Co-founder of popular cryptocurrency Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin has donated over $1 billion in cryptocurrency to India's Crypto Covid-19 Relief Fund, as well as several other charities.?
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Buterin, who claimed the spot of the world¡¯s youngest crypto billionaire just two weeks back, made these donations by offloading crazy amounts of dog-themed cryptocurrencies which were gifted to him.
These include the creators of Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB), Dogelon (ELON) and Akita Inu (AKITA) -- all three of these copycats surfaced after the success of Dogecoin. However, these copycats have considerably larger token supplies, according to Forbes.?
In one transaction, he donated 50 trillion Shiba Inu tokens which amount to $1.2 billion (or around Rs 7,350 crores) as of yesterday, May 12, to India¡¯s Crypto Covid Relief Fund that was set up and managed by Sandeep Nailwal -- co-founder and COO of Polygon (previously known as Matic Network). In the month of April, Buterin donated around $600,000 worth of Ethereum and Maker tokens to the fund.?
Nailwal plans to utilise the funds to bridge the oxygen demand that the nation is currently experiencing. As of now, $74,950 have been transferred to Rajeev Memorial Academic Welfare Trust for ICU ventilators and Oxygen Concentrators, $129,125 has been donated to the Round Table India Trust for ICU Ventilators and PPE kits and $999,900 to ACT Grants -- United Way of Bengaluru for donating oxygen concentrators.??
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Anonymous developers of Shiba Inu had sent 50 percent of their token supply to Buterin¡¯s wallet in the past year. As per the website, the chunk of coins was ¡®burned¡¯ to Buterin, indicating that they won¡¯t be in circulation.
The tokens were given to Buterin on the understanding that he would not sell them. However, after Buterin¡¯s move, the token has taken a considerable hit, with its value down 36 percent, according to Coinbase.?
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Nailwal, while announcing the donation also stated that he would use the crypto in a way that doesn¡¯t hit the community, ¡°We will not do anything which hurts any community specially the retail community involved with $SHIB. Please don¡¯t worry $SHIB owners.¡±
Another tweet through India¡¯s Crypto Covid Relief Fund stated, ¡°We plan to do a thoughtful liquidation to ensure we meet our COVID relief goals. We have decided to convert the donation slowly over a period of time.¡±
It is important to note that if the value of the coin continues to plummet, it would actually reduce the overall value of the donation even further.