The previously underreported return of funds from a 2021 meme coin donation was the critical step that enabled a long-term scientific initiative, according to Ethereum’s co-founder.
In Brief
- Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin confirmed a $190 million returned SHIB donation is the primary funding for his Balvi biotech program.
- The funds were voluntarily returned by Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal after his CryptoRelief fund completed its COVID-19 aid mission in India.
- The original donation came after Buterin burned 410 trillion SHIB tokens in 2021, worth an estimated $6.7 billion at the time.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has recently confirmed that a $190 million return of funds from a Shiba Inu (SHIB) donation quietly became the financial engine for his anti-airborne-disease biotech program. The confirmation came in a post on the social media platform X on Tuesday, where Buterin credited Polygon CEO Sandeep Nailwal for voluntarily returning the surplus funds.
Buterin stated the money made the “whole Balvi open source anti-airborne-disease biotech program possible” and may have “accelerated our understanding of important anti-pandemic topics… by years.”
The Second Life of Shib Donation
The story of the funds began in May 2021, when Buterin made the initial SHIB donation of 50 trillion tokens, then worth over $1 billion, to CryptoRelief. The emergency fund, co-founded by Nailwal, used the proceeds to aid India’s COVID-19 crisis, including financing 116 million syringes for the country’s vaccination drive.
After the primary mission concluded, Nailwal’s organization returned the $190 million in surplus proceeds to Buterin in mid-2022. This key transaction, which was not widely publicized at the time, repurposed the SHIB donation from short-term emergency aid into a long-term funding source for scientific research.
Origin of the $1 Billion SHIB Donation
Buterin was able to make the historic donation after the pseudonymous creator of Shiba Inu, Ryoshi, sent 50% of the token’s total supply to his public wallet. In a move to prevent market instability, Buterin first burned 90% of the tokens he received, worth an estimated $6.7 billion, by sending them to a dead address. He then donated the remainder to CryptoRelief and other charities.
ChainStreet’s Take
What began as a chaotic meme-coin moment in 2021 has quietly evolved into one of crypto’s most unexpected success stories. Buterin’s $1B SHIB donation, once seen as a publicity stunt, ended up financing long-term biotech research after Sandeep Nailwal’s CryptoRelief fund returned $190M in surplus funds.
It’s a rare full-circle story in crypto: speculative mania turned into real-world science. The episode also highlights how informal, trust-based coordination between two of Ethereum’s early builders produced something most DAOs or bureaucracies couldn’t– meaningful, lasting impact.
