Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin revealed that he didn’t expect his donations to Shiba Inu (SHIB) to amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. Buterin stated that if he had foreseen the outcome, he would have made very different decisions regarding the donation.
Buterin recalled that the SHIB team sent half of the total token supply to their own public wallet. He explained that after the value of these assets rapidly increased, they sold a portion of them, obtaining approximately $70 million worth of Ethereum. He stated that he donated a large portion of this amount to the Against Malaria Foundation, which combats malaria.
However, the liquidity in the market was insufficient to sell all the tokens. Buterin sent a significant portion of his remaining SHIB tokens to the Indian pandemic relief organization CryptoRelief and the Future of Life Institute (FLI).
The Ethereum founder said he thought the organizations receiving donations would only be able to raise a little over $20 million by selling their tokens. The result was quite different: According to his account, CryptoRelief raised approximately $470 million. He stated that he didn’t know the exact amount FLI raised, but it could be between $400 and $600 million.
Buterin’s assessment highlighted both the size of the funds and their intended use. He stated that FLI, initially dealing with diverse risks such as biological threats, nuclear war, and artificial intelligence, later focused on AI policies. He explained that he did not support some of the organization’s activities and that his proposal to allocate resources to different areas was not accepted.
In the same interview, Buterin also shared details of his early Dogecoin investment. He revealed that his initial investment of approximately $25,000 in DOGE later grew to over $10 million.
*This is not investment advice.
