Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-creator, financed an animal charity donation by swapping a year’s worth of memecoins for Ether.
Buterin donated 200 Ethereum (ETH) valued at around $532,000 to the Effective Altruism Funds, an animal welfare initiative, after receiving thousands of free memecoins like the viral Neiro (NEIRO) and ERC-20 tokens since at least 2023.
Projects often send coins to Buterin and other public crypto figures as a marketing play. Sometimes, the move also intends to salute OG developers who have significantly contributed to advancing blockchain solutions.
Memecoin developers can send people like Buterin free tokens since some wallets are doxxed. For instance, Buterin tapped the Ethereum Name Service for his Vitalik.eth wallet. ENS is an ETH-based naming service that allows users to assign easy-to-read names to on-chain addresses.
Vitalik Buterin calls for more public good funding
After converting his untapped free memecoin cache, Vitalik Buterin urged the broader cryptocurrency community to engage in “more sophisticated public goods funding.” Buterin has frequently advocated for more memecoins with a public-serving end goal.
His comments on the matter first arrived during the memecoin mania earlier this year, as creators on Ethereum and Solana flooded markets with highly speculative ideas inspired by memes.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 15, 2024Charity donation done, covering all animal coins from the past year or so!
That said, I appreciate it if coin holdings just get allocated to the charities directly😊
It's 2024, we can start doing more sophisticated public goods fun-ding, eg. see https://t.co/8ZVhwkVwLy pic.twitter.com/RQ1ThdLCYL
Contentious actors also launched racist projects, and other developers capitalized on the hype train to siphon millions in cryptocurrencies through rug pulls. Despite Buterin’s remarks, memecoins remain a cash cow for developers, service providers like Pump.fun, and well-placed investors who manage to catch skyrocketing coins.
Indeed, Pump.fun revenue crossed $30 million in June, less than six months after its debut in January.