Title: Shenmao coins give away billions of dollars-Vitalik Buterin's astonishing move

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In May 2021, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated almost all of the Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens he received

He donated 50 trillion SHIBs worth approximately US$1.2 billion to India's COVID-19 Relief Fund. A few days later, he sent 410.24 trillion SHIBs worth approximately $6.74 billion to an unspent address for destruction. The deal remains the largest destruction in SHIB history. As of October 9, 2026, the trading price of SHIB is approximately US$0.000054.

Why does Vitalik Buterin have such a large number of SHIBs?

He never purchased the token. SHIB was launched as a "memecoin" in August 2020, and its price is mainly driven by community and online culture. Its anonymous creator Ryoshi set a total supply of 1 trillion pieces and sent half of them to Buterin's public wallet. The other half is locked in the decentralized exchange Uniswap as liquidity.

CoinDesk described the move as "seemingly a marketing stunt." Pinking tokens to well-known people often drives up their prices. In the two weeks leading up to May 10, 2021, SHIB prices rose nearly 900% to $0.0003791.

What did Buterin do with these tokens?

He acted in two steps over five days.

Donation Part

2021年5月12日，Buterin将50万亿枚SHIB发送至印度新冠疫情救济基金。Polygon联合创始人Sandeep Nailwal于4月设立了该基金，而Buterin在该月已向该基金捐赠了约60万美元的ETH和MKR。据Forbes报道，Buterin在5月12日还进行了其他捐赠：

向资助开源项目的Gitcoin捐赠了价值约4.41亿美元的另一款模因币Akita Inu (AKITA)；
向GiveWell、Methuselah基金会和机器智能研究所捐赠了总计数百万美元的ETH。

Nailwal承诺会谨慎处理这些SHIB：“我们不会做任何伤害任何社区的事情，特别是涉及SHIB的散户社区。”

销毁部分

美国时间2021年5月16日晚些时候，Buterin销毁了410.24万亿枚SHIB。销毁操作是将代币发送到没有私钥的“死亡”地址，从而永久将其从流通中移除。

他写道：“我决定销毁我钱包中剩余SHIB代币的90%。”他表示自己不想成为“那种权力的中心”。他还补充说，代币创作者应将代币发送给慈善机构，而不是他自己。他持有的最后10%留给了一个尚未选定的慈善机构。

价格发生了什么变化？

捐赠对价格造成了冲击。Forbes报道，SHIB在24小时内下跌了36%，AKITA下跌超过50%。销毁带来的影响微乎其微：消息公布后，SHIB仅上涨约2%，至0.00001651美元。

价格的下跌导致捐赠的实际价值缩水。据Protos报道，到2021年7月下旬，Nailwal估计这笔SHIB捐赠最终价值约为4亿美元，而非最初的12亿美元。该基金将代币兑换为美元，然后再兑换为卢比，这一过程在印度《外国捐款监管法》下进展缓慢。此时，约有2000万美元已用于印度农村的食品分发和小型重症监护病房建设。

被销毁的SHIB今天值多少钱？

被销毁的代币永远无法再移动，但其账面价值仍随价格波动：

销毁时：约67.4亿美元
2021年10月：Decrypt计算显示，在SHIB反弹后，价值约325亿美元
2026年10月9日：价格为0.0000054美元时，价值约22.2亿美元

CryptoTicker报告称，截至2026年10月9日，主要的SHIB销毁地址持有410.44万亿枚SHIB，约占原始供应量的41%。其中绝大部分是Buterin在2021年的那笔交易。

SHIB目前的状况如何？

如今的销毁量相比之下微不足道。仅在10月7日的一笔交易中，就销毁了约2.98亿枚SHIB，当天SHIB价格仍下跌了约5%。在过去30天里，共有7.075亿枚SHIB被销毁，价值约3820美元。

Alexander Schmidt of CryptoTicker wrote on October 9 that destruction at this rate (which accounts for 0.000121% of supply per month) is not a "meaningful supply lever." He pointed out that the daily transaction volume of US$91.7 million far exceeds a month's destruction volume.

Recent developments include:

Japan: In August 2026, Nomura subsidiary Laser Digital Japan became Japan's first newly registered cryptocurrency exchange in four years. SHIB is one of the six assets it is approved to provide.
Shibarium: On September 19, developer Kaal Dhairya said that the chain reorganization issue on Shibarium, SHIB's Layer-2 network, has been resolved. No technical explanation has been released yet.

The market capitalization of SHIB is approximately US$3.17 billion, and the number of tokens in circulation is 589.24 trillion.

Conclusion

Buterin received half of the SHIB supply without asking for it. He donated 50 trillion tokens to India's COVID-19 relief and destroyed another 410.24 trillion tokens, accounting for about 41% of the original supply. His destruction remains the largest in SHIB history, and current daily destruction removes only a very small number of tokens.