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Buterin to Use Returned $100M From SHIB Donation for COVID Projects Worldwide
CryptoRelief, the Indian COVID-19 fund that received the original donation, is returning the sum, which Buterin will use for “higher-risk higher-reward” projects.
By Aoyon Ashraf
Updated May 11, 2023, 5:56 p.m. Published Jan 28, 2022, 11:57 p.m.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin will receive back $100 million in USDC from the more than $1 billion in he previously donated to the India-focused COVID-19 relief fund, CryptoRelief, the fund's founder Sandeep Nailwal and Buterin tweeted Friday.
- “We will move $100mn USDC back to Vitalik, a non-Indian, to do fast deployment in high risk/reward projects,” tweeted Nailwal, who is also the co-founder of Polygon.
CryptoRelief Update:
— Sandeep Nailwal | sandeep. polygon 💜 (@sandeepnailwal) January 28, 2022
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
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- Last May, Buterin donated 50 trillion in SHIB tokens (worth about $1.2 billion at that time), which the creators of shiba inu sent him unsolicited, to the CryptoRelief fund. He burned the rest of the tokens.
- Buterin tweeted that he will use the $100 million “to complement CryptoRelief’s existing excellent work with some higher-risk higher-reward covid science and relief projects worldwide.”
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 move comes as the Indian government is gearing up to present the nation’s budget on Feb. 1. The country’s lawmakers have been weighing new crypto regulations.
- Nailwal hinted that the country’s crypto wariness figured in the decision to return the amount in stablecoin to Buterin.
- “Considering the fund's foreign origin and laws of India, Crypto Relief followed a systematic, controlled & robust approach in disbursing funds mandated to be utilized for India,” tweeted Nailwal. “But being an Indian citizen (NRI), I have to be extra cautious in any of the projects being donated to,” he added.
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