[TL; DR]
Buterin donated the ETH he raised through converting the animal-themed meme coins he had received from various people and crypto organizations as gifts.
The NEIRO meme coin’s price rose by 50% within 24 hours after Buterin made a crypto donation to the animal welfare fund.
dogecoin-doge" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, PEPE, DogWifHat, Bonk and FLOKI are the top meme coins.
Introduction
The crypto market has a tendency to respond to activities which celebrities or large crypto institutions carry out. In many cases well-known personalities make statements that can lead to price rallies of certain categories of digital assets. In this analysis we look at the effect of Buterin’s donation of animal coins on prices of several meme coins.
Vitalik Buterin Leads by Example as He Donates Trillions of Meme Coins
Vitalik Buterin has donated trillions of tokens to an Animal Welfare Fund. Buterin, the ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum co-founder and one of the biggest names in the crypto history, donated $532,000 worth of ETH to the Effective Altruism Fund which is a welfare fund set aside to care for animals. That crypto donation came from different animal coins which he converted to ETH. Over the years individuals as well as some crypto organizations sent millions of animal-themed, Ethereum-based meme coins to Buterin.
Related article: 10 Crypto Influencers You Should Follow
There were several reasons for them to make the crypto donations. Some crypto developers who launched their tokens gave a portion of it to Buterin whom they view as an important person in the crypto sector since he is the founder of one of the leading blockchains. Some developers thought that by making their projects associated with Buterin they could become very famous and attract many investors. So, donating to the ethereum co-founder became part of the marketing strategies of some crypto projects which are based on the Ethereum network.
Background to Buterin’s Philanthropy
Vitalik Buterin has a long history of philanthropy. For example, in 2021 he donated $1 billion to the Covid19 relief fund in India. This was just a chunk of the funds he had received as donation from the anonymous developers of Shiba Inu, who sent him 50% of the Shiba tokens valued at $7 billion at that time. Nevertheless, after donating the $1 billion to India, Buterin burned the remainder of the Shibu Inu tokens which were in his custody.
This time Buterin used the same crypto philanthropy philosophy, but he channeled the funds to another important cause, animal welfare. It started when the team behind the Neiro token donated 17.15 billion of the cryptocurrency to the Ethereum founder. Nevertheless, in August Buterin sold all the Neiro coins he had for about $119,000, equivalent to 44.42 ETH. Due to the crypto market reaction to the sale the Neiro price dropped by around 60%. However, the token price soon rebounded to its previous level. After that sale the Neiro team asked Buterin to donate part of the sale proceeds to a stray dog shelter. Buterin responded positively to the request and donated 200 ETH, worth over $532,000 to the welfare fund. Both the blockchain community and the meme coin market appreciated Buterin’s gesture. He acknowledged the donation on his profile. Source: x.com
Nevertheless, Buterin encouraged coin developers and crypto project teams and individuals to make direct contributions to charity and public goods. He said, “I appreciate it if coin holdings just get allocated to the charities directly. It's 2024, we can start doing more sophisticated public goods fun-ding, e.g.” Image source: x.com/VitalikButerin
Posting on his blog, he also explained the essence of cryptocurrency donations. He said, “Among the more interesting of the coins that I've seen are coins where a large portion of the token supply (or some ongoing fee mechanism) is dedicated to some kind of charity.”
He added, “For the past two years, there has been a coin called "Fable of the Dragon Tyrant" which supported cultural projects related to anti-aging research, in addition to other causes. Unfortunately, both of these are far from perfect.”
Market Reaction: Meme Coin Price Rise after Buterin’s Donation
After Buterin had successfully made the cryptocurrency donations towards the welfare of the animals, there were mixed crypto market reactions. The prices of some meme coins rose while those of the other tokens decreased or remained constant. For example, NEIRO had a token price increase of 50% within 24 hours, making it the biggest gainer as a result of the donation. After that NEIRO meme coin surge its market capitalization rose to $24 million. However, not the entire meme coin market responded positively to the news of the donations. For example, the prices of Doge, Shibu Inu and PEPE fell by 1.64%, 145% and 5.23% respectively.
Ethereum Based Meme Animal Coins
Most of the meme coins on the market are animal themed ones such as PEPE. Nevertheless, these meme coins are spread across various blockchains that include solana-sol" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Solana, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, polygon-matic" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Polygon, avalanche-avax" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Avalanche, Phantom and OKexchain. On the whole, the Ethereum blockchain has the highest number of animal-themed meme coins that include Shibu Inu (SHIB), Dogelon Mars (ELON), Puppy Coin (PUP), Kitty Coin (KITTY), Whalecoin (Whale), Dogeon, Panda Coin (PND) and Catcoin (CAT).
Top Meme Coins of the Year (2024)
The above listed meme coins are not the only ones on the market. There are dozens of other meme coins that are in high demand. Let’s briefly look at a few of these. The following table lists the top meme coins for 2024, based on their current market capitalization. Top Meme Coins for 2024: CoinGecko
As the table shows, based on market capitalization Dogecoin is the top meme coin. Incidentally, this was the first meme coin to come on the market. Shibu Inu introduced in 2020 has become the second largest meme. And is the greatest competitor for Dogecoin. The other leading meme coins include PEPE, DogWifHat, Bonk and FLOKI.
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Conclusion
NEIRO meme coin price surged by 50% within 24 hours after Buterin donated 200 ETH to an animal welfare fund. However, the prices of some meme coins like Doge and Shiba Inu fell after the donations. Buterin raised the funds from the sale of some animal themed meme coins which he received as gifts from various individuals and crypto organizations. In the meantime, the ethereum founder has encouraged crypto projects to directly donate funds to public projects and charity.