Vitalik Buterin donates $530,000 in Meme Tokens to the Animal Welfare Fund.
TLDR
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin donated about $530,000 worth of “animal coins” to the effective altruism fund Animal Welfare Fund. Donated tokens were sent to Buterin by various projects last year. Buterin sold 200 ETH worth of these memecoins to make the donation. Calling for more sophisticated crowdfunding methods in the crypto space, Buterin suggested creating philanthropic tokens and meaningful crypto games as an alternative to meme coins.
Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, has donated approximately $530,000 worth of “animal coins” to charity. The donation, made to Effective Altruism Funds' Animal Welfare Fund, came from the sale of various meme tokens sent to Buterin's Bag last year.
In the year On August 15, 2024, Buterin announced on social media that he had completed a “charitable donation covering all animal coins from the past year or more.” To make the donation, he sold about 200 ETH worth of these tokens, which was $530,000 at the time.
A charity donation has been made, covering all animal coins from the last year or more!
That said, I would appreciate it if the coin holdings were allocated directly to charities
In the year It's 2024, we might start enjoying more sophisticated public goods, e.g. See pic.twitter.com/RQ1ThdLCYL
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 15, 2024
These “animal coins” are typically meme tokens, often as a joke or to capitalize on a trend in the cryptocurrency market. Developers and communities frequently send these tokens to prominent figures in the crypto space, sometimes to incorporate them into their community and other times as a marketing ploy.
Buterin's decision to donate these tokens demonstrates his continued commitment to using cryptocurrency for charitable purposes. In the year In 2021, it donated more than $1 billion worth of Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens to India's Covid-19 relief efforts, although that donation faced challenges due to scale and token volatility.
In his recent announcement, Buterin called for more sophisticated crowdfunding methods in the cryptocurrency space. He suggested that communities donate directly to charities instead of sending tokens to celebrities like him. Buterin said, “In It's 2024, and we may start funding more sophisticated public goods.
This call for more complex funding models is consistent with Buterin's proposals in a blog post earlier this year. He proposed the creation of special tokens for different causes, such as “AntiCancerCoin” for cancer research or “ClimateCoin” for environmental protection. The trading of these tokens can determine which causes receive funding.
Buterin's proposal comes amid growing unease in the crypto community about the proliferation of meme coins that don't support meaningful causes. Alternatively, it supports the development of charity-oriented tokens and meaningful crypto games that can benefit low-income participants.
These ideas build on pay-to-play models in games like Axie Infinity where players can earn money while playing. Buterin's proposal focuses on creating systems that protect vulnerable players while also allowing them to engage in exciting real-world effects.
This donation is not an isolated incident for Buterin. Just one week earlier, the wallet transferred 3,000 ETH (approximately $8.05 million) to a multi-signature wallet. While some have speculated that this could be another donation, others have noted that all of the recipient wallet signatories are linked to Buterin, suggesting it could be an internal fund transfer.
