Vitalik Buterin Investments: Six Documented Deals

Brian Nichols is the co-founder of Angel Squad, an angel investing community where aspiring and active angels learn from Hustle Fund’s approach, review curated deal flow, and connect with peers.

A company financing, a crypto balance and a research donation can all appear under Vitalik Buterin’s name. Each tells you something different about where his capital goes. Separating them makes his disclosed investments more useful to understand, especially if you’re developing your own approach to backing startups.

Which companies has Vitalik Buterin invested in?

Public company announcements name Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in financings for the six companies below. These are selected documented investments, not a complete portfolio or evidence of his current ownership.

The dollar figures are company fundraising totals. None of these disclosures gives the size of Buterin’s individual check.

StarkWare: $6 million seed round, announced May 2018

StarkWare named Buterin among the investors in its $6 million seed round in a May 9, 2018 announcement. The company’s stated focus was improving blockchain capacity and privacy through cryptographic proofs, mathematical tools for demonstrating that computations are correct.

This is an early disclosed example of his backing for blockchain infrastructure, the underlying systems other applications use.

Aztec: $17 million Series A, announced December 2021

Aztec Network included Buterin among its angel investors in a December 16, 2021 announcement of a $17 million Series A. Paradigm led the round.

Aztec was developing privacy technology for Ethereum applications. Its work used zero-knowledge proofs, which let someone demonstrate that a statement is true without revealing the underlying private information.

Nocturne: $6 million seed round, announced October 2023

Nocturne Labs named Buterin as a participant in its October 25, 2023 seed round. Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital co-led the $6 million financing.

The project aimed to bring private accounts to Ethereum so people could use public blockchain applications with greater financial privacy. The announcement documents financing participation; it doesn't establish a successful investment outcome.

0xbow: March 2024 pre-seed, disclosed retrospectively

0xbow’s November 18, 2025 release says its earlier March 2024 pre-seed included Buterin. The company develops Privacy Pools, technology intended to give blockchain users financial privacy while addressing illicit-funds risks.

The release does not state the pre-seed round’s total. Its $3.5 million headline refers to a separate seed round announced in November 2025. That figure should not be attached to Buterin’s earlier participation.

Polymarket: $45 million Series B, announced May 2024

Polymarket included Buterin in its May 14, 2024 financing announcement. He was named in the $45 million Series B led by Founders Fund.

Polymarket is a prediction market where people trade on the outcomes of events. The release’s $70 million headline combines that Series B with a separate $25 million Series A. Neither amount represents Buterin’s personal investment.

RISE: seed investor named in June 2025

RISE named Buterin among its seed investors in a June 9, 2025 company announcement. RISE builds an Ethereum scaling network intended to support faster applications.

The announcement concerned a new $4 million investment from Galaxy Ventures, bringing RISE’s total raised to $8 million. It identifies Buterin as a previous investor without specifying the date, amount or terms of his seed investment.

Donations and research support belong in a separate category

Some prominent funding connected to Buterin has a different purpose and financial structure from a startup investment. Keeping those distinctions visible prevents a list of recipients from becoming a misleading investment portfolio.

• Nomic Foundation and Hardhat. In February 2022, the nonprofit behind the Hardhat developer tools named Buterin among contributors to $15 million in combined donations. That was a pooled contribution total from multiple donors, not a $15 million angel check from him.
• Varro Life Sciences. In October 2024, Varro announced an agreement for 20 million USD Coin (USDC), a dollar-linked cryptocurrency, in non-dilutive financial support through Kanro, Buterin’s scientific-finance and direct-donation initiative. Non-dilutive support does not reduce existing owners’ ownership percentages. Varro described support for pathogen-detection technology and open-source access, not a conventional equity round.
• University research through Balvi. The University of Maryland announced a $9.4 million gift from Buterin’s Balvi Filantropic Fund in November 2022 for air-disinfection research. The University of California San Diego announced a $15 million USDC gift from Balvi, directed by Buterin, in March 2023 for airborne-disease research. These were philanthropic gifts from the fund.

