at $1.2 billion back then. 

Price Action: At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $1,834, down 0.34%. SHIB at 0.000007908, down 0.57% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro.

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