Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has an estimated net worth of at least $552.86 million as of January 2024, according to a report by cryptocurrency tracking platform Arkham.
Buterin, who has been active in crypto for more than a decade, is credited with founding Ethereum. He began working in crypto in 2011, at the age of 17, when he founded Bitcoin Magazine with Mihai Alisie, who would later co-found Ethereum. Besides Bitcoin Magazine, Buterin and Alisie worked on Egora, a decentralized eBay for Bitcoin.
Buterin is reportedly unhappy with Bitcoin's limitations, such as its limited scripting language, which restricts its ability to run more complex smart contracts and decentralized applications. Buterin later published the Ethereum Whitepaper in November 2013 (when he was 19 years old), proposing Ethereum as an antidote to Bitcoin's limitations.
Most of Buterin's known cryptocurrency net worth is in the ETH token, meaning he is heavily dependent on the fluctuating price of ETH. Buterin's known crypto assets are $552.86 million, the majority of which comes from ETH holdings, accounting for approximately 246,730 tokens. Buterin's crypto holdings can be estimated by looking at his known Ethereum wallet addresses.
Buterin's non-ETH holdings include his investments in various crypto companies, including StarkNet, as well as a handful of other tokens such as KNC & WETH. As of this writing, some of the largest non-ETH token holdings include 869,500 KNCL tokens worth approximately $609,780 from Kyber Network, the decentralized liquidity protocol on which Buterin serves as an advisor, 196.42 Wrapped Ether (WETH) tokens valued at approximately $436,920, and approximately It is 101 million THE tokens worth $127,950.
Buterin appears to be the largest individual ETH holder with access to its tokens. Although Rain Lohmus has approximately 250 thousand ETH for which he paid $75,000 in the ETH presale, they cannot be accessed because he lost the private keys to the wallet holding the ETH.
Another factor contributing to changes in crypto net worth is that known ETH holdings appear to be decreasing every year. Buterin is known to have sold his ETH holdings multiple times. For example, in May 2023, Buterin sold 200 ETH by sending it to a crypto exchange, followed by the Ethereum foundation selling 15,000 ETH. Notably, Buterin claims that he has not sold ETH for personal gain since 2018. He also clarified that when he sent ETH to exchanges, they were for donations and not to sell his ETH.
Buterin's estimated net worth is relatively larger compared to other Ethereum co-founders and other early ETH holders.
*This is not investment advice.
