Vitalik Buterin Sold Meme Coins to Fund Biotech Research

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has sold off meme coins, including DOGE, DOG, and NEIRO, donated to him by project creators.

According to on-chain statistics, Buterin exchanged 28 meme coins for $984,000 in USDC, which he then used to support biotechnology research through his biotech fund, Kanro.

The sale, which also included meme coins like CULT, amounted to around $2.5 Million when converted to USDC and ETH.

This Monday saw Vitalik Buterin making moves by selling several of his free meme coins. The coins in question were sent to Buterin’s wallet, “vitalik.eth,” without any request from him.

Developers often gift him these tokens as a gesture of appreciation. Sometimes, these donations are part of their marketing strategy. However, Buterin usually liquidates them for the benefit of charity causes.

Similarly, he has allocated the proceeds from the recent sale to contribute to his Kenro biotech fund. In 2023, the Ethereum co-founder established this fund in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He set it up to support biotechnology research and help prevent such a situation from emerging again.

In total, Vitalik Buterin’s memecoin sale included 28 memecoins. He offloaded 70 Million Neiro for $74,095, 92,000, DOGE for $35,233, and 4 Trillion DOG for $86,535.

The sale also involved 50 Trillion DINU for $13,208, 50.48 Billion ESTEE for 116,306 USDC, and 50 Trillion DINU for 13,208 USDC. Additionally, he sold 300 Million FREE for $30,730 and 400 Trillion DOBE for $16,659.

This meme coin sale for charity has had a profound impact on the crypto world, especially tokens with small market caps.

Many tokens experienced a sharp decline as a result of this move. For instance, DINU dropped by 68%. The value of this meme coin has decreased by 99% since its peak in 2021. $JSHIBA also experienced a similar fate, losing 38% of its value.

Buterin’s action has caused significant disruption in minor markets. It did not, however, lead to a market crash. This selling spree did end up being fortunate for a few other tokens. The ESTEE coin saw a huge increase, rising by over 100%.

This isn’t the first time Vitalik Buterin has engaged in charity through the sale of meme coins. He has a long history of performing these philanthropic acts with tokens sent by developers.

It all began in 2021 when the Shiba Inu team sent him tokens for the first time, which they claimed was to “burn” them out of existence. After Buterin sold them, SHIB briefly dropped by 50%.

Later on, in October of last year, Buterin made 1,101 ETH by selling meme coins. At the time, that amounted to $2.78 million. Out of this sum, he donated 360.16 ETH to various charities. The total was almost $884,000.

In December 2024, Vitalik Buterin donated 88 ETH to the Khao Kheow Open Zoo, which caused the MOODENG token to experience a rapid increase. This token is linked to Moo Deng, a viral Hippo baby that resides in the zoo.

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