Co-founder of Ethereum is now world youngest crypto billionaire
Ethereum cryptocurrency co-founder Vitalik Buterin is now the world youngest billionaire, according to Forbes.
The Russian-Canadian programmer first proposed the design of the Ethereum platform in a white paper in 2013 at the age of 19, aiming to create a general scripting language to develop blockchain-based applications.
Development for the first Ethereum network was crowdfunded in 2014, and the first version went live in 2015 with an initial supply of 72 million Ether coins, the native cryptocurrency of the platform.
The 27-year-old’s ether address, which he disclosed in October 2018 as his main ether wallet, currently holds 333,520 ETH, worth $1.09 billion at the ether price of $3,278 on Monday.
The Ether cryptocurrency has a market capitalization of $376 billion, second only to bitcoin’s $1.08 trillion.
Ethereum’s cryptocurrency surged past $3,000 for the first time early Monday morning, marking a 325% rise since the beginning of this year.
Ether’s value has surged since the beginning of 2021, largely due to the rising popularity of decentralized finance applications that are aiming to replace traditional financial intermediaries like banks and insurance companies.
Ethereum is currently the most actively used blockchain while ether is the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin by market value.
Both cryptocurrencies have seen an astronomical surge in 2020 and 2021 so far as the mainstream finance world, including institutional investors, embrace crypto as a legitimate asset.
Ether has more than quadrupled in dollar value. It now has a market capitalization that exceeds that of Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the U.S.
