Liberland Awards Buterin Medal, Reminds Everyone It Exists

Justin Sun's self-declared nation Liberland has awarded Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin its highest honor: the "First Class Order of Merit of the Star of Liberland," a star-shaped medal recognizing his technical contributions to blockchain. Buterin received the distinction at ETHPrague 2026 during a Network State event backed by the micronation. According to Liberland's announcement, the medal honors Buterin's "extraordinary technical achievements" and "his role in advancing new ideas about how societies can organize themselves." The award also credited him for his interest in "pop-up cities, decentralized societies, and network states." Liberland posted a photo of Buterin looking somewhat uncomfortable while holding his new jewelry.

The award name appears inspired by the Commonwealth's Order of Merit, a century-old honor previously given to figures like Florence Nightingale. Notably absent from the medal recipients list is Tron founder Justin Sun, who himself was elected prime minister of Liberland back in October 2024. Sun has apparently won re-election seven times since then.

When Sun first threw his hat in the ring for the prime minister role, he stressed the importance of maintaining strong US ties and highlighted his investment in World Liberty Financial ($WLFI), the Trump-connected crypto venture. Sun also praised US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff as an ally. Those remarks have aged... interestingly. Witkoff's son Zach, who co-founded $WLFI, is now accusing Sun of attempting to "torch" the company. The two parties are currently suing each other.

It's also worth noting that Protos is fairly confident Sun has never actually visited Liberland.

Beyond hosting crypto royalty, Liberland recently publicized that it survived a 4.1 magnitude earthquake in the Donbas region unscathed. President Vít Jedlička offered this statement: "Every structure we build in Liberland is designed with events like this in mind." For context, these structures include a tent beach bar and a treehouse.