The joint creator of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin has donated $1 billion of a new cryptocurrency to a COVID-19 relief fund in India. However, after news of his donation spread, the price of Shiba Inu coins dropped by more than 30% Friday.
Shiba Inu coins are a spinoff cryptocurrency of the popular Dogecoin. Dogecoin has risen in price recently. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has promoted the coin modeled on Bitcoin and Ethereum.
According to Coindesk, the Shiba Inu coins Buterin donated were given to him and sent to his public wallet by its developers. On May 4, the coins were worth more than $1 billion when the price of Shiba Inu coins hit $3,500 each.
Public transaction records - or blockchain ledgers - showed 50.7 million Shiba Inu coins were transferred to a wallet associated with the India COVID-Crypto Relief Fund. The transfer was from a wallet known to be owned by Buterin.
Based on the price of the coins when donated, Buterin's contribution to the fund would rank among the largest donations.
However, some analysts say the donation is far from conventional because the price of the coins shifts by the hour. Shiba Inu coins have been around for less than a year and are considered one of the most volatile cryptocurrencies. Unlike Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Shiba Inu coins can't be used to buy things.
Buterin also donated 500 Ethereum coins to the fund. They were priced at about $1.9 million when Buterin made the donation. As of Friday, one Ethereum coin was priced at around $3,879 per piece.
