A look at 7 crypto projects that Vitalik Buterin has invested in: some have yielded hundredfold returns, while others have announced shutdowns

Author: Frank, PANews

As a leader in the crypto industry, Vitalik Buterin has always been active on the front lines. Besides being well-known as the founder of Ethereum, Vitalik has also personally invested in several new crypto projects. On June 28, the layer2 project MegaETH, aimed at creating a super high-performance real-time EVM, announced it had secured $20 million in funding, with Vitalik appearing on the list as an investor. PANews reviews the crypto projects that Vitalik has invested in to see how he has performed as an investor.

According to publicly available information, Vitalik has currently invested in 7 crypto projects. Among them are the well-known StarkNet and Polymarket, as well as the poorly performing Nocturne, which announced its shutdown in June this year.

StarkNet: Highest Return Rate of 146 Times

StarkNet is a permissionless decentralized Validity-Rollup (also known as "ZK-Rollup"). It operates as an L2 network on Ethereum. Vitalik invested in StarkNet's seed round in May 2018, with a total funding amount of $6 million, although the specific proportion he held has not been disclosed. According to chainbroker data, the cost of StarkNet's seed round investment tokens was $0.025, and the STRK token has peaked at $3.66. Vitalik's investment has achieved a maximum return rate of 146 times, and although the current STRK price has fallen to $0.675, it still represents a 27-fold return compared to Vitalik's cost.

In addition to financially supporting StarkNet, Vitalik has also publicly expressed his support for StarkNet multiple times on social media.

As of now, StarkNet has completed a total of $260 million in funding, with the most recent round occurring in May 2022, raising $100 million at an $8 billion valuation.

In February 2024, StarkNet completed its first airdrop and launched its token. In May, Vitalik unlocked 845,205 STRK from StarkNet, valued at $1.08 million. Currently, Vitalik has not sold any STRK tokens.

Aztec Network: No Waves After $100 Million Funding

Aztec Network is the first cross-chain privacy bridge on Ethereum. In 2021, Aztec Network announced it had completed a $17 million Series A funding round, led by Paradigm, with Vitalik also participating. In fact, as early as 2020, Vitalik had supported Aztec Network on social media, sharing his participation in Aztec's testing and stating that with Aztec officially entering ZK rollup, Layer 2 scaling and privacy were on the way.

In 2022, Aztec Network secured another $100 million in Series B funding, bringing its total funding to $119 million. In 2023, the project launched the Aztec Sandbox Alpha program for developers, which was seen as a testing phase for airdrop expectations. However, by June 2024, Aztec had not yet announced an airdrop plan, and market attention had gradually diminished. This seems to reflect a lack of marketing capability, as the latest news indicates that Aztec appointed former Risc Zero marketing head Claire Kart as the new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

Kakarot: An Innovative Experiment in the Starknet Ecosystem

Kakarot is an EVM implemented in Cairo language on Starknet and is considered an important innovative experiment in the Starknet ecosystem. In June 2023, Kakarot tweeted that it had completed a Pre-Seed funding round, with Vitalik Buterin and StarkWare among the investors. The project did not disclose the specific funding scale, but as early as November 2022, Vitalik had retweeted Kakarot's open-source code, commenting that it was "super cool." On May 22, 2024, Kakarot announced the launch of its test network.

Nocturne: A Flash-in-the-Pan Privacy Protocol

Nocturne is a privacy protocol on Ethereum, aiming to allow users to conduct anonymous transactions within the Ethereum ecosystem. The project was established in 2023 and announced a $6 million seed round funding in October of that year, with Vitalik as one of the investors. In November 2023, Nocturne deployed its V1 version on the Ethereum mainnet, but by January 2024, it announced the shutdown of the protocol. On June 6, Nocturne announced it would gradually cease operations while retaining the front-end withdrawal functionality.

Overall, Nocturne may be one of Vitalik's more unsuccessful investments, but the project's shutdown reflects the difficulties faced in the privacy sector. From the final outcome, Nocturne's ability to start and finish is not a complete disappointment to Vitalik's support.

Daimo: A Wallet Application with Poor Marketing Capability

Daimo is a stablecoin wallet without a mnemonic phrase, which announced a $2 million seed round funding in March 2024. Vitalik is also one of the investors. In the same month, Vitalik mentioned Daimo in a published article, comparing it to Venmo on Ethereum (a popular crypto payment software). However, so far, Daimo's promotional effectiveness seems to be lacking, with only about 3,000 followers on Twitter.

Polymarket: Rapid Growth from the U.S. Election

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 tweeted citing Polymarket's data on the percentage decrease in gas fees after the EIP-4844 upgrade. In May 2024, Polymarket announced it had completed a $45 million Series B funding round, with Vitalik Buterin participating in the investment.

On July 2, Vitalik mentioned on social media, "In my Twitter circle, it has become very normal for people to use Polymarket, metaculus, or http://electionbettingodds.com as evidence of the actual impact of daily political events." In June 2024, as the U.S. presidential campaign heated up, Polymarket's trading volume reached $100 million, setting a new historical high. As the excitement around the U.S. election continues, Polymarket's market activity is expected to remain high.

MegaETH: A New Hope for Ethereum L2?

MegaETH is a project that Vitalik recently invested in. On June 28, MegaLabs announced it had completed a $20 million seed round funding. MegaETH claims that its two key technologies—heterogeneous blockchain architecture and "super-optimized" EVM execution environment—can increase TPS to 100,000. Currently, the project has not officially launched, but based on its expected goals and market enthusiasm, MegaETH may become an important weapon for Ethereum to compete against Solana.

Among the 7 projects Vitalik has invested in, most revolve around innovative projects related to privacy protocols, EVM, Layer 2, and wallets. Of these projects, only StarkNet has issued tokens, providing a financial return to Vitalik. There are also flash-in-the-pan cases like Nocturne, hot projects like Polymarket that have seized opportunities, and potential future stars like MegaETH.

Overall, from a financial perspective, Vitalik's investments may not be considered successful, but it is clear that his choices are more about helping the Ethereum ecosystem develop better. Furthermore, the amount of Vitalik's investments has never been disclosed, suggesting that his participation may hold more strategic support significance than financial significance. However, based on the development of Nocturne or Daimo, having Vitalik's endorsement is not enough to gain complete market trust; the real test lies in whether the product model and operational capabilities can earn recognition from the general user base.