Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin becomes billionaire as Ether hits $3K

Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of the world’s most popular smart contract platform, the Ethereum blockchain, has officially become a crypto billionaire.

Buterin’s public Ether address, which he described as his main wallet back in 2018, has hit $1 billion on its balance following Ether’s meteoric rise above a $3,000 price mark on Monday.

At the time of writing, the address holds around 333,500 Ether (ETH) now worth $1.029 billion, according to on-chain data from Etherscan, as ETH more than quadrupled in value from around $700 at the beginning of 2021.

At publishing time, the world’s largest altcoin is trading at $3,144, up 8.6% over the past 24 hours, with gains of 36% over the past seven days, according to data from CoinGecko.

According to some online crypto players, 27-year-old Buterin now could be the youngest self-made billionaire in the cryptocurrency industry. 

Vitalik Buterin is the youngest crypto billionaire #ETH #Ethereum #Crypto pic.twitter.com/7PfyPvbiC9

— JUSTIN (@justintrimble) May 2, 2021

Amid surging prices, Buterin has been generous with his crypto holdings. In late April, the Russian-Canadian programmer donated 100 Ether and 100 Maker (MKR) tokens to a COVID-19 relief fund for India.