Only a month ago, Ethereum was flying above the $3,000 zone. However, at the moment of writing the price of one Ether is just over 2k. The drop in value has caused the Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to lose his billionaire status.
It’s not just about Ethereum, though. Most other major cryptocurrencies have suffered a loss in value over the last couple of weeks. Bitcoin, for instance, dropped to below 30k a few days ago, meaning that its price has reduced by half since November 2021.
Vitalik Buterin Reveals He’s No Longer a Billionaire
It was 2014 when Vitalik Buterin and his partners launched Ethereum, which has over the years grown to become the #1 alternative to Bitcoin. November 2021 was when its token Ether (ETH) reached its highest price of roughly $4,800. At the time, Buterin’s wealth was estimated to be around $1.5 billion.
However, that’s no longer the case. After the recent crypto crash, Buterin is no longer a billionaire as per his own admittance on social media.
In a tweet reply last Friday, the Russian-born Canadian developer revealed his wealth is no longer measured in billions of dollars.
That wasn’t the only tweet he posted that day – Buterin also tweeted about his faith in cryptos, claiming that he still believes Ethereum “was not a mistake.”
Ethereum Merge to Boost the ETH Price?
Industry experts think leading digital currencies are going to get back on their feet in the near future. This includes both Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are seen as valuable assets in the eyes of investors.
When it comes to Ether, this cryptocurrency might regain its value sooner than all the others. The explanation for this lies in the fact that a major update to the Ethereum platform is supposed to happen this summer.
What we’re talking about is the Ethereum Merge, which Vitalik Buterin and his team have been working on for almost seven years now. After it’s completed, Ethereum will start using Proof-of-Stake rather than the current Proof-of-Work method.
Once completed, the Ethereum Merge will bring a plethora of advantages, most notable being higher energy efficiency and a lower risk of centralization. In turn, this would make Ethereum an even stronger competitor to Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Actually, some believe that the transition to the Proof-of-Stake method could lead to Ethereum throwing Bitcoin from the cryptocurrency throne in the future.
One of the main downsides of Bitcoin (and other cryptos) is high energy consumption. In fact, that was what draw Elon Musk to remove Bitcoin from the list of accepted payment methods at Tesla.
