Today, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, created a buzz in the crypto community not with a tweet, but by selling various obscure meme coins. Reports of the transactions have been confirmed by both Lookonchain, an on-chain data provider, and PeckShield, a blockchain security company.

#PeckShieldAlert $SHIK (SHIKOKU) has dropped -95.8%
Vitalik Buterin-labeled address has dumped ~5T $SHIK, and gained ~164 $ETH (~260k) and transferred 214 $ETH ($337k) to EthDevhttps://t.co/Uw6TA1RDKP pic.twitter.com/FuIbgGgrdA

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 7, 2023

On March 7, Lookonchain announced on Twitter that Vitalik Buterin is getting rid of “his free shitcoins.” As of now, the co-founder of Ethereum has sold 50 billion MOPS for 1.25 ETH (approximately $2,000), 10 billion CULT for 58 ETH (about $91,000), and 500 trillion SHIK for 380 ETH (about $600,000).

vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) is selling his free shitcoins.

Currently sold 50B $MOPS for 1.25 $ETH($2K), sold 10B $CULT for 58 $ETH($91K), sold 500T $SHIK for 380 $ETH($600K).https://t.co/SboWZsO8WY pic.twitter.com/xNaRTeVM7K

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 7, 2023

These tokens and their associated projects are not widely recognized, and are often referred to as “sh*tcoins,” which is a term used to describe low-quality projects. For instance, MOPS is a “doge-themed” token project, apparently a meme coin, while CULT is the token of CULT DAO, a project that purports CULT transactions are utilized to finance investments in decentralized technologies.

SHIK is the token of the Shikoku project, which also appears to be in the form of a meme coin project. Dragonbite, on the other hand, is a “decentralized asset management platform” that is connected to web3.

As a result of the transactions, the tokens have experienced a natural decline in value. The only exception is MOPS, which has inexplicably surged by more than 85%. CULT has dropped by over 8%, SHIK by almost 70%, and BITE by over 6%.

Vitalik Buterin and Shiba Inu

In 2021, Buterin burned billions worth of SHIB, sparking widespread discussions. He also donated a portion of those funds to charitable causes, such as the India COVID-19 Relief Fund. When reflecting on the incident, he stated that he did not wish to “be a locus of power of that kind.”

Meanwhile, a user has suggested that Buterin may have once again revealed his favorite DEX through these transfers. “While everyone is discussing Vitalik Buterin’s sale of CULT and SHIB, no one seems to be acknowledging that he conducted these transactions on CoW Swap,” the user noted.