Akita Inu (AKITA) is an Ethereum dog memecoin launched in February 2021, notable for having 50% of its supply sent to Vitalik Buterin’s wallet — which he donated (~$17.5M worth) to COVID relief charity and partially burned — leaving it as a community-maintained token with no protocol utility.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | AKITA |
| Price | $0.00 |
| Market Cap | $312,068 |
| 24h Change | +1.8% |
| Circulating Supply | 92179.52B AKITA |
| Max Supply | 100000.00B AKITA |
| All-Time High | $0.00 |
| Contract (Ethereum) | 0x3301...23e6 |
| Contract (Avalanche) | 0xcaf5...8b18 |
How It Works
- ERC-20 dog coin — AKITA is a standard Ethereum ERC-20 token inspired by the Akita Inu dog breed (Japan’s national dog, different from Shiba Inu). No staking, governance, or utility.
- Hyper-diluted supply — 100 trillion AKITA total supply, priced in fractions of a cent.
- Vitalik Buterin donation — 50% of the total supply was sent to Buterin’s wallet at launch. Buterin donated approximately $17.5M worth to COVID charity and burned the remainder via a dead address send.
- Community DAO — The Akita community manages a Treasury DAO funded by volunteer contributions and a percentage of Akita ShibaSwap staking rewards.
Tokenomics
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | AKITA |
| Total Supply | 100,000,000,000,000 (100 trillion) |
| Ethereum contract | 0x3301Ee63Fb29F863f2333Bd4466acb46CD8323E6 |
| Launch | February 2021 |
| Vitalik donation | ~$17.5M AKITA → Great Ouse Hope COVID charity (Gitcoin) + burns |
Use Cases
- Speculative trading — AKITA has no functional utility; pure speculation.
History
- 2021-02 — Akita Inu launches on Ethereum. Creators send 50 trillion AKITA (50% of supply) to Vitalik Buterin’s public wallet and pair the remaining supply with ETH on Uniswap.
- 2021-05 — India experiences a devastating second COVID-19 wave. Vitalik Buterin announces he will donate billions in “unsolicited” meme tokens (SHIB, AKITA, ELON, and others) that had been sent to his wallet. For AKITA, Buterin donates $17.5M worth through Gitcoin to the Great Ouse Hope fund for India COVID relief. He burns a portion. This makes global news.
- 2021 — Akita Inu markets peak at approximately $400 million market cap during the dog coin summer frenzy. The price subsequently declines.
- 2022–2024 — Akita Inu continues trading as a community dog coin. The Akita DAO manages community funds. No major product developments.
Common Misconceptions
“Akita Inu is affiliated with the Shiba Inu (SHIB) project.”
Akita Inu is a separate community project from Shiba Inu. Both reference dog breeds, but they have different contracts, communities, and founders. The shared “send to Vitalik” launch pattern was a marketing technique copied from SHIB, not an actual affiliation.
Social Media Sentiment
- r/CryptoCurrency / r/AkitaInuERC: Akita Inu maintains a niche community of dog coin enthusiasts. Its most notable moment was the COVID charity donation by Vitalik Buterin in May 2021.
- X/Twitter: Periodic references in dog coin and memecoin discussions. The Vitalik donation story is the most-cited fact about AKITA and still generates retweets when meme seasons return.
- Discord (Akita DAO): Community management of treasury funds and occasional holder discussions. Activity is low relative to peak 2021 dog coin mania.
Last updated: 2026-04
Related Terms
See Also
Sources
- CoinGecko — Akita Inu — AKITA token market data
- Vitalik Buterin Blog — Meme Coin Donations — context around the Vitalik meme token donation decision
- Gitcoin — India COVID Fund — platform used for the AKITA donation to COVID relief