Did Vitalik Buterin Sell All 76 Gifted Altcoins? What the Evidence Shows

What is verified

How the story developed

The first clear datapoint in this source trail came on April 29. PANews, citing Onchain Lens monitoring, reported that Buterin had begun selling meme tokens received as gifts and sold 40 million ASTEROID-2 tokens for 114,566 USDC ^[25]. The same report said he might continue selling more gifted tokens ^[25].

On April 30, Lookonchain reported that vitalik.eth had been continuously selling free meme tokens and had received 114,566 USDC plus 155 ETH over the previous 24 hours, totaling about $355,000 ^[21]. KuCoin and PANews published matching 24-hour figures while attributing the data to Lookonchain monitoring ^[19][20].

By May 2, the reported total had grown. Phemex said Buterin was continuing to sell gifted tokens and had so far exchanged them for 231 ETH, valued at approximately $529,000, plus 114,566 USDC ^[11]. A related Phemex item listed the full wallet address as 0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045 ^[9].

Why the “all 76” claim needs a caveat

The number 76 is the weakest part of the headline. Bitcoinsistemi’s article title says Buterin sold all 76 altcoins in his wallet, and syndicated versions repeat that framing ^{[1][2][12][30]}. Those reports also use the 231 ETH and 114,566 USDC proceeds figure ^[1][2][12].

A rigorous version of the “all 76” claim would require more than a headline. It would need to identify every relevant token contract, show that each token was unsolicited or gifted, connect each sale to the reported ETH or USDC proceeds, and confirm that no relevant balance remained. The available reports support “many gifted meme tokens were sold.” They do not, by themselves, make “all 76” a settled fact.

What “gifted tokens” means here

The reports describe these tokens as assets sent to Buterin’s wallet rather than tokens he bought for this trade. Lookonchain-based coverage called them freely received meme tokens ^[19][20][21], while PANews described the ASTEROID-2 sale as involving meme tokens Buterin had received as a gift ^[25].

That pattern is not unusual in crypto coverage of high-profile wallets. CryptoRank and MEXC described developers as often airdropping tokens to influential wallets for marketing attention, and described Buterin’s wallet as a known recipient of such tokens ^[3][7].

Nor was this the first time wallets attributed to Buterin were reported to have sold unsolicited or gifted tokens. DLNews reported in January 2025 that wallets attributed to him by Arkham Intelligence sold 28 memecoins sent in recent months, while a 2023 Binance Square post citing Lookonchain said Buterin converted more than $700,000 worth of various altcoins into ETH ^[15][16].

Bottom line

The best fact-checked wording is: Buterin’s vitalik.eth wallet was reported to have sold many freely received meme or gifted tokens in late April and early May 2026, with proceeds reported at 114,566 USDC and 155 ETH in one 24-hour period, and later at 231 ETH plus 114,566 USDC ^{[9][11][19][20][21]}.

The viral version — that he sold “all 76” gifted altcoins in a “spring cleaning” — should be treated as only partly verified. The sale activity is supported by several monitoring-based reports, but the exact count and the phrase “spring cleaning” are not confirmed by the stronger evidence available here ^{[1][2][12][30]}.