Which Popular Meme Coins Has Vitalik Been Involved With?

When Vitalik Buterin registered the “dacc.eth” ENS domain on August 18, 2024, the market instantly boiled over. In less than 24 hours, Ethereum and the Solana Meme coin named D/ACC on the chain surged by 956.5%, while E/ACC skyrocketed nearly 960%, seemingly once again validating the far-reaching “V God effect.”

This is just one scene from the countless Meme coin frenzies surrounding this Ethereum co-founder over the past few years. From the 3660-fold surge of ZUZALU to the 8124-fold myth of THE token, these coins associated with his name or ideas often come with market euphoria at the time of their inception.

But Vitalik’s response was surprisingly calm—he continues to sell off the tokens “shoved” at him by the project team and convert them into charitable funds, while mercilessly criticizing those Meme coins that use celebrities as a gimmick, stating that they are essentially “tools for making celebrities and early investors rich.”

The Rise and Fall of the Vitalik Concept Meme Coin

Similar plots have been repeated in multiple Vitalik-related Meme projects:

• ZUZALU: Originating from the crypto city experiment proposed by Vitalik, the token surged to a maximum of 3660 times after its launch, with a market value exceeding 33 million USD, but subsequently plummeted by 95.9%, leaving a market value of only 1.2 million USD.
• THE Protocol: Just because Vitalik suggested on Twitter in 2022 that “someone should create THE protocol,” this coin emerged, reaching a peak increase of 8124 times, with a market value close to 40 million USD, but has now dropped by 99.5%.
• TCATI (Green Tea Cat): Named after Vitalik’s X account signature, it once provided funding for his Zuzalu experiment, skyrocketing by 519 times before also plummeting by 95.6%.

The trend of this type of token almost follows the same trajectory: Vitalik’s words and actions trigger attention → the token is pumped → market value peaks → a spiraling decline to a fraction of the peak. The market creates a bubble in the frenzy, and leaves a mess in the aftermath of the bubble’s burst.

In response to the continuous token airdrops from project parties, Vitalik has developed a unique coping mechanism - monetizing Meme coins and donating them to charitable organizations, transforming market speculation into public value.

In October 2024, blockchain analytics company Spot On Chain monitored that Vitalik executed a series of operations in a short period: he transferred Moo Deng (MOODENG) worth $982,800, Monsterra (MSTR) worth $231,000, and $183,000. ETHEREUM IS GOOD（EBULL）exchange to Ethereum.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. According to data statistics, in the past nine days alone, Vitalik has converted Meme coins worth 2.78 million dollars into Ethereum and donated 884,000 dollars to charity.

His donation goals are highly targeted:

• 10 billion various types of Meme coins → Support organizations working on airborne disease technologies
• All animal-themed Meme coins received in the past 12 months → Effective Altruism Funds animal welfare projects
• $60 million worth of tokens such as SHIB sold off in 2021 → Fund longevity research, AI alliances, and pandemic research institutions

Although he is certain that the project party has goodwill through his donations, he has repeatedly publicly called out: “Rather than transferring to my address, it would be better to donate directly to the charity.”

Rational Critics: Dialectical Insights into the Essence of Meme Coins

With nearly $900 million in crypto assets (mainly 240,000 ETH), Vitalik holds a profound dialectical view on Meme coins. He affirms the potential social value of Meme coins, believing they “can positively contribute to society by funding important public projects and even helping people in low-income countries make a living.” However, he expresses sharp criticism of Meme coins that rely on celebrity hype, pointing out that the purpose of such tokens is purely to “enrich celebrities and early investors.”

At the beginning of 2025, his criticism of Meme coin issuance platforms like Pump.fun sparked a stir in the industry. In a public discussion on Farcaster, Vitalik accused such platforms of being rooted in a “flawed social philosophy”, pursuing short-term profit maximization while lacking ecological responsibility.

His criticism goes straight to the point:

• Platform fees continue to flow out to centralized exchanges instead of benefiting the ecosystem.
• The lack of control over token quality has led to a surge in user trial and error costs.
• There is a lack of mechanism design that supports long-term value.

In contrast, he recognizes platforms like LetsBONK.fun that have sustainable genes. This platform clearly allocates transaction fees into three parts: supporting its own development and operation, staking to enhance the security of the Solana network, and repurchasing and destroying coins to increase the value for holders.

Industry Paradigm Shapers, Deep Impact Beyond Trends

Vitalik’s interaction with meme coins is quietly changing the rules of the industry. He demonstrates a possibility through on-chain operations: a feasible path to convert speculative assets into public welfare funds. This model is creating a ripple effect. As more and more users pay attention to his wallet movements, the behavior of project teams trying to “ride the wave” no longer simply triggers market speculation, but also faces the soul-searching question of “whether it has real public welfare value.”

His criticism of the Meme coin platform has similarly triggered reflection within the industry. While Pump.fun faced scrutiny for transferring $15 million in SOL to CEX for cashing out, LetsBONK.fun chose to use transaction fees to support public chain infrastructure, providing another development paradigm for Meme coin issuance platforms. These actions are consistent with his thoughts as a technology philosopher—when he first proposed the concept of d/acc, he emphasized that “a defensive world is a better world,” a philosophy that now extends to his attitude towards financial experiments: embedding responsibility mechanisms within open innovation.

This stance, which balances innovation and responsibility, has even led economists to list him as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Economics. As economist Tyler Cowen stated: “Vitalik has built a platform and created a coin, thereby refuting Mises’ regression theorem in the process.”

Vitalik’s actions are still ongoing. As of early 2025, his public wallet still holds tokens worth $2.4 million in MOODENG, $144,000 in NEIRO, and others. Behind these numbers lies countless “heat legacies” waiting to be converted into public welfare funds. The crypto industry is also re-examining the value logic of Meme coins. When platforms like LetsBONK.fun start to allocate transaction fees to public chain node staking and token buyback and burn, and the market’s focus shifts from “multiples of increase” to “ecological feedback”, Meme coins are undergoing a transformation from pure speculation to value co-creation. Undoubtedly, Vitalik’s criticism and actions serve as a catalyst for this transformation.