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Vitalik Buterin's $1B crypto donation to India Covid Relief fund

36 points by throwkeep 5y ago

BitwiseFool 5y ago
Help me understand this. So it looks like Vitalik sent "$1 Billion dollars worth" of SHIB tokens to the relief fund. He did this because he got 50 trillion SHIB tokens airdropped to his personal Ethereum wallet. So how in the world is he going to get taxed on such an event?
- dwhitney 5y ago
  If they were worth near nothing when he got them then the tax would be small. Sending them is probably another taxable event but most countries allow you to write off charitable contributions
- rawtxapp 5y ago
  I think he actually converted it to eth before donating. I believe he lives in Singapore which doesn't have tax on crypto (unless you're a business, etc). If he was in the US, it's pretty straightforward, I believe he would have income tax on the initial value of the SHIB tokens received (which is messed up, since he didn't actually want it), then capital gains tax on the gains between the time he received and converted to ETH.
- xur17 5y ago
  That's honestly one of the parts I'm most intrigued by. It would seem that he would owe income tax for the airdrop (not sure what the "price" for the airdrop would be though, and if it's anywhere near the current price, it would be absurd). Then, in theory he gets a tax writeoff for the transferred tokens, but given the percentage of the total supply, the charity is unlikely to get anywhere near that amount for it? Also, presumably the charity is going to dump... all of these tokens on the market to get USD.
  - gruez 5y ago
    >Then, in theory he gets a tax writeoff for the transferred tokens, but given the percentage of the total supply, the charity is unlikely to get anywhere near that amount for it? sounds like how a lot of art "donations" work.
  - captn3m0 5y ago
    The charity is apparently not dumping it to "protect the investors" >We have decided to convert the donation slowly over a period of time. https://twitter.com/CryptoRelief_/status/1392559057764962304 https://twitter.com/CryptoRelief_/status/1392559057764962304
- throwkeep 5y ago
  Why was he airdropped SHIB tokens? Did they distribute to ETH holders?
  - vincentmarle 5y ago
    Shib’s creators donated 50% of all shiba ($11B worth) to Vitalik to create scarcity.
  - rawtxapp 5y ago
    Only to Vitalik, presumably as a marketing tool.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - ripply 5y ago
    I think it was part of the initial tokenomics, sort of an appeal to authority, if the team withdrew all their liquidity he could come in and supply the rest as liquidity, the entire project is a meme ponzi scheme IMO and it adds to the meme factor. the same effect could have been done with a contract proving liquidity couldn’t be removed.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
RichardHeart 5y ago
Step by step analysis! https://twitter.com/FrankResearcher/status/1392532831889395713 https://twitter.com/FrankResearcher/status/13925328318893957... Vitalik's wallet: https://etherscan.io/address/0xab5801a7d398351b8be11c439e05c5b3259aec9b https://etherscan.io/address/0xab5801a7d398351b8be11c439e05c... His new wallet: https://etherscan.io/address/0x220866b1a2219f40e72f5c628b65d54268ca3a9d https://etherscan.io/address/0x220866b1a2219f40e72f5c628b65d... When they dump their Shib, as many charities are required by law to do, nothing near $1B will be received. This is still a a massive donation to charity, and just one of many that vitalik just did: All AKITA tokens to Gitcoin Community Multi-Sig 13,292 ETH to Givewell 1000 ETH + all ELON tokens - Methuselah Foundation 1050 ETH - MIRI (AI safety org) 500 ETH + 10% of the SHIB - @CryptoRelief_ 500 ETH - Charter Cities Institute

36 points by throwkeep 5y ago

Help me understand this. So it looks like Vitalik sent "$1 Billion dollars worth" of SHIB tokens to the relief fund. He did this because he got 50 trillion SHIB tokens airdropped to his personal Ethereum wallet. So how in the world is he going to get taxed on such an event?

dwhitney 5y ago
If they were worth near nothing when he got them then the tax would be small. Sending them is probably another taxable event but most countries allow you to write off charitable contributions
rawtxapp 5y ago
I think he actually converted it to eth before donating. I believe he lives in Singapore which doesn't have tax on crypto (unless you're a business, etc). If he was in the US, it's pretty straightforward, I believe he would have income tax on the initial value of the SHIB tokens received (which is messed up, since he didn't actually want it), then capital gains tax on the gains between the time he received and converted to ETH.
xur17 5y ago
That's honestly one of the parts I'm most intrigued by. It would seem that he would owe income tax for the airdrop (not sure what the "price" for the airdrop would be though, and if it's anywhere near the current price, it would be absurd). Then, in theory he gets a tax writeoff for the transferred tokens, but given the percentage of the total supply, the charity is unlikely to get anywhere near that amount for it? Also, presumably the charity is going to dump... all of these tokens on the market to get USD.
- gruez 5y ago
  >Then, in theory he gets a tax writeoff for the transferred tokens, but given the percentage of the total supply, the charity is unlikely to get anywhere near that amount for it? sounds like how a lot of art "donations" work.
- captn3m0 5y ago
  The charity is apparently not dumping it to "protect the investors" >We have decided to convert the donation slowly over a period of time. https://twitter.com/CryptoRelief_/status/1392559057764962304 https://twitter.com/CryptoRelief_/status/1392559057764962304
throwkeep 5y ago
Why was he airdropped SHIB tokens? Did they distribute to ETH holders?
- vincentmarle 5y ago
  Shib’s creators donated 50% of all shiba ($11B worth) to Vitalik to create scarcity.
- rawtxapp 5y ago
  Only to Vitalik, presumably as a marketing tool.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ripply 5y ago
  I think it was part of the initial tokenomics, sort of an appeal to authority, if the team withdrew all their liquidity he could come in and supply the rest as liquidity, the entire project is a meme ponzi scheme IMO and it adds to the meme factor. the same effect could have been done with a contract proving liquidity couldn’t be removed.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

RichardHeart 5y ago

Step by step analysis! https://twitter.com/FrankResearcher/status/1392532831889395713 https://twitter.com/FrankResearcher/status/13925328318893957... Vitalik's wallet: https://etherscan.io/address/0xab5801a7d398351b8be11c439e05c5b3259aec9b https://etherscan.io/address/0xab5801a7d398351b8be11c439e05c... His new wallet: https://etherscan.io/address/0x220866b1a2219f40e72f5c628b65d54268ca3a9d https://etherscan.io/address/0x220866b1a2219f40e72f5c628b65d... When they dump their Shib, as many charities are required by law to do, nothing near $1B will be received. This is still a a massive donation to charity, and just one of many that vitalik just did: All AKITA tokens to Gitcoin Community Multi-Sig 13,292 ETH to Givewell 1000 ETH + all ELON tokens - Methuselah Foundation 1050 ETH - MIRI (AI safety org) 500 ETH + 10% of the SHIB - @CryptoRelief_ 500 ETH - Charter Cities Institute