Vitalik Buterin splashed out 200 Ethereum valued at approximately USD 532,000 to the Effective Altruism Funds, an animal welfare charity.
The Ethereum co-founder has received thousands of free meme coins since at least 2023. These gifts include the viral Neiro (NEIRO) and ERC-20 tokens.
Buterin and other public cryptocurrency personalities often receive coins as a marketing play. However, such gifts are sometimes sent to show gratitude to OG developers who have made significant contributions towards the advancement of blockchain solutions.
Because some wallets are doxxed, Buterin and others can receive free tokens from memecoin developers.
Buterin Espouses More Public Good Funding
Upon the conversion of his cache of untapped free meme-coins, Buterin appealed to the cryptocurrency community to embrace “more sophisticated public goods funding.”
He often advocates for more meme coins with a public service focus. His advocacy first emerged at the meme coin mania earlier in 2024, as Ethereum and Solana’s creators evolved highly speculative ideas motivated by memes.
Buterin has also tried to formalize his public good funding theory in a highly rigorous paper co-authored with Zoe Hitzig of Harvard University and Eric Glen Weyl from Microsoft Research.
Aid to India
In 2021, Buterin made headlines for his philanthropy when he donated SHIBA coins valued at USD 1 billion to a COVID-19 relief fund in India.
He donated by giving away a huge number of meme tokens with dog themes. The tokens were a gift to him by Shiba Inu, Akita Inu and Dogelon creators.
A breakdown shows that he gifted the India Covid Relief Fund 50 trillion SHIB coins with a value of USD 1.2 billion as of the 12th of May 2021.
The fund was created by Sandeep Nailwal, an Indian businessman involved in the technology industry. Nailwal’s company, Polygon, operates on the Ethereum blockchain as an aggregator of scalable solutions.
Earlier that same year, Buterin had gifted the fund about USD 600,000 in ETH and MKR coins. The Polygon co-founder promptly expressed his gratitude to Buterin on Twitter. He also assured SHIB investors the funds would be responsibly used.
Assisting Ukraine’s Humanitarian Situation and More
In the earlier days of the conflict in Ukraine, the Russian-born crypto billionaire contributed to aid efforts with a USD 5 million donation to two Ukrainian charities: AID For Ukraine and Unchain Fund. Each charity got USD 2.5 million.
In addition, Gitcoin has also benefited from Buterin’s philanthropy to the tune of about USD 441 million. Gitcoin is an Ethereum network open-source operator, according to Etherscan.
Buterin has also given out millions (including in ETH) to lots of other causes. Notable recipients include GiveWell, a non-profit organization that aims to find giving opportunities and the Methuselah Foundation, which works to extend the human lifespan.
Another beneficiary of his largesse is the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, an organization that focuses on building safe AI technologies.
