Vitalik Buterin's Ethereum wallet performed a major transaction this weekend, converting a variety of Tether memecoins and USDT into ETH.
Blockchain data shows that developers have been sending these unsolicited meme tokens to Buterin's wallet over the past year.
Why did Vitalik Buterin dump memecoins?
Last Saturday (5), Buterin sold four different tokens, obtaining 140.67 ETH, worth approximately US$ 341 thousand. Blockchain analysis platform Lookonchain reported that Buterin sold 11.76 billion Moodeng tokens for 21 ETH (around US$ 51 thousand) and 70.7 million Neiro tokens for US$ 72.4 thousand.
Other assets he sold included 7.8 million Degen for 25 ETH (roughly $61,000) and 16 billion Kabosu tokens for 22.94 ETH (roughly $56,000). Additionally, Buterin converted his entire USDT balance, 101,000 USDT, into 41.69 ETH.
Following these sales, another crypto analytics platform, SpotOnChain, noted that Buterin sent 100 ETH (approximately $242,000) to the “Free Alexey & Roman” campaign. This initiative supports the legal defense of Tornado Cash developers Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm.
Read more: Memecoins and altcoins that are trending in 2024
Vitalik Buterin transactions. Source: SpotOnChain
It’s unclear whether the donated funds came from his recent token sales or other sources. However, the move is in line with Buterin’s ongoing practice of converting memecoin holdings into charitable contributions.
Additionally, earlier this year, he sold a large amount of tokens that were sent to him and donated the equivalent of $532,000 in ETH to the Animal Welfare Fund under the Effective Altruism initiative.
Interestingly, one of the tokens the Ethereum co-founder recently sold asked him to donate the proceeds to the same cause.
“Hey Vitalik Buterin — can we ask you a favor? We know what you did with NEIRO when you sold it. Now that you’ve sold your ITO, could you please make the same donation to the Animal Welfare Fund in ITO’s name?” ITO wrote on X.
Meanwhile, the Ethereum co-founder has publicly expressed his disapproval of receiving unsolicited tokens. While he appreciates contributing to charitable causes, he would prefer that memecoin creators allocate tokens directly to charities.
Read more: Who is Vitalik Buterin? An in-depth look at the Ethereum co-founder
Furthermore, Buterin also addressed this issue in a blog post. In it, the billionaire encourages the crypto community to create memecoins with practical uses, such as fundraising for charity, rather than as speculative assets.
The article Vitalik Buterin sells $300,000 in memecoins appeared first on BeInCrypto Brasil.
