Buterin to Use Returned $100M From SHIB Donation for COVID Projects Worldwide

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin will receive back $100 million in USDC from the more than $1 billion in shiba inu (SHIB) 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:

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

• 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.