Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is set to receive $100 million in USDC from the $1 billion worth of Shiba Inu (SHIB) that he generously donated back in May 2021.
Buterin outlined how he plans to use the crypto funds in a Friday tweet.
Buterin To Use Crypto Funds For “Higher-Risk Higher-Reward” Projects Worldwide
When the developers of the popular doggy-themed token Shiba Inu sent 50% of the supply to Vitalik Buterin in May possibly as a guerilla marketing tactic, he ended up donating over 50 trillion coins to India Covid-Crypto Relief Fund before destroying the rest. The SHIB donation was valued at around $1.2 billion at the time.
Now, however, the relief fund that received the donation will be returning $100 of the funds to Buterin. Polygon (formerly Matic) founder Sandeep Nailwal, who created the CryptoRelief fund, hinted that disbursing the funds has unfortunately encountered a mountain of red tape.
He cited the need to be “extra cautious” and in compliance with Indian laws that dictate the range of projects they can donate funds to. However, Vitalik, being a non-Indian, is able to swiftly deploy the funds to high-risk/reward charity projects.
Nailwal indicated that Buterin’s original donation accounted for 98% of the fund’s total contributions and that $100 million in the USDC stablecoin will now be sent back. This means future donations made by Buterin will not adversely affect the price of the Shiba Inu token.
To this end, the 27-year-old Ethereum wunderkind tweeted that he has co-created a new organization called Balvi, which will direct these funds to projects focused on the research and development of vaccines, testing, air filtration, ventilation, and high-value areas.
Notably, the $100 million donation will not be directed to projects solely in India. Buterin said his new organization will make bets that are “global in nature and bring great benefit to Indians and non-Indians.”
Nailwal added that the relief fund has so far disbursed $70 million to various aid recipients in India, and has $302 million worth of USDC remaining — excluding the portion of Buterin’s donation that will be returned.
All in all, this amount is significantly lower than the initial $1-billion donation. But it makes sense given Buterin’s sell-offs triggered a price fall at the time. Moreover, the price of SHIB sunk further on the back of a market-wide cataclysm. The leading Dogecoin (DOGE) copycat is now valued at $0.00002150, down 75% from the all-time high of $0.00008616 set last October.
