Vitalik Buterin Net Worth: Google Wanted To Hire Ethereum Founder For Intern's Salary

Vitalik Buterin’s net worth is $100 million. But all that could have changed had he accepted an offer from Google before.

Buterin gained fame after co-founding Ethereum and Bitcoin Magazine. Back in its heyday, when bitcoins were all the rage, founders of companies that mine them can easily build billions in net worth. According to Celebrity Net Worth, in 2011, Buterin started writing blogs about bitcoin. In a way, he pioneered the bitcoin information drive almost 10 years ago.

The native of Kolomna, Russia had his baptism of fire in bitcoin when he was just 17 years old. He has won several awards since then, such as the World Technology Award in 2014 and he was included in prestigious lists of Forbes and Fortune magazine.

The 26-year-old stirred the curiosity of many after posting a pic on his Twitter account about an offer from Google. The offer was to work for the tech giant on a possible cryptocurrency project. Buterin disclosed that the salary offered was equivalent to that of an intern’s income.

Per Business Insider, the incident happened in 2018. He treated the job offer as a joke or an algorithm result of the hiring process. Two years ago, Buterin was already making millions, so there was no way he would entertain a salary that was on an intern’s level.

At its peak, Ethereum’s value was at $1400 and Buterin reportedly owned about 405,000 Ether. This means his money in 2018 reached $567 million at some point. However, when the value dropped to $300, his fortune also dipped to $100 million.

Ethereum’s founder also makes $144,000 annually from Ethereum Foundation. Buterin also owns startups Clearmatics and StarkWare, as reported by Crypto Briefing.

The value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency has evidently dipped. Others believe it did not reach its true potential, which is to offer a new way of financial transaction. As Forbes noted, once the value of the cryptocurrency plummeted, it took down the fortunes of its creators and founders. Buterin saw his fortune slashed in half while cryptocurrency trading platform Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss lost about one third of their net worth in 2018.

People have yet to fully buy in the potential of cryptocurrency to be used in everyday life. However, its use has expanded to many areas. Outside the tech industry, common people still find it hard to accept it as the new norm in digital transactions.