Shiba Inu developer Kaal Dhairya has issued a pointed reminder to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin about SHIB’s crucial role in funding the well-known CryptoRelief initiative. In a recent social media post, Dhairya sarcastically completed Buterin’s statement, highlighting how the billions in SHIB tokens “played a major role” in making CryptoRelief one of crypto’s largest philanthropic efforts.
Buterin Thanks Binance and Polygon but Omits SHIB
Earlier this week, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that he had donated $10 million in BNB to Buterin’s open-source biotech project, which aims to enhance global public health. Buterin publicly thanked CZ for the contribution and praised Polygon Foundation CEO Sandeep Nailwal and the CryptoRelief initiative for their continued support.
However, Dhairya and several Shiba Inu community members noticed Buterin failed to mention the SHIB community’s massive contribution. This oversight struck a nerve, considering that Shiba Inu’s legendary donation remains a pivotal moment in both the project’s history and the broader crypto philanthropy space.
The Famous SHIB Donation That Shook the Industry
In 2021, Ryoshi, Shiba Inu’s mysterious founder, sent 50% of SHIB’s total supply, about 500 trillion tokens, to Buterin’s wallet, assuming he wouldn’t move the funds. Defying those assumptions, Buterin burned 410 trillion SHIB, removing roughly $6.7 billion worth of tokens from circulation in May 2021. This move sparked SHIB’s meteoric rise in popularity.
Notably, Buterin donated around $1 billion worth of SHIB tokens to CryptoRelief, a fund established by Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal to support India’s efforts to combat the COVID-19 crisis. At the time, it ranked among the largest crypto donations ever made, drawing global attention to SHIB’s community-driven ethos.
Related article: Shiba Inu’s Shytoshi Kusama Hints at AI Revolution in ‘Jul-AI’ With Major Announcements Ahead
Buterin’s Next Moves and SHIB’s Continued Impact
Regulatory hurdles in India later prompted CryptoRelief to return some of the donated SHIB to Buterin, who then launched the Balvi Philanthropic Fund to allocate the funds more effectively. Notably, Buterin undertook this initiative in close collaboration with the Shiba Inu community, highlighting SHIB’s enduring role in his charitable endeavours.
Last March, Buterin publicly acknowledged that SHIB had “massively outperformed” his expectations, praising the community’s impact and its role in the broader crypto ecosystem. Dhairya’s recent reminder serves to keep that contribution front and centre as the crypto community continues to discuss large-scale donations and open-source funding.
For SHIB holders, the moment was more than just a donation; it was a defining chapter that proved a meme coin could make a meaningful impact on real-world issues. As Dhairya’s comment suggests, the Shiba Inu community wants its billion-dollar gesture remembered whenever the story of CryptoRelief is told.
