Neiro meme coin plummets 60% following Vitalik Buterin’s token sell-off

Neiro, an Ethereum-based meme coin, experienced a significant 60% drop on Monday morning following a substantial sell-off by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

CoinGecko data reveals that Neiro's price plummeted from $0.022 to $0.013 before recovering slightly to $0.015. However, it has since fallen further, trading at $0.013 at press time.

The decline coincided with Lookonchain's disclosure that Buterin had liquidated all 17.15 billion Neiro tokens he had received from the project team, amounting to 4.08% of the total supply. This made him the largest holder of the token. The sale netted Buterin 44.53 Ether (ETH), valued at approximately $112,500.

Journalist Colin Wu emphasized that Buterin's sale involved Neiro tokens on Ethereum, clarifying that other tokens with the same name exist in the market.

Launched in July, Neiro initially experienced a 200% surge in value following the airdrop of 4% of its supply to Buterin on August 4th, leveraging his reputation. However, Buterin's subsequent sell-off triggered a sharp 60% price decline, sparking concerns among investors.

In response, the Neiro team requested that Buterin contribute a portion of the proceeds to a stray dog shelter, highlighting their commitment to animal welfare. The project had already set aside tokens for potential exchange listings and charitable donations to such organizations.

The broader meme coin market has also been experiencing a downturn, with the total market cap decreasing by approximately 16% in the past 24 hours to $35.8 billion. Prominent memecoins like Pepe (PEPE), dogwifehat (WIF), Floki (FLOKI), and Book of Meme (BOME) have all seen significant drops ranging from 18% to 20%.

The global cryptocurrency market has also been under pressure, declining by 13.8% in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency, is down 12.7% at $52,706, while Ethereum (ETH) has lost 18.5%, trading at $2,355. Other altcoins that have suffered substantial losses include Lido DAO (LDO), Chainlink (LINK), Bittensor (TAO), and KuCoin (KCS), all experiencing drops exceeding 20%.