Photo: Financial Express
The crypto market crashing plunged many crypto assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. While crashes are typical, the most recent one saw billionaires lose their wealthy status, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who took to social media to announce his loss.
Buterin posted on Twitter on May 20 that he was no longer a billionaire following the dramatic wipeout of crypto fortunes, but he wasn’t alone. Other billionaires announced the loss they suffered from the steep crash due to selloffs in Terra UST and the collapse of sister token Luna.
Before the crash, Ethereum was the second-largest cryptocurrency in the market behind Bitcoin. Then, however, the two crypto titans witnessed a significant correction in their market price.
Ethereum is the community-run technology powering the cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) and has established itself as the home to digital money, global payments, and applications. Vitalik Buterin founded Ethereum in 2014. Over the years, the cryptocurrency has become one of the most prominent figures in the crypto space and is often utilized for Non-Fungible Tokens.
Last Sunday saw Ether trade over $2,015, currently up to 2.4%. With a current market cap of $243.5 billion, it takes up 15% of the market, but the volume trading in Ether is down by more than 32.4% today.
Over the last seven days, the crypto space watched as Ether plunged by over 3%, while in a month, it fell over 33%. Compared to its all-time high in November last year, Ether nosedived by nearly 59%. In a year, the downside is the tune of over 12%.
On November 16, 2021, Ether managed to hit $4,891.70, but compared to today, the cryptocurrency is not worth half the price level. Last year, Buterin was reported to contain holdings worth $1.5 billion in Ether. The six months that followed saw Ether make a steeper correction.
Vitalik Buterin was not alone in the heavy loss. Other billionaires in crypto shared their opinion about the Terra sister’s fall and the impact the crypto market has on their wealth. For example, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao or CZ tweeted that he was poor again. In contrast, Michael Novogratz, the founder of crypto merchant bank Galaxy Inc wrote a letter that acknowledged Terra UST and LUNA were big ideas that failed.
