The Shiba Inu 'Burned' By Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin Is Now Worth $32.5B

Ethereum ETH/USD co-founder Vitalik Buterin burned more than $6.74 billion in Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIBI back in May — amounting to 410.24 trillion SHIB after donating 50 trillion SHIB to the India Covid Relief Fund.

What Happened: At a market price of $0.00007661, the coins that Buterin decided to destroy would now be worth about $32.5 billion. He attached a comment to the burn transaction: "I don't want to be a locus of power of that kind.”

Still, if Buterin held onto his Shiba Inu stake or even donated it, and it stayed in circulation instead of being destroyed, there is a very real possibility the coin would never have reached its current prices. After all, he was sent about half of the coin's total supply so — had he not destroyed it — now there would be about two times as much Shiba Inu in circulation, so its value would be much more diluted.

SHIB Price Action: Shiba Inu was down 21.98% over 24 hours as of Thursday afternoon, trading at $0.000062.