In July 2021, "Vitalik: An Ethereum Story" completed the largest crowdfund in documentary history, raising 1,036 ETH (currently worth $2.6 million) to go towards its production budget. The film was released theatrically on Wednesday in 23 countries and was sponsored by the Ethereum Layer 2 Base.

A preview of the movie viewed by The Block features interviews with Buterin, his parents, and other artists and tech experts such as Dmitry Buterin, Danny Ryan, Itzel Yard and Tim O’Reilly. It goes as far back as Buterin's childhood and recounts via new interviews and archival footage why and how he helped build and launch Ethereum.

The new film will be available to stream through a token-gated website at ethereumfilm.xyz for 30 days and aims to be on major streaming platforms in 2025.

"With everything that's happened within the last year, I need to make everything go in as positive a direction as possible," Buterin says toward the end of the doc, in a segment filmed in May 2023. "But my biggest fear is a bull market. If a bull market happens, then all of that speculation comes back. There is value in being quiet, and there is value in not being loud until you have something that's worth being loud about."

The world's second-largest blockchain recently "celebrated" its ninth birthday. The price of ether, its native cryptocurrency, peaked around the $4,300 area in November 2021. ETH trades for around $2,535 at publication time, according to The Block's price page.

The film was directed by Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple and produced by Carrie Weprin and Jenna Kelly. It was produced by Optimist and Strange Design, in association with Lone Palm Productions, Big Beach, and TIME Studios.

"By partnering with Base, and 0x | Matcha, the goal is to put control of the film into the hands of people, not big distributors," said producer Carrie Weprin. "For too long, film distribution has long been controlled by a handful of powerful intermediaries, leaving creators little control over their work’s reach and monetization."

Optimist is a non-profit production studio with films on Netflix, PBS and HBO. 0x helps developers build tools to embed swaps and gasless trades into web3 apps.

"This is a film for community members, the crypto-curious, and skeptics alike," Ingrasci said. "We’ll be the first to admit, this film can't capture the full story of Ethereum—this is an ecosystem too diverse and vast for one film—but seeing the community through Vitalik’s eyes helps make this story accessible and human."

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