Former computer science student Vitalik Buterin named in Forbes '30 under 30 hall of fame'

Monday, December 6, 2021

Vitalik Buterin
The founder of cryptocurrency Etherium and former computer science student Vitalik Buterin has been named in the recent Forbes '30 under 30 hall of fame.'

On this tenth anniversary of the Forbes 30 under 30 lists, the publication included a best of the best from the past ten years, noting those who had been named the most times or consistently in the lists.

Buterin is one of the world’s youngest known crypto billionaires with an estimated personal fortune of US $1.4 billion.

He studied computer science at Waterloo for a year before winning a US $100,000 fellowship from the Thiel Foundation in 2014 to pursue his passion for the fledgling field of cryptocurrencies full-time.

Also on the list are basketball superstar LeBron James, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, singing star Rihanna, tennis champion Naomi Osaka and more than 20 others at the top of their fields.

Two other Waterloo alumni were also listed in the hall of fame, Apoorva Mehta, the founder of Instacart, and Alex Rodrigues, the co-founder of Embark Technology Inc.  

The Forbes rankings come on the heels of the PitchBook listing, which put Waterloo 22nd in the world for universities that produce the most successful entrepreneurs.

Check out the full 30 under 30 hall of fame on the Forbes website.