Ethereum Creator Vitalik Buterin Starts April Fools' Day With Major Meme Coin Cleanup

Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available. With the start of a new month, the activity of wallets belonging to Vitalik Buterin has once again attracted attention from the crypto community, amid a market recovery, particularly with Ethereum gaining nearly 8% since the beginning of the week. Advertisement Buterin continues to execute a strategy of offloading gifted meme coins and reallocating funds toward infrastructure and, apparently, charitable initiatives. According to Onchain Lens, which cites Arkham data , several such transactions have been recorded in recent hours. Specifically, Buterin sold another batch of unknown low-cap meme coins sent to him, receiving about 14.5 ETH, which is just over $30,000 at the current rate. HOT Stories 1 Billion XRP Unlocked From Ripple Escrow Accounts Midnight's (NIGHT) First Major Resistance Test, Shiba Inu (SHIB) Ahead of 16% Squeeze, Mini-Death Cross on Ethereum (ETH) Already? Crypto Market Review Is new meme purge starting? Buterin's position here is clear, as he has repeatedly stated that he does not want to receive such tokens as gifts and urges developers to direct them to charity. Historically, he either "burns" these coins or sells them to fund ecosystem development and charitable causes, as seen when he donated $1 billion worth of Shiba Inu (SHIB) back in 2021. Advertisement Vitalik has again started selling gifted meme tokens for 14.5 $ETH ($30K). He also sent 70K $USDC and 44 $ETH ($92K) to Railgun to move funds privately. https://t.co/hEDXyysRiJ (He is likely to sell more.) pic.twitter.com/CMLOcIwY8w — Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) April 1, 2026 This is why the context of SHIB resurfaced in today’s transactions. Buterin recently criticized how his previous donation in this token, ultimately valued at $500 million, was used by the Future of Life Institute to lobby politicians for AI. You Might Also Like Wed, 04/01/2026 - 00:01 Midnight's (NIGHT) First Major Resistance Test, Shiba Inu (SHIB) Ahead of 16% Squeeze, Mini-Death Cross on Ethereum (ETH) Already? Crypto Market Review By Arman Shirinyan Advertisement At the same time, Buterin continues to actively use privacy tools. In particular, he transferred 70,000 USDC and 44 ETH, totaling $92,000, into the Railgun protocol. Buterin has long advocated that privacy is a fundamental human baseline, making Railgun, built on ZK-SNARKs, a suitable tool for protecting transactions from excessive public monitoring. The last time Buterin sold Ethereum was at the end of February 2026, when he offloaded 17,696 ETH worth $35 million. Whether today’s activity signals a similar move for April remains unlikely for now, as the nature of these transactions differs. #Ethereum #Meme Cryptocurrencies #Memecoin News