Vitalik Buterin Dumphitcoin, Reaps Reaction From Crypto Community

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. (Photo; Doc. TechCrunch)

JAKARTA - Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, threw away a number of "shitcoins" in the early hours of March 7, which caused the value of the assets to decline.

Reported by on-chain analyst Lookonchain, Buterin sold 50 billion MOPS, 500 trillion SHIK, and 10 billion CULT tokens for 439.25 ETH. In addition, he also sold 3.4 million BITE tokens for 4.9 ETH. Although these sales have lowered the value of the tokens, Buterin still holds 666 SHIK and 10 billion CULT tokens.

The term "shitcoin" itself refers to low-quality crypto projects and little real value beyond speculation. Several projects even sent free tokens to Buterin's public addresses for publicity and legitimacy. Dexscreener data shows Buterin's sales have lowered the value of the tokens. However, the MOPS token actually rose 216 percent in the last 24 hours.

Buterin has previously taken similar measures by burning and donating tokens to the community, such as when he burned (burn) 90 percent of the 500 trillion Shiba Inu tokens (SHIBA) and donated $1 billion worth of tokens (Rp15.4 trillion based on the current exchange rate) to India's COVID funds.

The crypto community debates the reasons behind this sale. Some people think that Buterin sells because of the bearish market situation, while some argue that he wants to avoid the token being counted as revenue on his tax sheet. Crypto influencer Richard Heart even joked that Buterin shouldn't sell the 15 HEX tokens in his wallet.

Interestingly, CULT DAO, one of the tokens sold by Buterin, has had a major presence at the recent ETHDenver conference. To date, there has been no statement from DAO about the sale of tokens by Buterin, according to a CryptoSlate report.

The action taken by Ethereum boss Vitalik Buterin is in the spotlight among the crypto community, especially because of its influence strength in the industry. Buterin's action to throw away a number of tokens deemed "shitcoin" also reminded investors and traders that not all crypto projects deserve consideration.