With the recent surge in ETH price, its co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has regained his status as a US Dollar billionaire. The finding came from blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, as ETH continues to hold steady above $4,200.
“Vitalik Buterin is now an onchain billionaire again,” Arkham said in an X post yesterday (August 9). Buterin’s portfolio is currently valued at roughly $1.04 billion. The Ethereum figurehead holds 240,042 ETH alongside smaller bags in cryptocurrencies such as Aave Ethereum (AETHWETH), WhiteRock (WHITE), Moo Deng (MOODENG), and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH).
Vitalik is back to being a billionaire.
Almost as much $ETH as me. pic.twitter.com/uvoVMtGE01
— Gordon (@AltcoinGordon) August 10, 2025
ETH Price On Fire: Ethereum Briefly Overtook MasterCard In Valuation And Has Seen Higher ETF Inflows Than Bitcoin
Yesterday saw ETH climb 6.58%, reaching as high as $4,332 following its return to $4,000 on Friday, which is a level not seen since December 2024. Ethereum has continued its spree of green days with a 2% gain overnight, with the second-ranked digital asset currently trading for around $4,220.
Arkham also highlighted growing momentum for Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs). “ETFs yesterday had total flows of $461M for ETH but only $404M for BTC,” the firm said.
Over the past five trading days, US-based spot Ether ETFs saw $326.6 million in net inflows, while Bitcoin ETFs posted $253.2 million, according to CoinGlass data.
Further CoinGlass data shows that a move to $4,500 would put around $1.35 billion in short positions at risk as traders are speculating that a short squeeze is imminent. A short squeeze occurs if the price of a token rises rapidly, leaving short sellers needing to cover their positions, potentially leading to a cascade of liquidations as the price of the asset goes higher.
The recent surge in ETH price briefly saw it flip payment processor behemoth MasterCard by market cap, with Ethereum exceeding $520 billion when it hit $4,332, overtaking MasterCard’s $519 billion valuation. The ETH market cap has since fallen to $510 billion.
Buterin first became a crypto billionaire at age 27 in May 2021, when Ether crossed $3,000 for the first time. At the time, he held around 333,500 ETH, valued at approximately $1.029 billion, according to on-chain data from Etherscan. This came after ETH’s value had more than quadrupled from roughly $700 at the start of 2021.
Nearly three years earlier, in October 2018, Buterin revealed he never held more than 0.9% of all the ETH supply and his net worth had “never came close” to $1 billion.
ETFS ARE BUYING MORE ETH THAN BITCOIN
ETFs yesterday had total flows of $461M for ETH but only $404M for BTC.
BLACKROCK BOUGHT $250M ETH
FIDELITY BOUGHT $130M ETH
GRAYSCALE BOUGHT $60M ETH pic.twitter.com/C3mSLAnw90— Arkham (@arkham) August 9, 2025
Buterin Backing ETH Treasury Firms But Warns Of Overleverage
In a recent interview with the Bankless podcast, Buterin stated that the increasing number of public companies such as Sharplink Gaming and Bitmine purchasing and holding ETH is valuable, as it opens the token up to a wider range of investors.
“There’s definitely valuable services that are being provided there,” Buterin said. He mentioned that companies investing in ETH treasury firms rather than holding the token directly provide individuals with “more options,” particularly for those with “different financial circumstances.”
Crypto treasury companies have become a significant trend across TradFi, attracting billions of dollars to purchase and hold large amounts of cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin and Ethereum being the most popular choices.
In a Bankless podcast interview, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that companies holding ETH as part of their treasury is valuable and helps more investors access ETH. However, he warned that if this trend turns into an “overleveraged game,” it could pose risks to the…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) August 8, 2025
Buterin was keen to express caution, emphasizing that the future of ETH should not be jeopardized by excessive leverage. “If you woke me up three years from now and told me that treasuries led to the downfall of ETH, then, of course, my guess for why would basically be that somehow they turned it into an overleveraged game.”
He described a worst-case scenario in which a decline in ETH price would lead to forced liquidations that cascade, further driving down the token’s value and resulting in a loss of credibility. However, the Ethereum co-founder believes that ETH investors possess the discipline necessary to avoid such a collapse.
“These are not Do Kwon followers that we’re talking about,” he said, talking about the co-founder of the Terra blockchain that collapsed in 2022, leading to billions of retail investor dollars being lost.
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