A donation can fund useful infrastructure or science without giving the donor an ownership stake or a financial return. Its impact belongs in a different assessment from an investor’s gains and losses.

What the public record doesn't tell you

A financing announcement records participation at a particular point. It generally leaves the investor’s purchase price, exact investment instrument, ownership percentage, later sales and financial outcome unknown.

Wallet balances answer another question. Ether (ETH) is Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency. Holding ETH is distinct from owning an interest in a company building on Ethereum. A wallet snapshot also cannot provide a complete record of private company investments or explain the purpose of every transfer.

Those gaps rule out a reliable portfolio-return calculation from these announcements. They also prevent a firm conclusion about how Buterin balances financial returns, donations, personal liquidity and other goals across all his assets.

His name in a round gives you a lead for understanding the company. It doesn't establish that the same investment, at another price and on other terms, fits your finances.

His technology philosophy adds context

Buterin’s public writing gives more direct evidence of his stated beliefs than a recipient list does.

In his November 2023 essay “My techno-optimism”, he argues that the direction of technological progress needs deliberate human choices. Profit maximization alone will not automatically produce all the technologies people want.

His January 2025 essay “d/acc: one year later” develops his framework of decentralized and democratic, differential defensive acceleration, abbreviated d/acc. In plain language, he favors advancing technologies that help people protect themselves while limiting concentrated control. He also discusses funding public goods, benefits that can extend beyond the people who pay for them.

We see a plausible connection between that framework and the privacy, scaling and open-science examples above. That is our interpretation of a limited set of disclosures. It doesn't establish why he made every investment, or that he puts financial returns second in every decision.

Practical lessons for your own angel investing

You can use these examples to sharpen your process without copying someone else’s investments or assuming you share their resources and goals.

Give each commitment a clear purpose

Separate money intended for investment returns from money intended as a gift. A useful technology may deserve support even when you can't make an investment case for it.

For a hypothetical example, imagine you care about privacy and have two opportunities: donate to an open-source tool or invest in a company selling privacy software. The donation needs an impact case. The investment needs a case for customer demand, a sustainable business and a possible financial return, alongside your values alignment.

Our co-founder and general partner Elizabeth Yin writes in Democratizing Knowledge, “Decisions are never in isolation - they are a comparison game.” Her point concerns allocating finite capital among alternatives. Apply that discipline to your own commitments rather than treating enthusiasm for a cause as sufficient reason to invest.

Turn conviction into questions you can answer

An investment thesis describes what you want to back and why. Make it specific enough to guide a pass as well as a yes.

If your thesis concerns privacy infrastructure, your evaluation might include:

• User need. Which users face a concrete privacy problem, and how are they handling it today?
• Adoption. What must change for them to use this product, and who pays?
• Execution. What has the team built, and what evidence would weaken your confidence?
• Your contribution. Can you help with a customer introduction, technical judgment or hiring need?

A well-known investor’s involvement doesn't answer those questions for you. Your relevant experience may help you ask better ones, but the business still needs evidence.

Discussing those questions with peers can reveal assumptions you missed. In our Angel Squad angel-investing community, members review curated deal flow and compare perspectives. Hearing another investor challenge your reasoning can help you see where your thesis needs more evidence.

Keep a portfolio perspective and invite disagreement

Elizabeth also writes in her microangel discussion, collected in Democratizing Knowledge, “Don't try to pick a co. Select a portfolio.” Most startup bets may fail. Several companies exposed to the same technology, customer base or funding cycle can face similar risks, even when their names differ.

Set a total startup-investing budget you can afford to lose and consider how each commitment adds to that exposure. A theme you understand can guide your work without requiring every check to depend on that theme succeeding.

Other investors can also help you notice shared risks across companies that seem different at first. A regular conversation gives you a place to examine those connections before another commitment.

For your next company review, write down the purpose of your capital, the evidence supporting the business and the strongest reason to pass. To build that practice alongside other investors, apply to Angel Squad.

For education only, not investment, legal or tax advice. Startup investments are speculative, illiquid and long-term, and you can lose all the money you invest. Seek independent advice from qualified legal and tax professionals about your own transactions.