The Surprising Reason SHIBA INU Has Plunged 44% in 24 Hours
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The Surprising Reason SHIBA INU Has Plunged 44% in 24 Hours

Vitalik Buterin was given half of the token supply because developers didn't think he'd sell. He has.

The Surprising Reason SHIBA INU Has Plunged 44% in 24 Hours

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One of the biggest fallers in the past 24 hours has been SHIBA INU, a relatively new token that has been touted as a “Dogecoin killer.”

The meme coin has tanked by 44%, plunging to $0.00001622 at the time of writing, and the story behind the decline is rather fascinating.

When SHIBA INU was created, developers decided to pledge half of the tokens to an address belonging to Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder.

The rationale was that Buterin wouldn’t use the tokens, not least because of how he’s already a crypto billionaire following Ethereum’s spike.

All of that changed when Vitalik Buterin announced that he was donating a sizeable chunk of these tokens to a fund designed to support India’s battle with a devastating wave of COVID-19. At the time, they had a cash value of $1 billion.

‘We Will Act Responsibly!’ 

Polygon’s co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, who started the fund, tried to calm SHIB investors who may have feared mass sell-offs following on from the donation. He tweeted:

“One thing we have learnt from Ethereum and @VitalikButerin is importance of community. We will not do anything which hurts any community specially the retail community involved with $SHIB. We will act responsibly!”

All of these creates a rather awkward tightrope that the relief fund will have to manage. Selling more tokens now could unlock much-needed aid as India grapples with a highly infectious variant and a shortage of oxygen, while waiting to prevent shocks in the market could ultimately mean that the donation ends up being worth much less than it is at present.

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