{"id":33347,"date":"2020-12-14T16:25:50","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T14:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=33347"},"modified":"2025-08-28T13:21:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T10:21:48","slug":"vitalik-buterin-sold-half-of-his-bitcoins-to-avoid-going-broke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/vitalik-buterin-sold-half-of-his-bitcoins-to-avoid-going-broke\/","title":{"rendered":"Vitalik Buterin sold half of his bitcoins to avoid going broke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that he sold part of his holdings of the first cryptocurrency in 2013. According to him, this move helped reduce financial risk in case the asset&#8217;s price fell.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">7 years ago, before ethereum even began, I had only a few thousand dollars of net worth. I nevertheless sold half my bitcoin to make sure that I would not be broke if BTC went to zero.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VitalikButerin\/status\/1338394465954754560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 14, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Buterin stated that before creating Ethereum he had &#8220;only a few thousand dollars of net worth&#8221;.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Nevertheless, I sold half of my bitcoins to be sure I would not go broke if the price fell to zero,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This post was preceded by Buterin&#8217;s request not to take loans to buy Ethereum or other assets. He attached to the post a screenshot of a tweet with the author&#8217;s name obscured, who wrote about the decision to take out a loan of $46,250 at 7.9% to buy 2.55 BTC.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;In 2026 I will have to repay $57,806.85. In December 2026, with Bitcoin at $22,669.35 I will break even. Good or bad decision?&#8221;, asked the user.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Please don\u2019t do things like this. I would NEVER recommend anyone take out a personal loan to buy ETH or other ethereum assets. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zCbbtUlvtQ\">pic.twitter.com\/zCbbtUlvtQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VitalikButerin\/status\/1338387446690549760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 14, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In comments, Peter McCormack, host of a popular Bitcoin podcast, said that he is the author of the post, and that Buterin does not need to hide it.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I took out a $46,250 loan today at 7.9% and bought 2.55 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/bitcoin?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#bitcoin<\/a>. By 2026 I will have to pay back $57,806.85.<\/p>\n<p>In Dec 2026, If <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/bitcoin?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#bitcoin<\/a> is at $22,669.35 I break even.<\/p>\n<p>Good\/bad decision?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Peter McCormack \ud83d\udc51 (@PeterMcCormack) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PeterMcCormack\/status\/1337463603134337024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 11, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I agree with Vitalik; I would NEVER recommend anyone take out a loan to buy Ethereum or other assets,&#8221; McCormack noted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">That is me, you don\u2019t have to hide me.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I agree with Vitalik, I would NEVER recommend anyone takes out a personal loan to buy ETH or other ethereum assets.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Peter McCormack \ud83d\udc51 (@PeterMcCormack) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PeterMcCormack\/status\/1338391201138012161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 14, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In August, Buterin said that <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/vitalik-buterin-revealed-the-price-at-which-he-sold-his-ethereum-holdings\">had not bought Bitcoin<\/a> since 2017, and that he sold his Ethereum holdings when the price was $700.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to ForkLog&#8217;s channel on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCC9FnXTC8_ENzaNSO5cHQ6g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"> YouTube<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he sold part of his holdings of the first cryptocurrency in 2013. He said this move helped reduce financial risk in case the asset&#8217;s price fell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18,46,200],"class_list":["post-33347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bitcoin","tag-ethereum","tag-vitalik-buterin"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"42","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33349,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33347\/revisions\/33349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}