Vitalik Buterin Converts Meme Coins to ETH, Donates to Tornado Cash Defense Fund

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, made headlines today with a significant crypto transaction involving the sale of various meme coins and USDT, converting them into ETH.

These tokens had been sent unsolicited to his wallet by developers over the past year. On October 5, Buterin offloaded several assets, gaining approximately $341,000 worth of ETH.

According to Lookonchain, the sales included 11.76 billion Moodeng tokens, 70.72 million Neiro, 7.8 million Degen, and 16 billion Kabosu tokens, along with his entire USDT balance, all of which netted him a total of 140.67 ETH.

Shortly after the transaction, Buterin donated 100 ETH to the “Free Alexey & Roman” initiative, a campaign supporting the legal defense of Tornado Cash developers.

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It’s unclear if the donation came from these specific sales, but this is consistent with Buterin’s ongoing practice of using meme coin proceeds for charitable causes. Earlier this year, he sold animal-themed tokens and contributed over $500,000 worth of ETH to the Animal Welfare Fund.

Buterin has publicly expressed frustration with receiving unsolicited tokens and prefers meme coin creators to donate directly to charity instead. He has also urged the crypto community to focus on designing tokens with real-world applications, such as charitable fundraising, rather than mere speculation.