Vitalik Buterin’s $1 billion Shiba Inu (SHIB) donation to the COVID-Crypto Relief Fund would be hard to cash, according to the Indian charity’s manager.
Vitalik Buterin: the nightmare of the Shiba Inu community
Last May, Vitalik Buterin, had donated more than $1 billion in Ethereum (ETH) and SHIB to an Indian relief fund to fight COVID. Originally, the SHIB tokens had been sent to Buterin by the creator of Shiba Inu, without his consent. It was a simple marketing stunt to increase the value of the coin, without his consent (the address of Vitalik Buterin’s wallet being public). And this plan worked rather well (although temporarily).
Indeed, after receiving the tokens, which were in the billions, the Ethereum founder quickly donated $1.14 billion in SHIB. This represented about 10% of the total amount in SHIB available on his wallet.
In total, the contributions made by Vitalik Buterin amounted to about $1.5 billion. In fact, 500 ETH and 50,000,000 SHIB were donated to the Indian association created by Sandeep Nailwal.
After the donation, Vitalik burned the remaining SHIB in his possession. About 420 billion SHIB tokens were thus sent to a “dead” wallet. Vitalik is sending a strong message, getting rid of almost half of the outstanding supply of Shiba Inu chips.
Panic, first of all, set in among SHIB holders who rushed to lock in their profits amid the price collapse that Buterin’s sales inevitably triggered – especially for the popular Shiba Inu and Dogelon Mars (ELON) tokens, which each saw a price drop of more than 40%.
Converting Shiba Inu to fiat: a real obstacle course
It turned out that Vitalik Buterin had donated the proceeds to several charities – Gitcoin, Give Well and India COVID-Crypto Relief Fund. A decision that was welcomed by many in the community, especially as India was in the grip of an unprecedented and deadly wave of COVID.
However, a few months later, the charity’s founder shared some of the difficulties of cashing in on Buterin’s generous contribution.
A Bloomberg report revealed the amount of funds and how they have been used so far. For example, Sandeep Nailwal, the founder of the COVID-Crypto Relief Fund, has reportedly contributed $20 million to the relief fund so far. Another $20 million will be disbursed later.
By way of background, Sandeep Nailwal also co-founded Polygon (formerly Matic) and told reporters that some of the delays in cashing in were due to his caution and desire to ensure transparency in transfers. To that end, he is reportedly considering hiring a specialist to oversee the entire process.
1 billion turned into 400 million
However, due to the price drops triggered by Buterin’s liquidations, the initial $1 billion value of SHIB’s 50 trillion at the time of their sale quickly declined by 50%. Nailwal estimated that their total potential value would now be $400 million.
Disbursing the funds also ran into a mountain of red tape, with the need to comply with India’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, as the tokens are converted into dollars and then into rupees. Only about 80 percent of them have been converted so far.
As the crypto funds are slowly released, they would be distributed to food providers nationwide and to an organization working to create intensive care services for people with COVID-19 in rural India.
As he continues this tedious process, Sandeep Naiwal also expressed his fears about the prospect of a third wave of infection in the country, which already has more than 400,000 official deaths – while recent reports anticipate 4 million potential victims. So all help is welcome, even if Indian laws are not very lenient towards cryptocurrencies.
