Ethereum co-founder Buterin swaps memecoins for charity, urges creators to donate directly

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently converted a significant portion of his memecoin holdings to ETH for charitable donations.

In an Oct. 7 post on X, Buterin revealed that he sold 10 billion Moodeng tokens to fund anti-airborne-disease technologies.

On-chain analysis platform Lookonchain confirmed the statement, noting that Buterin sold the Moddeng tokens for 308.69 ETH (around $762,000) and donated 260 ETH (approximately $637,000) to Kanro, a biotech charity platform.

Despite the sale, Buterin still holds about 40 billion Moodeng tokens, valued at around $3.66 million. His action, however, led to a decline in Moodeng’s value, with the token dropping by 21% in the past 24 hours. At the time of writing, the token trades at approximately $0.1077.

Buterin’s previous memecoin sales

This transaction comes less than two days after Buterin sold four tokens—Moodeng, Neiro, Degen, Kabosu, and USDT—for 140.67 ETH, worth around $341,000.

Following the transaction, Buterin donated 100 ETH, valued at roughly $240,000, to Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm’s legal defense fund. This marks the third time Buterin has supported Storm’s defense.

In an X post , Storm expressed his gratitude for Buterin’s continued support, stating:

“I can’t describe how much it means to me. Thank you for your long-lasting support.”

Market observers noted that these transactions reflect Buterin’s commitment to converting memecoin holdings into charitable donations. Earlier this year, he sold a large amount of animal-themed meme coins and donated $532,000 worth of ETH to the Animal Welfare Fund.

Buterin advises memecoin creators

Buterin has also expressed his preference for memecoin creators to donate tokens directly to charitable causes rather than sending them to him unsolicitedly.

He suggested that these creators consider forming decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to involve their communities in the donation process. In his X post, Buterin stated:

“I truly prefer if you guys send to charity directly, maybe even make a DAO and get your community directly engaged in the decisions and process.”

Buterin further emphasized that memecoins could positively impact the world when used for good causes.