Vitalik Buterin nets $636K from meme coin sales, sparks debate on investor risks

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently sold several meme coins, which brought in 257.1 ETH, valued at about $636K. His action has stirred debate in the cryptocurrency community once again. The sale of the meme coins, which were donations, has ignited discussions around investor risks and the impact of high-profile sales on low-liquidity tokens.

Buterin sells meme coins in multiple transactions

According to blockchain tracking platform Lookonchain, Vitalik offloaded a collection of meme coins through several transactions. The sales were made for 330,000 MSTR for 114.1 ETH ($282K), 14 million POPCAT for 74.99 ETH ($186K), and 14 billion ITO for 36.55 ETH ($90K). Other sales were 1.05 million ETH6900 for 15.37 ETH ($38K), 50.53 billion SATO for 11.34 ETH ($28K), and 10 billion Milo for 4.77 ETH ($12K).

Vitalik’s latest sale of meme coins has stirred many comments within the cryptocurrency community. One user, Kame, commented, “Imagine just doing nothing but breathing and receiving $1 mil a day, Vitalik living the dream.” This comment hinted at a mix of admiration and sarcasm toward the way the Ethereum co-founder is profiting from tokens he got for free. This illustrates how some people view Vitalik’s gains from the token sales as easy compared to the speculative efforts of regular investors put into speculation. 

Still Vitalik’s attitude towards these tokens is consistent with his earlier statement that any tokens he receives without asking would be donated. He has stated at least once that he distributes proceeds from such token sales to charity. 

A while back, Vitalik expressed his preference for meme coin 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, he 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.”

~Vitalik

Still, some critics in the crypto space insist that some initiatives may use charitable donations as a kind of marketing to raise funding while exposing purchasers to unknown hazards.

Vitalik proposes a fairer fee structure as ETH transaction costs surge 400%

On a different note, Vitalik spoke on the debate about costs in the Ethereum Layer-1/Layer-2 ecosystem, noting the necessity for fair and steady fees to make using the network profitable. 

He suggested that Ethereum should examine EIP-7762 and rollups for answers on how to strike a better fee-sharing balance between Ethereum’s main network and Layer 2 solutions with minimal disruption for end-users.

Ethereum fees began surging again after declining for close to three months. As per BitInfoCharts, the average Ethereum fee tripled in the last 30 days, while the median transaction fee added over 400% to hit $2.25.