Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin briefly left some unfortunate token holders nursing substantial losses.
On Tuesday, March 18, Vitalik triggered a 46% flash crash in the price of Dohrnii (DHN) from $38.505 to as low as $20.699 by selling 5,000 tokens for $124,000. Market watcher Spot On Chain called attention to this development in a post on X today.
Notably, DHN is a token that powers the Dohrnii ecosystem, a crypto education platform powered by the Ethereum network. Dohrnii Labs had sent Vitalik 10,000 DHN for free on January 29. This is a common practice for Ethereum-based projects, typically meme coins, seeking to drive attention to their project using the clout of the influential blockchain developer.
An hour ago, Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) sold 5,000 $DHN for 65.19 $ETH ($124K), triggering a ~50% price drop!
He originally received 10,000 $DHN for free from Dohrnii Labs' Treasury on Jan 29 and still holds 5,000 $DHN ($114.6K).
Follow @spotonchain and track… pic.twitter.com/muWWRHa2I2
— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) March 18, 2025
Following Vitalik’s Tuesday sale, he still holds another 5,000 DHN, currently worth nearly $190,000, per Etherscan data. Meanwhile, Dohrnii Labs has offered to facilitate the sale of these remaining holdings over the counter to minimize future market impact.
Another Donation?
Over the years, the Ethereum founder has warned projects against sending tokens to him, urging them to donate directly to charity instead. He notes that all tokens sent to him eventually get sent to charity.
For example, in August 2024, Vitalik donated $530,000 to the Effective Altruism Funds’ Welfare Fund from a mix of animal-themed meme coins he had received for free.
In the most recent reiteration of his position that projects should send tokens to charity directly instead of him, the Ethereum founder even urged projects to establish decentralized autonomous organizations to involve the community in the process.
I appreciate all the memecoins that donate portions of their supply directly to charity.
(eg. I saw ebull sent a bunch to various groups last month)
Anything that gets sent to me gets donated to charity too (thanks moodeng! The 10B from today is going to anti-airborne-disease…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 7, 2024
However, as highlighted by Dohrnii Labs’ decision to send Vitalik tokens in January, several projects continue to turn a deaf ear. Etherscan data shows that vitalik.eth, the Ethereum founder’s most popular wallet address, holds over 401 tokens.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
