Vitalik Buterin Reclaims Onchain Billionaire Status as Ether Price Nears $4.3K
Vitalik Buterin reclaims ‘onchain billionaire’ crown as Ether tops $4.2K
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has regained his onchain billionaire status. This comes just days after Ether crossed the $4,000 mark for the first time in eight months, according to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham.
“Vitalik Buterin is now an onchain billionaire again,” Arkham posted on Saturday. His portfolio is valued at around $1.04 billion, including 240,042 ETH and smaller holdings in Aave Ethereum (AETHWETH), WhiteRock (WHITE), Moo Deng (MOODENG), and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH).
Traders anticipate new all-time highs for Ether
On Saturday, Ether climbed 6.38% to reach $4,332, after returning to $4,000 on Friday — a price last seen in December 2024. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s dominance in the crypto market fell.
At press time, Ether trades at $4,244, according to Nansen. Many traders expect ETH to soon challenge its November 2021 all-time high of $4,878. Crypto trader Ted wrote on X that it’s “just a matter of days now.”
CoinGlass data shows that a jump to $4,500 could liquidate roughly $1.35 billion in short positions, potentially triggering a short squeeze.
Arkham also noted rising interest in Ether ETFs. “ETFs yesterday had total flows of $461M for ETH but only $404M for BTC,” the firm said. Over the past five trading days, U.S. spot Ether ETFs saw $326.6 million in net inflows, compared to $253.2 million for Bitcoin ETFs, according to Farside data.
Buterin first became a crypto billionaire at 27
Buterin first achieved billionaire status in May 2021 at the age of 27, when Ether traded above $3,000 for the first time. At that time, he held 333,500 ETH worth around $1.029 billion, based on Etherscan data.
That milestone followed a massive rally from roughly $700 at the start of 2021. Yet in October 2018, Buterin had stated that he never held more than 0.9% of ETH’s total supply, and his net worth had “never came close” to $1 billion.
More recently, Buterin has cautioned against the growing popularity of Ether treasury companies. “If you woke me up three years from now and told me that treasuries led to the downfall of ETH, my guess for why would be that they turned it into an overleveraged game,” he said in an interview on Thursday.
