Coinbase’s Head of Product Business Operations at Coinbase, Conor Grogan, said that about $200,000 worth of BNB tokens given to a Maltese government charity fund for terminally ill cancer patients in 2018 are still unclaimed, and are now worth about $39 million.
In a post on X, Conor said the donation was part of Binance’s 2018 charity campaign, which took place when Malta was calling itself the “Blockchain Island.” The Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation was run by the Office of the President of Malta. Binance and a number of other crypto users gave money to it.
“These funds could cover the full salaries of needed medical specialists,” Grogan posted. He urged the Maltese citizens to contact the government to ensure the funds are put to proper use. He also added that these proceeds could cover the full salaries of needed medical specialists.
In the same thread, Grogan added that the last update was given to them in 2021. At the same time, Coinbase was also sued by the Malta Community Chest Fund for delayed fund release, urging local advocacy to access the appreciated assets for medical aid.
Grogan stated that the discovery of the donated money years ago, following a period of uncertainty, led to the dismissal of the lawsuit in 2021. He did say, though, that the money is still there and that Maltese officials haven’t given any official updates.
At the time of the donation, the value of each BNB token was approximately $10. Today, one BNB token is trading around $1,248, as per the data from CoinMarketCap. With an almost 12,000% increase in the token price, the unclaimed balance is a huge unrealized gain for Malta’s healthcare system.