Co-founder of the Ethereum cryptocurrency, Vitalik Buterin has become the world’s youngest billionaire, according to Forbes.
Russian-Canadian programmer at age 19 proposed the Ethereum platform design in a white paper, aiming to create a general scripting language for developing blockchain-based applications.
The first version of the Ethereum network was crowdfunded in 2014, and it went live in 2015 with an initial supply of 72 million Ether coins, the platform’s native cryptocurrency.
The 27-year-ether old’s address, which he revealed as his main ether wallet in October 2018, currently holds 333,520 ETH, which is worth $1.09 billion at the current ether price of $3,278.
Ether has a market capitalization of $376 billion, which is second only to bitcoin’s $1.08 trillion.
Early Monday morning, Ethereum’s cryptocurrency surpassed $3,000 for the first time, marking a 325 percent increase since the start of the year.
Since the beginning of 2021, the value of Ether has increased significantly, owing to the growing popularity of decentralized finance applications that aim to replace traditional financial intermediaries such as banks and insurance companies.
Ethereum is the most widely used blockchain, and ether is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization after Bitcoin.
As the mainstream finance world, including institutional investors, embraces crypto as a legitimate asset, both cryptocurrencies have seen an astronomical rise in 2020 and 2021.
The dollar value of ether has more than quadrupled. Its market capitalization now exceeds that of Bank of America, the country’s second-largest bank.
