TL;DR
- Vitalik Buterin sold 40.25 billion SPURDO, 10.31 billion MARVIN, and six trillion DOJO, earning 22.14 ETH —around $96,000— on Uniswap.
- He later transferred 70 ETH —about $304,000— to a Methuselah Foundation wallet, which routed the funds through the privacy protocol Railgun.
- Vitalik continues to reject unsolicited airdrops, a policy he also applied in 2021 and 2023 when he liquidated SHIBA INU and AKITA.
Vitalik Buterin has once again sold memecoins he received without consent, converting them into 22.14 ETH —around $96,000— through Uniswap.
The transactions included the sale of 40.25 billion SPURDO, 10.31 billion MARVIN, and six trillion DOJO via the exchange’s Universal Router. After the swap, Buterin transferred 70 ETH, worth about $304,000, to a wallet linked to the Methuselah Foundation, which then moved the funds through the privacy-focused protocol Railgun.
The tokens sold came from unclaimed airdrops created by communities seeking exposure by leveraging his name. Buterin has long upheld a policy of rejecting such tokens, viewing them as speculative and devoid of real technical purpose. In 2021 and 2023, he carried out similar sales with SHIBA INU and AKITA, which at the time triggered sharp price swings.
Buterin Channels Donations Toward Positive-Impact Projects
SPURDO and MARVIN are meme-inspired projects. The first is based on a Finnish internet character, while the second revolves around Elon Musk’s dog and promotes animal rescue causes. Both tokens drew early market attention, but their trading volume now depends almost entirely on social media trends. Analysts believe the recent sales may put short-term pressure on these memecoins but are unlikely to have lasting market effects.
Buterin has sought to redirect memecoin popularity toward projects with real social benefit. In 2024, he donated 10 billion tokens to an organization developing technology against airborne diseases and also contributed animal-themed tokens to the Effective Altruism movement’s Animal Welfare Fund. In January 2025, he liquidated $2.5 million worth of memecoins and allocated $984,000 in USDC to his Kanro fund, which supports biotechnology and public health research.
Buterin’s on-chain activity remains among the most closely tracked in Ethereum. In 2024, he sold 950 ETH for about $2.28 million. More recently, he tested Hinkal, a privacy tool that conceals transaction details without violating regulatory requirements
