Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said Friday that he is no longer a billionaire due to the sharp drop in Ethereum prices this year.
Buterin the youngest crypto billionaire
Buterin, who founded Ethereum in 2014, reportedly owns about 290,000 Ether tokens. This currently equates to approximately $574.1 million. However, these 290 thousand Ethereum tokens were worth more than $1.5 billion at one point. Buterin, who is now 27 years old, was the youngest crypto billionaire ever after the price of Ethereum surpassed $3,000 in 2021.
However, the Ethereum price has fallen nearly 60% this year from its all-time high of $4,860 reached in November 2021. Buterin announced on Twitter that he is no longer a billionaire. He wrote:
BTW btw I’m not a billionaire anymore.
– Vitalik Buterin
Despite the major price drop this year, Ethereum is still the second largest cryptocurrency in the world, with a market cap of nearly $300 billion. Perhaps better times are coming for Ethereum now. The network will finally switch to Ethereum 2.0 in the summer, which is a very big and important update for the project.
Recent comments from Ethereum founder suggest that the blockchain is already in August towards the Proof Of Stake consensus. A proof-of-stake model will completely wipe out Ethereum’s reliance on mining and likely make the blockchain more accessible.