When it comes to Shiba Inu token holdings, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stands in a league of his own. Thanks to a generous token gift from SHIB creator Ryoshi, Buterin holds over 500 trillion tokens—half the total supply—in a “dead wallet” he controls. This dwarfs even the largest individual SHIB investors.
According to reports, Ryoshi gifted 50% of the total minted SHIB supply to Buterin shortly after the token’s creation.
In May 2021, Buterin removed the vast majority of these tokens from circulation by sending 410 trillion SHIB to a dead address in a massive burn event. He also donated 10 trillion SHIB to an Indian COVID relief fund that month.
As these hundreds of trillions of tokens can never re-enter circulation or be accessed by anyone, Buterin’s dead wallet remains the undisputed top SHIB holder by a massive margin. According to the details from Coincarp, the dead wallet holds 41% of the SHIB supply.
Who’s Behind the Second-Largest Shiba Inu Wallet?
With Buterin’s billions effectively eliminated from the circulating supply, the next biggest SHIB holder(s) owns a relatively paltry 42 trillion tokens. The owner of the second-largest wallet remains anonymous. Some speculate it belongs to a private investor or group of investors involved with SHIB early on.
Buterin’s massive SHIB burn event, along with the India donation, heavily shaped the meme token’s circulating supply and price history over the past two years.
By instantly removing over 400 trillion tokens in May 2021, he created exceptional scarcity for SHIB’s remaining investors. This likely contributed greatly to the retail frenzy that catapulted SHIB’s price upwards of 8,600% later that year. According to the details from CoinMarketCap, SHIB is trading at $0.00001061 at press time.
