Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Dumps Memecoin Holdings He Received For Free, Crypto Community Left Wondering Why

Aniket Verma

September 29, 2025

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), sold memecoins he got for free on Sunday, sparking a bit of intrigue in the cryptocurrency community.

Buterin Has Crypto World Guessing

The influential cryptocurrency entrepreneur swapped 150 billion I love puppies (PUPPIES) for 28.65 ETH, worth $117,635, and 1 billion ERC20 tokens for $13,900 in USDC (CRYPTO: USDC) stablecoin, according to Lookonchain.

The motive of the transfer was not immediately clear. Buterin didn't immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment on the matter.

Though the sale amount was modest, Buterin's actions, particularly in handling the memecoins he was gifted, have always drawn curiosity.

vitalik.eth(@VitalikButerin) sold 2 memecoins got for free in the past 2 hours, obtaining 13,889 $USDC and 28.58 $ETH($114.7K).https://t.co/8LIPqvsf76 https://t.co/ZEV3x0Krdm pic.twitter.com/sUdl3vIzhY
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 28, 2025

See Also: Dogecoin Price Spikes 2% Amid Broader Crypto Rally, Analyst Flags ‘Make-Or-Break Zone’ For Memecoin

Buterin’s History With Memecoins

Over the years, billions of dollars’ worth of memecoins have arrived in Buterin’s wallet against his will, possibly in an attempt by new projects to spark investors’ interest by exploiting his brand value.

He has requested that projects not send him unsolicited meme tokens and instead utilize them for charitable purposes.

The most notable example is the $7 billion worth of Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) that he received in 2021. Of this, he donated $1 billion to aid COVID relief in India and burned the rest.

Apart from this, he has been donating memecoins to charities that look after the welfare of animals.

Price Action: At the time of writing, PUPPIES, having a market capitalization of $37 million, was exchanging hands at $0.0000008855, down 3.09% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.

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