The cryptocurrency Shibabu has crashed to the ground after a meteoric rise - and Ethereum's billionaire founder is taking the rap.

Vitalik Buterin, who launched Ethereum in 2014, donated more than $1 billion in Shibai coin (SHIB) to the India Covid Relief Fund yesterday (May 12). However, his donation coincided with the fledgling cryptocurrency's drop from a near-high of $0.000033 to $0.000016, leading some investors to link the two events.

Until yesterday, the Shiba Inu had been on a steep upward curve. On Monday (May 10), Shibainu was listed on Binance as $SHIB, much to the delight of investors; after trading at about $0.000014 on May 9, it hit an all-time high of $0.000037 the next day.

The result was a market capitalization of nearly $15 billion at one point, making it one of the top cryptocurrency performers. Buterin's own personal wealth also increased dramatically.

Oddly enough, Buterin was gifted Shiba coins as part of his overall cryptocurrency strategy. Why? It comes down to the origins of the SHIBA coin.

According to the SHIB white paper, half of the total supply of Shiba tokens was contracted for sales transactions, while the other half was funneled into Buterin's wallet.

As the value of Shiba increased, Buterin's assets essentially increased by about $11 billion. However, when news broke that Buterin had decided to give away 500 billion SHIB, 140 billion AKITA, and 43 billion ELON coins, the Shiba's price dropped significantly.

Buterin also donated 500 Ether coins to charity.