Vitalik Buterin will put the $100 million he received from the SHIB donation toward COVID projects all across the world. Buterin would utilize the money for “higher-risk, higher-reward” projects, according to CryptoRelief, the Indian COVID-19 fund that received the original donation.
Vitalik Buterin will put the $100 million he received from the SHIB donation toward COVID projects

According to the fund’s founder Sandeep Nailwal and Buterin, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin would get $100 million in USDC from the more than $1 billion in Shiba Inu he previously donated to the India-focused COVID-19 relief fund, CryptoRelief.
CryptoRelief Update:
Have been in discussions with @VitalikButerin on how to accelerate relief efforts in India. And we have come up with a solution, we will moving $100mn USDC back to Vitalik, a non-Indian, to do fast deployment in high risk/reward projects.
Why? A thread
— Sandeep | Polygon 💜 (@sandeepnailwal) January 28, 2022
“We will return $100 million USDC to Vitalik, a non-Indian, to perform rapid deployment in high-risk/high-reward initiatives,” Nailwal, who is also the co-founder of Polygon, tweeted.
Buterin gave the CryptoRelief fund 50 trillion SHIB tokens (valued roughly $1.2 billion at the time), which he obtained unsolicited from Shiba Inu’s founders. The remainder of the tokens he flung into the fire.
Buterin said on Twitter that the $100 million will be used “to augment CryptoRelief’s existing fantastic work with some higher-risk, higher-reward covid research and relief projects throughout the world.”
CryptoRelief sending $100m of the $SHIBA funds back to me. I plan to personally deploy these funds with the help of science advisors to complement CryptoRelief’s existing excellent work with some higher-risk higher-reward covid science and relief projects worldwide. https://t.co/xvHxzwwdn8
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 28, 2022
The decision comes as India’s government prepares to present the country’s budget on February 1st. New crypto regulations are being considered by the country’s parliament. The choice to refund the sum in stablecoin to Buterin may have been influenced by the country’s crypto apprehensions, according to Nailwal.
“Considering the fund’s international origin and Indian rules, Crypto Relief took a systematic, controlled, and rigorous strategy in disbursing cash mandated for India,” Nailwal tweeted. “However, as an Indian citizen (NRI), I must exercise extra caution in any of the programs to which I donate,” he added.
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