Ethereum ($ETH) founder Vitali Buterin, who gained attention for donating altcoins sent to him as gifts, recently spoke about the $SHIB tokens he donated.
Accordingly, Vitalik Buterin shared a tweet about the donations he has made over the past five years. These donations include numerous popular memecoins, including $SHIB.
In 2021, Buterin shared details of a donation, stating that he had donated the SHIBs that the mysterious Shiba Inu founder, Ryoshi, had sent him.
Buterin stated that in 2021 he donated some of these SHIBs to an organization called the Future of Life Institute (FLI), but added that he no longer shares the same views as that organization.
In a statement from his X account, Buterin said that his $500 million donation to FLI in 2021 was used for political advocacy, deviating from the initially proposed technical roadmap.
“In 2021, I bought a large amount of $SHIB and other Dogecoins because the creators used the phrase “we own half of our Vitalik supply” as a marketing tactic and wanted to be “the next Dogecoin.”
I felt that this was definitely a bubble, that it would burst quickly and the price would drop drastically, so I sold as much as I could in $ETH and donated it. I sent half to Crypto Relief and the other half to FLI.
…However, the situation has changed significantly since 2021, and its political aspects have emerged….”
Buterin stated that he had initially thought his $SHIB donation to FLI would generate a profit of around $10-25 million, but they had managed to achieve a profit of approximately $500 million.
There are often posts mentioning that I donated a very large amount of funds to @FLI_org years ago and connecting me to various policy actions that they take. I thought I would make clear the record both on the nature of my connection to them, and on similarities and differences…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) March 13, 2026
*This is not investment advice.
coindesk.com