Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the blockchain that launched smart contracts around the world, saw tens of millions of dollars worth of assets evaporate from his portfolio in just a few days.
According to data provided by blockchain analytics service Arkham Intelligence, Buterin’s public cryptocurrency wallet became lighter by about $29 million in a six-day period from December 15 to 21. This means that the wallet has accumulated a loss of approximately 5% of its total value. The value of their holdings decreased from $572 million to $543 million.
Buterin puts his money where his mouth is
Almost all of the $543 million currently held in wallets is Ethereum (ETH). The top two assets outside of ETH are Kyber Network (KNC) at $623,000 and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) at $431,000.
As a result of this portfolio consisting almost entirely of Ethereum, Buterin is highly exposed to the price fluctuations of the cryptocurrency he helped create. On December 15, ETH reached a high of just over $2,300. This is a large part of the reason it is down more than 4% from its current price of just over $2,200.
Who is Vitalik Buterin
Vitalik Buterin is a Russian-Canadian programmer and author primarily known for his contributions to the creation of Ethereum. He co-founded Bitcoin Magazine, a widely known Bitcoin-focused online publication that began publishing in 2012.
After observing some of the perceived limitations of the Bitcoin network, Buterin published a white paper in 2014 proposing Ethereum, a blockchain-based distributed computing platform that could support smart contract functions. Ethereum was launched in 2015, and Buterin played a key role as a co-founder of the project.
Ethereum has since become the second-largest cryptocurrency platform by market capitalization, after Bitcoin. Buterin continues to contribute to improving and advancing Ethereum’s open source protocol technology.