Top 10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Vitalik Buterin

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Top 10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Vitalik Buterin

At just 25 years of age, Vitalik Buterin is already widely recognized as one of the most influential voices in the crypto community. His journey in the world of blockchain started in 2011 and since then he built an incredibly rich resume. Prior to his rise to stardom for his pivotal role in , Buterin was also a regular contributor to Bitcoin Magazine, a crypto-focused magazine he co-founded. Buterin is also active in donating to charitable causes.

In the continuation of this article, we are going to list some of the most interesting facts about his life.

He Wrote the Ethereum Whitepaper at the Age of 19

As most people were still trying to understand the ins and outs and various implications of , Vitalik was already envisioning a new version of cryptocurrency, which would enable his idea of a decentralized platform that could run smart contracts. With the Ethereum whitepaper, he laid the foundations necessary for his grand vision to become reality.

He Learned About Bitcoin From His Father in Early 2011

Vitalik's father, Dmitry Buterin, is a successful entrepreneur, a computer scientist, and an angel investor of several multi-million dollar businesses. He is in large part responsible for igniting his son's enthusiasm for cryptocurrency as he was the first person to introduce BTC to his then 17 year old son.

He Never Held More Than 0.9% of All Ethereum in Circulation

In a series of insulting tweets posted by NYU economist Nouriel Robini, who is famous for predicting the financial crisis of 2008, Vitalik Buterin was accused of stealing three quarters of all available Ether, and of being a billionaire crypto scammer. Buterin quickly issued his rebuttal to unsubstantiated claims on Twitter, in which he disclosed that he never owned more than 0.9% of all ETH in circulation.

He controls the 25th richest ETH address

Vitalik Buterin's primary Ethereum address has a staggering 350,003 ETH, which is worth $42.84 million even in the face of Ethereum's 85% decline in the last year. In addition to ETH, the address has almost $40,000 worth of various Ethereum-based tokens. This makes it the 25th richest Ethereum address - besides his address, the ETH rich list is mostly populated by addresses belonging to cryptocurrency exchanges. Overall, Vitalik Buterin boasts one of the highest net worths in crypto, despite his inclination to donate huge sums of money and crypto to charity.

In February 2016, He Held 630,000 ETH (0.6% of the Supply at the Time), Worth Between $1.4M (Feb 1) and $4.1M

At the start of February 2016, ETH was trading at $2.2 before an increase of close to 300% pushed the price to almost $6.5 by the end of the month. In a Reddit comment, Vitalik shared the information about his holdings with the community and explained that he received ~553,000 ETH in the genesis premine and another ~150,000 ETH from the developer purchase program.

He Sold 25% of his ETH Holdings (160,000 ETH) in April 2016, for $1,000,000

By selling a quarter of his holdings at the price of $6.25 per coin, Buterin earned a million US dollars in the trade. Had he waited until January 2017 to sell at the ATH price level, he would have made $224M. The same amount would be worth $16.6M today, which aptly illustrates the massive variance one can anticipate in such a young market, and shows that even the people that are spearheading the development of the entire field are not immune to the inevitable swings.

He Donated $250,000 of the Sale to Charity

After the trade, which netted him a million dollar payday, Buterin decided to make a sizeable charitable donation. Since then, his publicly disclosed charitable contributions amount to little more than $4M. Buterin seems to be in favor of supporting cutting edge technological fields with his philanthropic efforts, such as the $2.4M donation he made to SENS Research Foundation, for the research on rejuvenation biotechnologies and human life extension. He also made contributions in support of more traditional, humanitarian causes, such as his $1M donation in conjunction with OmiseGO, which was aimed at helping the impoverished refugees in Africa.

Back in High School, He Wrote Bitcoin Articles For $1.5 an Hour (5 BTC per Article)

Vitalik is a very efficient communicator, both as a public speaker and as a writer. He began honing his skills very early, as he was still in high school when he started writing articles about BTC, earning himself 5 BTC per article. Later, as he became more deeply involved in crypto, he helped found Bitcoin Magazine, and even became its head writer.

Buterin Was the Subject of a Death Hoax Originating From 4Chan

The discussion boards of 4Chan are a source countless hoaxes, ranging from light-hearted pranks to malicious and downright unethical trolling. A death hoax involving Ethereum founder certainly falls in the latter category. On June 25, 2017, 4Chan users began spreading a false rumor that Buterin had lost his life in a car accident. In response, the market responded negatively with a sudden drop in ETH prices.

He dropped Out of University

As many industry leaders before him, such as Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates, Vitalik Buterin dropped out of school to pursue his dreams. He was a student of the University of Waterloo, before he left in 2014 after receiving $100,000 from the Thiel Fellowship, a project that awards $100,000 to 20 promising innovators under the age of 20 so they can pursue their ideas and inventions without financial worries. The substantial monetary award meant he could devote all his energy to work on Ethereum full-time.

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Ted has been closely following the blockchain sector since 2018. He first became a CoinCodex contributor in 2019, covering primarily crypto regulation and macroeconomics. Since then, Ted has expanded his interest to general crypto-related topics and is now a senior editor at CoinCodex. When he is not writing about crypto or traditional finance, Ted enjoys watching and playing basketball.

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