Fact-Check Post: Did Shiba Inu Burn 410 Trillion Coins?
Claim: Shiba Inu (SHIB) burned 410 trillion tokens.
What really happened:
In May 2021, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin received half of the total SHIB supply (500 trillion tokens) from the SHIB team—without asking. Rather than sell them, he burned 90% (around 410 trillion tokens) and donated the remaining 10% to charity .
This burn significantly decreased SHIB’s supply—from 1 quadrillion to around 590 trillion. Even today, thanks to ongoing burns, the total burned remains around 410 trillion tokens .
Additional burns continue through mechanisms like Shibarium’s burn fee structure, which removes tokens steadily over time .
Why context matters:
That 410T burn was a one-time, highly unusual event—not a recurring program.
The idea that “410 trillion were burned recently” is misleading—the event happened years ago and is now baked into SHIB’s tokenomics .
Many community discussions clarify this context:
> “400 something trillion where burned all at once by vitalik … the rest have been slow burns over the last several years.”
“They did not burn 410 trillion tokens in 1 go just now … it was 3 years ago.”
