Vitalik Buterin Divests $300,000 in Meme Coins, Supports Tornado Cash
2024-10-06

Vitalik Buterin’s associated Ethereum wallet conducted a large transaction today, divesting a range of meme coins and Tether’s USDT for ETH.
Blockchain data reveals that developers sent these unsolicited meme tokens to Buterin’s wallet throughout the past year.
Why Did Buterin Offload Over $300,000 in Meme Coins?
On October 5, Buterin sold four different tokens, netting 140.67 ETH, worth approximately $341,000. Blockchain analysis platform Lookonchain reported that Buterin sold 11.76 billion Moodeng tokens for 21 ETH (around $51,000) and 70.72 million Neiro for $72,400.
The other assets he sold included 7.8 million Degen for 25 ETH (around $61,000) and 16 billion Kabosu tokens for 22.94 ETH (approximately $56,000). Additionally, Buterin converted his entire USDT balance of 101,000 USDT into 41.69 ETH.
After these sales, another crypto analytical 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.
It is unclear if the donated funds came from his recent token sales or from other sources. Nevertheless, the move aligns with Buterin’s ongoing practice of converting meme coin holdings into charitable contributions.
Earlier this year, he sold a vast amount of animal meme tokens that were sent to him and donated $532,000 worth of ETH to the Animal Welfare Fund under the Effective Altruism initiative.
Interestingly, one of the tokens the Ethereum co-founder sold recently requested that he donate the proceeds to the same cause.
“Hey, Vitalik Buterin — can we ask you for a favor? We know what you did for NEIRO when you sold. Now that you sold your ITO, could you make the same donation to the Animal Welfare Fund on behalf of ITO?,” ITO wrote on X.
Meanwhile, the Ethereum co-founder has publicly stated his disapproval of receiving unsolicited tokens. While he appreciates contributing to charitable causes, he prefers that meme coin creators allocate tokens directly to charities.
Buterin also addressed this issue in a blog post, encouraging the crypto community to design meme coins with practical uses, such as charity fundraising, rather than as speculative assets.