Vitalik Buterin

Bio

• Vitalik Buterin has been granted Montenegrin citizenship.
• Shared his contact details.
• “One day [‘World of Warcraft’ game maker] Blizzard removed the damage component from my beloved warlock's Siphon Life spell. I cried myself to sleep, and on that day I realized what horrors centralized services can bring. I soon decided to quit,” Buterin wrote.
• According to Forbes "Meet the Crypto's Richest" from 5-2-2018 (just around the end of the bull market of 2017:

Gaunt and boyish, with close-cropped blond hair and piercing blue eyes, Ethereum creator Buterin might be the most recognizable person in crypto. As a teenager, he launched Bitcoin Magazine, dropped out of college to accept a Thiel Fellowship, then began traveling on his Bitcoin--and ruminated on its limitations.

Those travels inspired him to write the Ethereum white paper, which proposed an open source platform for more complex financial instruments aimed at the economically marginalized rather than just a currency like Bitcoin. Some $100 billion of market cap later, Ethereum is believed to have a greater number of developers building on it than any other blockchain community.

Utopian visions come with a cost: Buterin, 24, says he has less than 0.4% of the circulating supply of Ether. "A lot of people cheer the wealth redistribution that's coming from cryptocurrency because they think, oh, it's old money that's being disempowered and flashy new tech money that's being empowered," says Buterin, whose invention now collaborates with the likes of Microsoft, BP and JPMorgan Chase. "But I'm skeptical that people involved in cryptocurrency are better people than people involved in the banking system." He adds, "If crypto succeeds, it's not because it empowers better people. It's because it empowers better institutions."

Occupations

• Ethereum, co-founder
• Ethereum Foundation, Council
• Bitcoin Magazine, co-founder, until mid-2014
• Fenbushi, former (5-3-2020) advisor, used to be General Partner
• Dark Wallet, contributor (which isn't surprising, since he also once was incubated at the hacklab of Amir Taaki, Dark Wallet's creator, in Catalonia, as was Bitcoin Magazine)
• The DAO, Signatory
• Decentral, consultant
• Akasha, advisor
• Pybitcointools
• Received the Thiel Fellowship in 2014
• Ledger, editoral board
• Works together with Synereo (this was before the Synereo split, no new knowledge.)
• TenX, investor
• Omise Go, advisor
• Kyber Networks, ex- advisor (3-10-2022)
• Vitalik announced his participation in the Ignition ceremony of AZTEC, using his own implementation of the MPC.
• Cryptocurrency Research Group, team member back in 2014
• Dogecoin; foundation advisor (18-8-2021)

Investments

• Natalia Ameline, his mother, is a co-founder of Metis.
• From Bitcoin.com (3-6-2024):

"$935.25 million in crypto linked to his name. Buterin’s largest holding is ETH, comprising $931.33 million of his total funds. Buterin also holds $988,890 in STRK and approximately $942,640 in wrapped ethereum (WETH)."

• From Decrypt (14-12-2020):

"Buterin commented publicly on his personal wealth, saying he earned 137,000 CHR per year ($154,000) from the Ethereum Foundation. More recently, estimates put his net wealth at around $100 to $200 million. “Seven years ago, before Ethereum even began, I had only a few thousand dollars of net worth,” Vitalik said, adding, “I nevertheless sold half my Bitcoin to make sure that I would not be broke if Bitcoin went to zero.”

His main Ethereum address contains approximately 333,348 ETH ($195 million). However, he previously used another address—which contains approximately 430 ETH ($252,000)—to donate 1,000 in ETH for development grants—at the time describing it as “YOLO.”

According to an archived Reddit post published one year ago, his personal crypto holdings include Bitcoin, Ethereum, as well as several other assets. These include BCH, DOGE, and ZEC. What’s more, Buterin’s “non-ETH Ethereum ecosystem tokens” include KNC, MKR, OMG, REP." 

• Aztec; took part in its $17m raise (16-12-2021).
• Has "Significant corporate shareholding" in Clearmatics and Starkware.
• MegaETH; part of the $20M raise (27-6-2024)
• RISE; similar to MegaETH, but claims 10x more TPS. Took part in their $3.2M seed round (16-9-2024).
• Shiba; Vitalik was given 50% of the supply (11-5-2021). From Crypto Briefing (13-5-2021):

"According to The Block, Buterin sold 660 billion SHIB, 140 billion AKITA and 43 billion ELON via those exchanges for a total of about $63 million. However, exchange liquidity soon ran out, leading Buterin to give away the coins instead. He sent more than 50 trillion SHIB ($1 billion) to the India Covid-Relief Fund. He also sent 49 trillion AKITA ($490 million) to Gitcoin and 430 billion ELON ($215,000) to the Methuselah Foundation. However, due to low liquidity, it may not be possible for the recipients to cash out this value entirely. Buterin also donated more than 16,000 ETH to charities and organizations including the Methuselah Foundation, MIRI, Givewell, and Charter Cities. That amount is worth over $60 million."