Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin triggered a 46% flash crash in the price of Dohrnii (DHN) after offloading 5,000 DHN tokens for $124,000. This sudden sell-off sent DHN plunging from $38.505 to as low as $20.699, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Spot On Chain, which flagged the development in a post on X.
An hour ago, Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) sold 5,000 $DHN for 65.19 $ETH ($124K), triggering a ~50% price drop!
— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) March 18, 2025
He originally received 10,000 $DHN for free from Dohrnii Labs' Treasury on Jan 29 and still holds 5,000 $DHN ($114.6K).
Follow @spotonchain and track… pic.twitter.com/muWWRHa2I2
Dohrnii (DHN) is the native token of the Dohrnii ecosystem, a crypto education platform operating on the Ethereum network. Notably, Buterin had received 10,000 DHN tokens for free from Dohrnii Labs on January 29—a common strategy among Ethereum-based projects seeking exposure through association with the influential blockchain developer.
Despite the market turmoil caused by Buterin’s transaction, he still holds another 5,000 DHN tokens, currently valued at nearly $190,000, per Etherscan data. In response, Dohrnii Labs has offered to facilitate an over-the-counter (OTC) sale of these remaining holdings to prevent further market disruption.
Ethereum Founder’s Stance on Unsolicited Token Transfers
Over the years, Buterin has consistently discouraged projects from sending him tokens, urging them to donate directly to charitable causes instead. He has maintained that any tokens he receives will eventually be donated to charity.
A prime example of this occurred in August 2024 when Buterin contributed $530,000 to the Effective Altruism Funds’ Welfare Fund, using a mix of animal-themed meme coins he had received unsolicited. More recently, the Ethereum founder reiterated his stance, advising projects to establish decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to allow community participation in fund allocation.
I appreciate all the memecoins that donate portions of their supply directly to charity.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 7, 2024
(eg. I saw ebull sent a bunch to various groups last month)
Anything that gets sent to me gets donated to charity too (thanks moodeng! The 10B from today is going to anti-airborne-disease…
Despite these warnings, projects continue to send tokens to Buterin’s wallets. Etherscan data reveals that his popular wallet address, vitalik.eth, currently holds over 401 different tokens.
With the latest DHN incident, it remains to be seen whether more projects will heed Buterin’s advice or if such flash crashes will continue to occur due to these unsolicited token airdrops.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses.
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