you can't un-send a donation. Buterin is $500 million into proving it
2021: he gets airdropped $SHIB he never asked for
that's what being the $ETH founder gets you, strangers put things in your wallet
he splits it roughly in half, one part to India's covid relief through CryptoRelief, the other to the Future of Life Institute
▪ what he thought FLI could realistically sell into: $10 million to $25 million at most
▪ what FLI actually cashed out: roughly $500 million
▪ what an FLI spokesperson later told Politico the gift came to: $665.8 million
a donation sized like a grant turned into a war chest, purely because a memecoin had more liquidity than the donor thought
and there's no undo button
no vesting, no clawback
no "spend it on bio and nuclear too, like we discussed"
the transfer cleared in 2021, the terms became whatever the recipient decided afterwards
FLI is now one of four funders behind the newsroom fellowships Semafor wrote up in December 2025, and nobody had to ask him first
on March 13, 2026 he said it himself. the institute had turned to culture and politics as its main lever, and pools of money that big in politics end up authoritarian and fragile. he also said he was heartened by their pro-human AI declaration, so it isn't a clean break either
David Sacks is now using that donation as an attack line on him
anyone who's ever sent an airdrop to a charity wallet signed the same terms, just with smaller numbers
ever send a token somewhere and then watch it run? proud or robbed)
#buterin #VitalikButerin
2021: he gets airdropped $SHIB he never asked for
that's what being the $ETH founder gets you, strangers put things in your wallet
he splits it roughly in half, one part to India's covid relief through CryptoRelief, the other to the Future of Life Institute
▪ what he thought FLI could realistically sell into: $10 million to $25 million at most
▪ what FLI actually cashed out: roughly $500 million
▪ what an FLI spokesperson later told Politico the gift came to: $665.8 million
a donation sized like a grant turned into a war chest, purely because a memecoin had more liquidity than the donor thought
and there's no undo button
no vesting, no clawback
no "spend it on bio and nuclear too, like we discussed"
the transfer cleared in 2021, the terms became whatever the recipient decided afterwards
FLI is now one of four funders behind the newsroom fellowships Semafor wrote up in December 2025, and nobody had to ask him first
on March 13, 2026 he said it himself. the institute had turned to culture and politics as its main lever, and pools of money that big in politics end up authoritarian and fragile. he also said he was heartened by their pro-human AI declaration, so it isn't a clean break either
David Sacks is now using that donation as an attack line on him
anyone who's ever sent an airdrop to a charity wallet signed the same terms, just with smaller numbers
ever send a token somewhere and then watch it run? proud or robbed)
#buterin #VitalikButerin
