Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, donated 20 million Dogecoin (DOGE), worth about $2.9 million, to the Dogecoin Community on 2 November. The recent donation to the world’s most popular memecoin follows a 500 ETH ($1 million) contribution made by Buterin in May 2022.
DOGE is up by 6.1% in the last 24 hours, trading at $0.085, according to data from CoinGecko.
The news was first shared by Twitter user @CalisCihan in a tweet on 14 November, according to the on-chain data from SoDogeTip, an on-chain tipping bot. The news of the donation was subsequently confirmed by reputable Dogecoin news sharer Mishaboar, who shared a link to view the transaction on Dogecoin Explorer. For context, the Dogecoin Foundation is a non-profit organization supporting the Dogecoin ecosystem through advocacy and core development efforts.
Yet, it is not clear how the donation will be used by the Doge Foundation. Buterin joined the Dogecoin Foundation’s advisory board in August 2022 along with Neuralink CEO Jared Birchall. Following the Ethereum merge, Buterin suggested that Dogecoin should transition to the proof of stake (PoS) protocol. DOGE is the second-biggest proof of work (PoW) crypto, just behind Bitcoin.
As Buterin and the Dogecoin Foundation have made no comment on the donation, broadcasters @CalisCihan and Mishaboar have speculated about the timing of the donation. While @CalisCihan believes there might be a link between the donation and the launch of the long-anticipated DOGE ETH bridge, which Buterin collaborated on, Mishaboar points to the Dogecoin Hackathon as a possible incentive.
Buterin contributed to Covid Relief Fund in India
This is not the first time the Ethereum co-founder has donated to a crypto project. Buterin had transferred 500 Ethereum coins and over 50 trillion SHIB (Shiba Inu) collectively worth $1.14 billion to India’s Covid-Crypto Relief Fund, set up and run by Indian crypto entrepreneur Sandeep Nailwal. For context, Shiba Inu’s anonymous developer Ryoshi gifted Vitalik Buterin 50% of the coin’s total supply. The crypto influencer decided to burn 90% of the tokens in his wallet and decided to give the remaining 10% to charity, of which India received a portion.
