Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder is now the World Youngest Crypto Billionaire

Vitalik Buterin, who co-founded the Ethereum blockchain in 2015, has become the world’s youngest crypto billionaire at age 27.

Ethereum’s cryptocurrency, ether, surged past $3,000 for the first time early Monday morning, marking a 325% rise since the beginning of this year.

Buterin’s ether address, which he disclosed in October 2018 as his main ether wallet, currently holds 333,520 ETH, worth $1.09 billion at the ether price of $3,278 at 1:30 p.m. ET on Monday

The ether cryptocurrency has a market capitalization of $376 billion, second only to bitcoin’s $1.08 trillion.

Ether’s value has surged since the beginning of the year, largely due to the rising popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications that are aiming to replace traditional financial intermediaries like banks and insurance companies.

However, Ethereum is facing tough competition from Binance Smart Chain (BSC), the blockchain infrastructure developed by the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, which has been processing an average of more than 8 million transactions on a daily basis since late April (Ethereum is just over 1 million).