Vitalik burns $6.7B of Shiba to reward generous hodlers

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has burned nearly half of the supply of the popular Dogecoin clone, Shiba Inu (SHIB).

In a statement embedded into the transaction on May 16, Vitalik Buterin explained why he decided to burn $6.7 billion worth of SHIB tokens, emphasizing the “generosity” of the “dog token communities.”

“I’ve actually been impressed by how the dog token communities have treated the recent donations! Plenty of dog people have shown their generosity and their willingness to not just focus on their own profits but also be interested in making the world as a whole better. I support all who are earnestly doing that.”

The recent dog-themed bull run came to an abrupt end on May 12 as Buterin liquidated trillions of the tokens he was gifted by Shiba’s creators and donated the proceeds to charity.

The Ethereum co-founder said he decided to burn the remaining 90% of Shiba tokens in his wallet and allocate the remaining 10% to charitable causes. He added that charities with similar values as CryptoRelief — an Indian organization focused on supporting Covid relief through crypto-asset donations — would be considered as potential recipients.

Buterin noted that simply holding the coins entrusted to him was not an option for security reasons, adding that he wanted to avoid the frenzied speculation that could arise from him making transactions using the dog tokens in the future.

He also asked people not to donate any more tokens to him as he did not want to be a “locus of power of that kind.”

The Shiba Inu token prices went ballistic when it was listed on Binance last week amid the surging popularity of Dogecoin and other dog tokens. The surge in canine-themed meme token trading was blamed for the recent spike in Ethereum network fees — which hit an average all-time high of $70 on May 12.

At the time of writing, SHIB has retreated 7% in 24 hours amid the latest crypto crash triggered by anti-Bitcoin sentiment expressed by the Twitter account of Elon Musk.

Bitcoin has retreated 7% over the past 24 hours to $44,600 as of this writing.