On August 4, Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, sold his entire stash of 17.1 billion Neiro (NEIRO) tokens, which he received as an airdrop.
The sale, amounting to 44.5 Ether (ETH) worth approximately $103,000 at the time, led to an immediate 60% drop in NEIRO’s value.
Buterin Triggers Panic Selling
The memecoin, which attempted to leverage Buterin’s fame by airdropping 4% of its supply to him, saw its value plummet as soon as the sale was noticed by the market. According to Etherscan data, the quick transfer from Buterin’s wallet triggered panic among investors, leading to a sharp sell-off.
Surprisingly, the story didn’t end with the dump. Just hours after the initial crash, NEIRO experienced an unexpected rally. The token surged more than 200%, reaching an all-time high of $0.000038 on August 5.
This rebound was tracked by DexScreener, which highlighted the rapid recovery in NEIRO’s price. The Neiro on Ethereum (CTO) account, associated with the token, even posted a message to Buterin, asking him to donate part of the proceeds to a stray dog shelter.
Neiro Clears the Air
In an X post, Neiro clarified that the tokens given to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin were not part of a strategic move by Neiro but were distributed by the original developer who left the project.
Neiro has highlighted it is a community-driven project with no links to the original developer and does not use market makers or bots to manipulate prices. The post also emphasizes that Neiro became the first Neiro token on Ethereum and contributed $1,600 to the Chibawan stray dog shelter.
