On the evening of August 4th, the crypto community was abuzz when it was discovered that the wallet address vitalik.eth, believed to belong to Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, had sold a large quantity of the memecoin NEIRO. Specifically, 17.1 billion NEIRO coins were liquidated, causing a small upheaval in the world of memecoins.
NEIRO is not unfamiliar to those who follow memecoin trends. This coin draws inspiration from the new pet dog of Kabosu, the famous dog that sparked the Doge meme trend, and subsequently “dog” coins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB). However, NEIRO’s story is far from simple, with multiple versions of the coin currently existing on both Ethereum and Solana, leading to considerable controversy within the community.
Related: Vitalik Buterin Shares Views on Memecoins
Why Vitalik Buterin Sold NEIRO
A project claiming to be “Neiro on Ethereum” (NEIRO) made a bold move earlier that day. They decided to send 4% of the project’s total supply to Vitalik Buterin’s wallet, hoping to create a striking promotional stunt. However, this plan backfired.
Instead of holding onto these coins, Vitalik decided to sell them all, netting 44.4 ETH (approximately $82,000 at the current exchange rate). The market reacted instantly and sharply: NEIRO’s price plummeted by 64% in a flash.
However, the story did not end there. Due to NEIRO’s extremely low liquidity, a wave of buying from other investors quickly pushed the coin’s price back up, even surpassing the initial price with a more than 100% increase.
This is not the first time Vitalik Buterin has “dumped” memecoins sent to his wallet. He has repeatedly expressed his unwillingness to become a promotional tool for crypto projects he is not involved in. The most famous incident was undoubtedly the “dog sale” of 50% of SHIB’s total supply in May 2021, netting about $1.2 billion at the time.
Vitalik’s actions once again highlight his enormous influence in the crypto world, while also raising questions about the sustainability of memecoin projects and the marketing strategies that rely on prominent figures in the industry.
