As a leader in the encryption industry, Vitalik Buterin has always been active on the front lines of the industry. In addition to being well-known to the public as the founder of Ethereum, Vitalik has also invested in some new crypto projects in his own name many times. On June 28, MegaETH, a Layer 2 project that aims to build an ultra-high-performance real-time EVM, announced that it had received US$20 million in financing, and Vitalik appeared on the list as an investor. PANews takes stock of the crypto projects that Vitalik has invested in. What is Vitalik’s record as an investor?
According to public content, Vitalik currently has invested in 7 encryption projects. Among them, there are the well-known StarkNet and Polymarket, as well as Nocturne, which was in poor operation and announced in June this year that it would cease operations.
Source: PANews
Starknet: Highest Return Rate 146x
Starknet is a permissionless, decentralized Validity-Rollup (also known as “ZK-Rollup”). It runs as a Layer2 network on Ethereum. Vitalik invested in a seed round of Starknet in May 2018. The total amount of this round of financing was US$6 million, of which Vitalik’s proportion was not disclosed. According to data from Chainbroker, the cost of Starknet’s seed round investment token is $0.025, and the $STRK token has so far risen to a maximum of $3.66. Vitalik's highest return rate on this investment reached 146 times. The current price of $STRK has fallen back to 0.675. According to Vitalik's cost, it still has a return rate of 27 times.
In addition to financial support for Starknet, Vitalik has also publicly expressed his support for Starknet on social media many times.
To date, Starknet has completed a total of US$260 million in financing. The most recent round of financing was in May 2022, completing US$100 million at a valuation of US$8 billion.
In February 2024, Starknet completed its first round of airdrops and listed its tokens. In May, Vitalik unlocked 845,205 $STRK from Starknet, worth $1.08 million. Currently, Vitalik has yet to sell $STRK tokens.
Aztec Network: No disturbances after US$100 million in financing
Aztec Network is the first cross-chain privacy bridge on Ethereum. In 2021, Aztec Network announced the completion of a $17 million Series A round of financing, led by Paradigm and Vitalik also participating. In fact, as early as 2020, Vitalik had supported Aztec Network on social media. Not only did he show off his participation in Aztec's testing, but he also posted that as Aztec officially enters ZK Rollup, layer 2 expanded functions and privacy will soon be available. arrival.
In 2022, Aztec Network once again received US$100 million in Series B financing, and the current cumulative financing amount has reached US$119 million. In 2023, the project launched the Aztec Sandbox Alpha plan for developers, which is considered the expected testing phase of the airdrop. However, until June 2024, Aztec had not announced an airdrop plan, and market attention gradually decreased. This seems to be caused by a lack of marketing capabilities. The latest news shows that Aztec appointed former Risc Zero marketing director Claire Kart as its new chief marketing officer (CMO).
Kakarot: an innovative experiment in the Starknet ecosystem
Kakarot is an EVM implemented in the Cairo language on Starknet and is considered an important innovative experiment in the Starknet ecosystem. In June 2023, Kakarot announced that it had completed a Pre-Seed round of financing, with participation from Vitalik Buterin, StarkWare and others. The project party did not disclose the specific financing scale, but as early as November 2022, Vitalik forwarded Kakarot’s open source code and commented “too cool”. On May 22, 2024, Kakarot announced the launch of the test network.
Nocturne: A short-lived privacy protocol
Nocturne is a privacy protocol on Ethereum. The company's goal is to allow users to conduct anonymous transactions in the Ethereum ecosystem. . The project was established in 2023, and in October of that year it was announced that it had received US$6 million in seed round financing, and Vitalik was also one of the investors. In November 2023, Nocturne deployed the V1 version on the Ethereum mainnet, but by January 2024 it announced the closure of this protocol. On June 6, Nocturne announced that it would gradually cease company operations and retain the front-end withdrawal function.
Overall, Nocturne may be a relatively unsuccessful case of Vitalik's investment, but the closure of the project more reflects the difficulty of the privacy track. Judging from the final result, Nocturne, who started well and ended well, did not live up to Vitalik's support.
Daimo: A poorly marketed wallet app
Daimo is a stablecoin wallet without a mnemonic phrase. In March 2024, it announced that it had received US$2 million in seed round financing. Vitalik is also an investor. Also in March, Vitalik mentioned Daimo in an article, comparing it to Venmo on Ethereum (a popular crypto payment software). However, Daimo’s promotion effect seems to be poor so far, with only more than 3,000 followers on X.
Polymarket: US election brings rapid growth
Polymarket is a decentralized information market platform that allows users to make predictions on the world's most controversial topics. Since its launch in 2020, the project has gradually grown into a leader in decentralized prediction market platforms. In March 2024, Vitalik published an article citing Polymarket’s data on the gas fee reduction ratio after the EIP-4844 upgrade. In May 2024, Polymarket announced the completion of a $45 million Series B round of financing, with Vitalik Buterin participating in the investment.
On July 2, Vitalik mentioned again on social media: "In my Twitter circle, it has become very normal for people to use polymarket, metaculus or electionbettingodds as evidence of the actual impact of daily political events." In June 2024, As the U.S. presidential race heats up, Polymarket's trading volume reached an all-time high of $100 million. As the popularity of the US election continues to rise, Polymarket's market popularity will remain at a high level.
MegaETH: New hope for Ethereum Layer2?
MegaETH is a project that Vitalik recently participated in. On June 28, MegaLabs announced the completion of a $20 million seed round of financing. MegaETH claims that the two key technologies they have mastered - heterogeneous blockchain architecture and "super-optimized" EVM execution environment can increase TPS to 100,000. At present, the project has not been officially launched, but judging from the expected goals and market popularity, MegaETH will likely become an important weapon for Ethereum to fight against Solana.
Among the seven projects invested by Vitalik, they are basically innovative projects around encryption infrastructure such as privacy protocols, EVM, Layer2, and wallets. Among these projects, only StarkNet has issued coins, which can be regarded as providing Vitalik with a financial return rate. There are also short-lived projects like Nocturne, popular projects like Polymarket, and potential future stars like MegaETH.
Overall, Vitalik's investment may not be considered a success from a financial perspective, but it is obvious that Vitalik's choice is more in the direction of helping the Ethereum ecosystem develop better. And the amount of Vitalik’s investment has never been made public. From a practical point of view, his participation may have more strategic support than financial significance. However, judging from the development of Nocturne or Daimo, being endorsed by Buterin is not enough to gain complete trust from the market. The more important test is whether the product model and operational capabilities can be recognized by mass users.
[Disclaimer] There are risks in the market, so investment needs to be cautious. This article does not constitute investment advice, and users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions contained in this article are appropriate for their particular circumstances. Invest accordingly and do so at your own risk.
This article is reproduced with permission from: "PANews"
Original author: Frank, PANews
