Vitalik Buterin Donates 99 ETH to Support Turkey After Earthquake
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has donated approximately $150,000 in ETH to aid recovery efforts following the devastating earthquake in southern Turkey and northwestern Syria.
On February 11, transaction data on Etherscan revealed that Vitalik Buterin's Ethereum address, Vitalik.eth, transferred 99 ETH—equivalent to around $150,000—to the address 0xe1935271D1993434A1a59fE08f24891Dc5F398Cd, labeled “Ahbap Yardım/Earthquake Support.”
The address currently holds approximately 393 ETH, valued at around $600,000. Ahbap’s website indicates that they have received $4.2 million in cryptocurrency donations so far.
The ETH leader has not publicly commented on this donation.
This is not the first time the Ethereum founder has used crypto for charitable purposes. In May 2021, Vitalik Buterin donated 50 trillion Shiba Inu (SHIB)—worth about $1.2 billion at the time—to support COVID-19 relief efforts in India, a country severely impacted by the pandemic.
In February 2022, Buterin donated $5 million to a Ukrainian government crypto wallet to support the country’s defense against Russia, despite his own Russian heritage.
In addition to Buterin’s contribution, the crypto industry as a whole has mobilized to support Turkey’s recovery from the earthquake through cryptocurrency donations. Binance announced an airdrop of $100 to users registered in the affected areas.
Other notable contributions include Avalanche Foundation’s donation of $1 million in AVAX, and BitGet and Huobi providing 1 million Turkish Lira and 2 million Turkish Lira, respectively.
