Buterin explains handling of 500T SHIB, says proceeds went to charity and breaks with FLI

Buterin said he has revealed the details of how he disposed of the roughly 500 trillion SHIB tokens he received in 2021 and confirmed the proceeds were routed to charitable causes, a transfer widely reported as roughly $500 million at the time ^{[1] [2]}.

The tokens were originally sent to him by the creators of SHIB as a marketing tactic, an unexpected allocation that prompted Buterin to move the assets on to philanthropic recipients rather than hold them personally ^{[3] [2]}.

Buterin said he is distancing himself from the Future of Life Institute after its strategy shifted following the donation, criticizing the group’s later turn toward cultural and political action and saying he is no longer closely aligned with its current AI policy approach ^{[2] [3] [4]}.

Buterin framed the 2021 SHIB transfer as an unexpected token allocation that he redirected for philanthropic use, while publicly distancing himself from the recipient nonprofit’s subsequent strategy changes ^{[1] [2] [4]}.