Lad Becomes World's Youngest Crypto-Billionaire

The co-creator of cryptocurrency Ethereum is now the world's youngest crypto-billionaire and the second youngest self-made billionaire ever.

Vitalik Buterin, 27, helped start up the Ethereum blockchain back in 2015, and saw the value pass $3,000 (£2,163) on Monday morning, marking a 325 percent increase since the beginning of 2021.

Buterin has an Ether address that he made public in 2018, which contains 333,520ETH, which at the current value adds up to $1.09 billion (£790 million) given the current price of $3,278 (£2,363).

Not bad, given that he's still not even 30 years of age.

Ether cryptocurrency currently has a market cap of $376 billion (£271 billion) making it the second largest cryptocurrency in the world behind Bitcoin.

It's been on the up-and-up all year largely due to the increase in interest in cryptocurrency as well as the popularity of decentralised finance apps (DeFi) that are threatening to replace traditional financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies.

Forbes reports that Buterin was born in a town just outside of Moscow in 1994, but later moved to Canada and was raised in Toronto.

He co-founded and wrote for Bitcoin Magazine and was awarded a prestigious fellowship - the Thiel Fellowship - that gave him $100,000 to pursue potential outside of more standard education such as university.

The grant was funded by Peter Thiel, who is himself a billionaire and was an early investor in Facebook.

Just a year later, Buterin and his developing team launched Frontier, which they called the 'barebone implementation of the Ethereum project.'

Ethereum was launched in 2014.

Now, as the value has soared so drastically, Buterin has become the world's youngest crypto-billionaire and the second youngest self-made billionaire behind Austin Russell, who started up Luminar Technologies in 2012 and found himself a billionaire at the age of only 25 last December.

According to Forbes, Russell's net worth currently stands at $2.3 billion (£1.87 billion).

Despite cracking their highest ceiling ever in recent days, Ethereum - and Bitcoin - could yet surge even higher, according to senior editor for OKEx Insights, Hunain Naseer.

He told Forkast.News that the price at the minute is 'far from reflecting the all-time high from the ETH/BTC pair.'

Naseer added: "We can expect ETH to consolidate in the current range and retest the support zone between 2,900 and 3,000 USDT. On the upside, resistance is likely between 3,250 and 3,300 USDT, while strong support, in the event of a market crash, is likely to be seen in the 2,500 to 2,600 USDT zone.

"In order for ETH to continue consolidation followed by appreciation, BTC needs to stay above the 55,000 USDT level without any major market shocks."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Bitcoin, World News, Money, Cryptocurrency

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

@TPWagwim