Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Donates 150 ETH to Help Earthquake Victims in Türkiye

Ethereum co-founder Viltaik Buterin has made at least two substantial donations to help victims in Türkiye suffering from the recent 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck both Türkiye and Syria on February 6.

Buterin’s first donation was on February 11. He sent 50 ETH, worth around $77,000 at the time, to Anka Relief, a crypto relief fund formed specifically for helping those affected by the earthquake.

Anka Relief later thanked Buterin on Twitter and provided a list of its wallets that people could use to donate.

Buterin then donated another 100 ETH, worth around $150,000 at the time of donation, on February 12 to Abhap, a non-governmental and non-profit organization dedicated to relief efforts in Türkiye. 

Abhap claims it has received over $4.3 million in crypto donations so far. Most of the donations have come in stablecoins USDT, USDC, and BUSD, as well as  ETH and Avalanche (AVAX).

Buterin sent both of the donations from his vitalik.eth wallet address. This is not the first time the Ethereum co-founder has donated to a good cause in recent years.

Buterin, who is considered to be the youngest crypto billionaire, has been active in philanthropy over the last few years.

For example, Buterin donated at least $5 million to various Ukrainian charities and NGOs since the country got invaded almost a year ago. 

On top of that, Buterin made some of his donations to Ukraine using Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based mixer that got banned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Buterin has also donated to various medical causes. For example, the Ethereum co-founder donated $9.4 million in USDC to the University of Maryland last year to fund a research initiative that could prevent future pandemics.

One of the more memorable of Buterin’s donations is the $100 million in USDC he donated to CryptoRelief, India’s COVID-19 relief fund. Buterin got the $100 million after someone sent him 1 billion of Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens.

Buterin later received the $100 million donation back from CryptoRelief on the grounds that it will be faster and more efficient for him to deploy the funds elsewhere in the biotechnology and medical space.

Buterin is one of the most active crypto philanthropists. His donations in cryptocurrencies to various causes have shown what the blockchain technology is capable of.