Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin continues selling free memecoins

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has sold another batch of memecoins that were airdropped to his wallet in a familiar pattern of liquidating unsolicited tokens. 

According to blockchain data from Arkham Intelligence, Buterin recently swapped 275 trillion CatCoin (CAT) tokens for 14,216 USDC, equivalent to about $14,200. The transfers occurred at around 6 AM UTC Thursday, moved from Buterin’s wallet address, vitalik.eth, to a bridge and decentralized exchange aggregator Li.Fi. 

CatCoin (CAT) is a cat-themed crypto meant to compete with popular dog-themed tokens such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. Over the past 24 hours, CatCoin has fallen 0.29%, underperforming the broader crypto market, which declined 1.82% during the same period.

Buterin’s CAT memecoin sale is a relatively small amount compared to his overall portfolio, but past instances of similar sell-offs have often influenced market sentiment toward the tokens involved. 

Vitalik Buterin does not like memecoin airdrops

The Ethereum co-founder, much similar to the times he dumped memecoins before, has not commented publicly on the reason behind the latest disposal. In previous years, the Russian programmer publicly lashed out at the community for trying to use him as a “marketing vehicle” for new tokens, calling unsolicited airdrops “disruptive and unnecessary.”

“Many projects have opted to send a substantial chunk of their supply to me,” Buterin told his followers on X last year. “Anything that gets sent to me gets donated to charity too, though I truly prefer if you guys send to charity directly.”

I appreciate all the memecoins that donate portions of their supply directly to charity.

(eg. I saw ebull sent a bunch to various groups last month)

Anything that gets sent to me gets donated to charity too (thanks moodeng! The 10B from today is going to anti-airborne-disease…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 7, 2024

He has maintained that stance since 2021, when he famously offloaded a chunk of Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens worth around $1 billion. That transaction led to a 44% decline in SHIB’s price within 24 hours. 

Buterin later announced that he had donated the proceeds to India’s COVID-19 relief fund, struggling with oxygen and medical supply shortages during the pandemic’s peak.

About two years later, crypto transactions trackers like PeckShield traced another transaction in which Buterin sold 500 trillion SHIKOKU tokens, netting roughly 380 ETH, worth about $590,000 at the time.

Fast forward to January this year, Cryptopolitan, citing Lookonchain, reported that Buterin sold other memecoins he had received for free, including DOG, ESTEE, and DINU. The data showed he exchanged 340 billion DOG tokens for 5.2 ETH, alongside smaller conversions that totaled around $139,000 in proceeds.

Around October 10, Buterin liquidated a larger group of memecoins valued at 1,101 ETH (about $2.78 million at the time). According to reports, he donated 360.16 ETH, or roughly $884,000, from those sales to charitable causes.

Among the tokens sold in that round were 10 billion MOODENG, 200,000 MSTR, and 500 million EBULL,  which netted 395.95 ETH ($982,000), 93.23 ETH ($231,000), and 73.79 ETH ($183,000), respectively.

“I appreciate all the memecoins that donate portions of their supply directly to charity. Anything that gets sent to me gets donated to charity too (thanks, moodeng!). The 10B from today is going to anti-airborne-disease tech,” the Ethereum founder remarked.

No interest in memecoin development whatsoever

Many projects intentionally airdrop tokens to Buterin’s address, betting that he would consider them “good,” or rather start market FOMO that would boost a project’s market cap numbers to top 10 levels, much like Elon Musk did for Dogecoin. 

Arkham’s blockchain data also shows he received other memecoins like 1 billion SPURDO tokens and 6.439 billion TWOGE tokens, likely part of yet another round of unsolicited airdrops.

Buterin’s overall crypto holdings during the week ending Thursday rose from $948.6 million to $973.55 million, a net gain of nearly $25 million within the seven days. Ethereum (ETH) is the dominant asset in his holdings, accounting for approximately $958.97 million, up from $934.16 million a week earlier. 

The address also holds a balance of wrapped Ethereum (AWETH) at $11.35 million, while its holdings of Augur (REP) increased slightly in value to $92,920.

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