Buterin to Use Returned $100M From SHIB Donation for COVID Projects Worldwide

CryptoRelief, the Indian COVID-19 fund that received the original donation, is returning the sum, which Buterin will use for “higher-risk higher-reward” projects.

By Aoyon Ashraf

Jan 28, 2022 at 11:57 p.m. UTC

Updated Jan 31, 2022 at 2:31 p.m. UTC

Vitalik Buterin (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Aoyon Ashraf

Aoyon Ashraf is managing editor with more than a decade of experience in covering equity markets

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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin will receive back $100 million in USDC from the more than $1 billion in shiba inu (SHIB) he previously donated to the India-focused COVID-19 relief fund, CryptoRelief, the fund's founder Sandeep Nailwal and Buterin tweeted Friday.

“We will move $100mn USDC back to Vitalik, a non-Indian, to do fast deployment in high risk/reward projects,” tweeted Nailwal, who is also the co-founder of Polygon.

Last May, Buterin donated 50 trillion in SHIB tokens (worth about $1.2 billion at that time), which the creators of shiba inu sent him unsolicited, to the CryptoRelief fund. He burned the rest of the tokens.
Buterin tweeted that he will use the $100 million “to complement CryptoRelief’s existing excellent work with some higher-risk higher-reward covid science and relief projects worldwide.”

The move comes as the Indian government is gearing up to present the nation’s budget on Feb. 1. The country’s lawmakers have been weighing new crypto regulations.
Nailwal hinted that the country’s crypto wariness figured in the decision to return the amount in stablecoin to Buterin.
“Considering the fund's foreign origin and laws of India, Crypto Relief followed a systematic, controlled & robust approach in disbursing funds mandated to be utilized for India,” tweeted Nailwal. “But being an Indian citizen (NRI), I have to be extra cautious in any of the projects being donated to,” he added.

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