- Vitalik Buterin sold 10 billion Moo Deng tokens on Ethereum for a charitable donation, leading to a surge in the price of the meme coin.
- The Ethereum-based Moo Deng token climbed 480% in value over the past day after Buterin’s sale, though its market cap is still below that of the Solana-based Moo Deng coin.
- Buterin has donated meme coin proceeds to charitable causes before, saying they can serve a “positive-sum purpose” beyond speculation.
Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin sold 10 billion Moo Deng tokens for a charitable donation – and then the meme coin surged in price.
Background on Moo Deng
Moo Deng is a viral baby pygmy hippo from Thailand. A meme coin based on Moo Deng was created on Ethereum a week after the dominant Solana coin. The Ethereum version has seen its price climb 480% in the past day, though its nearly $86 million market cap still sits below that of the Solana token.
Buterin Sells Billions of Tokens
Buterin said on Twitter he had swapped a substantial sum of the Ethereum-based meme coin to fund anti-airborne-disease tech. Meanwhile, an entity formed by Buterin named Kanro received 181,000 in ETH.
Buterin had received 62 billion MOODENG from the token’s deployer last month, currently valued at $12 million. Yet Buterin’s holdings have been whittled down across several recent transfers to 40 billion. Within the past few hours, Buterin had sent approximately 10 billion MOODENG tokens to the decentralized exchange CoW Swap.
Token Price Skyrockets
Notably, the meme coin Buterin donated Monday isn’t the asset that’s galloped to a $102 million market capitalization on Solana. That coin has fallen 50% over the past week.
Conversely, the rendition on Ethereum created a week after the dominant Solana coin has climbed 480% in value over the past day.
Trading Volume Surges
Trading activity for the Ethereum-based hippo token was concentrated within Uniswap, the industry’s leading decentralized exchange. That venue had seen $45 million worth of MOODENG trade hands as of this writing, according to CoinGecko data.
Buterin’s Philanthropic Efforts
Buterin’s donation follows philanthropic efforts in April that leveraged meme coins for the benefit of animal welfare. Donating $532,000 worth of ETH to the Effective Altruism Fund’s dedicated Animal Welfare Fund, Buterin had said just a month before that meme coins could serve a positive-sum purpose extending beyond rampant speculation.
Conclusion
The Ethereum creator’s sale of the hippo meme coin led to a massive surge in its price. This demonstrates the influence Buterin wields in the crypto space and his ability to drive interest in lesser-known assets. It also highlights the volatile nature of meme coins and how they can quickly skyrocket or crash based on hype.
