Vitalik Buterin Says SHIB Donation Worth Hundreds of Millions Exceeded His Expectations

According to ChainCatcher, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said in an October 29 interview on the Silicon Valley 101 podcast that he did not expect his SHIB donation to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars and would have made a different decision had he known. He recalled investing $25,000 in DOGE, which later grew in value to more than $10 million. The SHIB project had sent half of its total token supply to his public wallet. Buterin sold some of the tokens for about $70 million in ETH but held a large remainder because of limited market liquidity, then donated it to an Indian COVID relief organization and the Future of Life Institute. He had expected the recipients to cash out at most just over $20 million.