Vitalik Buterin Dumps Low Cap Meme Coin Neiro in Exchange for 44.53 ETH

Vitalik Buterin, in the early Asia hours on Monday, has sold all 17.145 billion Neiro tokens that he received from the Neiro team. The tokens represent 4.08% of the total supply and Buterin was the largest holder of the memecoin, according to the team.

Vitalik dumped the Meme Neiro on Ethereum. Neiro transferred 17.1 billion Neiros (4% of the total) to Vitalik's address, and used this to promote Vitalik as the largest holder. Vitalik then sold the 17.1 billion Neiros in exchange for 44.4 ETH, causing the price of Neiro to…

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) August 5, 2024

According to data from Etherscan, Buterin converted the transaction into 44.53 Ether (ETH), equivalent to $112.5K.

Following the sell-off, the memecoin team wrote on X, asking Buterin to donate part of the proceeds to a stray dog shelter.

“Hey Vitalik Buterin, we see that you sold your Neiro bag. Our humble ask is that you donate part of the proceeds to a stray dog shelter. And thank you for building our playground.”

Hey @VitalikButerin, we see that you sold your $Neiro bag.

Our humble ask is that you donate part of the proceeds to a stray dog shelter.

And thank you for building our playground!

— Neiro on Ethereum (CTO) (@neiroethcto) August 5, 2024

Neiro project created a strategic reserve that would hold the tokens for potential CEX listings and make charitable donations to stray dog shelters and other foundations against animal abuse.

Per a post on Aug 4, Neiro received donation of almost $1600 from contributors, which was sent to a stray dog shelter in Japan. Apparently, the dog shelter was the home for the rescued Neiro dog, behind the memecoin.

Neiro memecoin is inspired by Kabosu, the sister of the famous Shiba Inu, that became the face of the viral Doge meme.

Neiro Memecoin Plummets by 60%

Soon after Buterin’s sell-offs on Monday, the value of the memecoin plummeted 60%, raising concerns among investors. The price collapse highlighted the risks associated with highly-volatile memecoins, that are vulnerable to market manipulations.

Per data from CoinGecko, the memecoin Neiro dropped from $0.022 to $0.013, before raising slightly to $0.015. The meme token plummeted further and is now trading at $0.011 at press time.

The new memecoin showed exponential growth after its launch, hitting an all-time high of $0.19 on Aug 1. Further, it had a market cap close to $200 million.

There are a few meme coins with the name Neiro across the cryptocurrency market. Journalist and blockchain blogger Colin Wu, clarified investors that Neiro on the Ethereum is the one Vitalik sold.