What happened to the $SHIB donation made by Vitalik?

Vitalik Buterin, Co-Founder of Ethereum, donated 50 Trillion $SHIB tokens to India Crypto Covid Relief.

Nov 6, 2021

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has donated almost 50 Trillion SHIBA Inu coins, worth around $1 billion at the time of the transaction, to Crypto Relief back on the 12th May 2021.

Now, this transaction prompted panic among some investors, contributing to an over 35% drop in SHIB’s price on that Wednesday — and its value continues to fluctuate.

This transaction was huge, and there were mixed opinions on what to do. There was a huge discussion on the Discord channel of Crypto Relief, whether to sell the coins immediately and take out whatever value it generates or act responsibly and protect the retail investors, as the previous approach could have dented the market.

Sandeep Nailwal, Founder of Crypto Relief, mentioned on Twitter that “We will not do anything which hurts any community especially the retail community involved with $SHIB. We will act responsibly!”

Sandeep - Polygon @sandeepnailwal

Thanks @VitalikButerin 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! Plz dont worry $SHIB holders.

Altcoin Alerts @Altcoin_Alerts

🔔Vitalik donates 1B Worth Shiba INU To India Covid Relief Fund ! @VitalikButerin @sandeepnailwal $SHIB https://t.co/liFcc5DWd4

Later that day, Evgeny - CEO at Wintermute proposed on Twitter that they would like to help with the steady liquidation of the $SHIB tokens.

wishful cynic @EvgenyGaevoy

@sandeepnailwal @CryptoRelief_ Wintermute would like to offer help in managing the steady liquidation of this donation. Our proposal:

Sandeep - Polygon @sandeepnailwal

Sandeep created a poll and asked the community to vote whether Wintermute be assigned to handle the $SHIB donations. Now, this poll resulted in 2312 votes in total with 67.5% voting YES.

Sandeep - Polygon @sandeepnailwal

Thanks Wintermute for the proposal (Linked in thread)! Let's put it to community vote. AFAIK, Wintermute is a reputed & responsible Market Maker(MM). They work w/ many bluechip projects. Q : Should @CryptoRelief_ align Wintermute to handle $SHIB donated by @VitalikButerin?

We announced that we’ll be working with Wintermute on this, and 10% of received SHIB tokens, 5,069,730,758,910 SHIB, were transferred to them. Within 72 hours Wintermute was able to sell this lot, resulting in total proceeds of 82,861,797 USDC.

wishful cynic @EvgenyGaevoy

5,069,730,758,910 $SHIB sold, resulting in total proceeds of USD 82,861,797 in 72 hours. 25% done during first 24 hours and 75% done during the next 48

Eventually, with time the tranches were sent to Wintermute resulting in total proceeds of 463,898,925 USDC. Individual conversion details are as mentioned below:

As of 28th October 2021, we have already granted INR 287.5 crores, $38.41 million, to various charities across India. We’re evaluating proposals and projects and are gearing up to commit the next 1000 crores soon.

Some of our work includes

Supporting UNICEF India for procuring 165 million RUP syringes to support the Government of India’s vaccination drive.
Partnering with the Ministry of Health, the Government of India and SELCO Foundation to empower 1278 Public Health Facilities across 5 states with solar energy impacting 5.7 million people that depend on the public health value chain across the 10 districts.
Supporting Indian Institute of Science to help them establish a Viral Genome sequencing lab and expand the Viral BSL3 facility.
Supporting communities like Slum Dwellers, Rag Pickers, Fishermen, Tribals, People with Disability, Flood affected and the poorest of the poor with Dry Ration for a month. Through this initiative, 50,00,000 kgs of ration were distributed among 28 states.

For more updates on the different activities of Crypto Relief, stay tuned. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram.