Vitalik Buterin, the Russian based co-founder of the world s second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum, donates $1.14 billion to the India Covid-Crypto Relief Fund amid the pandemic
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Vitalik Buterin, billionaire co-founder of the cryptocurrency network Ethereum, donated more than $1 billion in digital currencies to the India Covid-Crypto Relief Fund, according to a report.
The 27-year-old Mr Buterin, who is the world’s youngest known crypto billionaire, made the donation by offloading dog-themed meme tokens, Shiba Inu coins (SHIB), that were gifted to him.
Nearly 50.7 trillion SHIB coins – worth more than $1 billion on Wednesday – were sent to the relief fund from Mr Buterin’s account. He also sent $2 million worth of Ether, the in-house currency of the Ethereum network, to the fund that was set up by Indian technology entrepreneur Sandeep Nailwal.
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Cryptocurrency billionaire and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has made one of the largest individual philanthropic contributions ever, by donating Ethereum and “meme coins” similar to Dogecoin worth over $1bn to India’s Covid battle.
Unfortunately, the value of the currencies donated began to crash immediately after the gift was disclosed, making the total contribution worth considerably less.
On Wednesday Buterin, the 27-year-old co-founder of Ethereum, announced that he had contributed close to $1.5bn to a number of non-profit organisations, some of it from the more stable Ether.
But some $1.2bn of that came in the form of the meme digital currency Shiba Inu (SHIB) coin – named after the dog breed and featuring the dog as its mascot – similar to Dogecoin. Buterin reportedly donated 50 trillion SHIB tokens to the India Covid-Crypto Relief Fund set up by Indian tech entrepreneur Sandeep Nailwal.