--- title: Vitalik Buterin Is on the 2021 TIME100 List description: Find out why Vitalik Buterin is one of the 100 most influential people of 2021. canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095980/vitalik-buterin/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-09-15T11:19:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-21T07:22:36.839Z og:title: Vitalik Buterin: The 100 Most Influential People of 2021 og:description: Find out why Vitalik Buterin is on this year’s list og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095980/vitalik-buterin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5990fb15b07dfcf/698a1cbb457a5283b1d657cf/vitalik-buterin-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Vitalik Buterin: The 100 Most Influential People of 2021 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Vitalik Buterin: The 100 Most Influential People of 2021 twitter:description: Find out why Vitalik Buterin is on this year’s list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5990fb15b07dfcf/698a1cbb457a5283b1d657cf/vitalik-buterin-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 15, 2021 # Vitalik Buterin by Alexis Ohanian  Vitalik Buterin Ethan Pines—The Forbes Collection/Contour RA/Getty Images Vitalik Buterin Ethan Pines—The Forbes Collection/Contour RA/Getty ImagesEthan Pines—The Forbes Collection/Contour RA/Getty Images Thanks to Reddit’s r/Ethereum community, I’ve had the privilege of following Vitalik Buterin’s career from early on, which is why I’ve taken a certain pride in watching his legacy grow. Sure, we can talk about the value he’s created as the platform’s co-founder, including Ethereum’s impressive market cap of around $400 billion, the dazzling world of decentralized apps and this year’s boom in the [trading of NFTs](https://time.com/5947720/nft-art/). What makes Vitalik so special, though, is that he is a builder’s builder. No one person could’ve possibly come up with all of the uses for Ethereum, but it did take one person’s idea to get it started. From there, a new world has opened up, and given rise to new ways of [leveraging blockchain technology](https://time.com/6093982/nft-art-teens-money/)—some of which I’ve invested in. Whether it’s startups like Sorare reinventing fantasy sports or Rainbow users showing off their NFT collections, none of this would’ve existed without Vitalik’s creation. I’ve never been more excited about the potential of the Internet, and that’s largely thanks to Vitalik Buterin. _Ohanian is the founder of Seven Seven Six and a former executive chair of Reddit_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095980/vitalik-buterin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095980/vitalik-buterin/"},"headline":"Vitalik Buterin","datePublished":"2021-09-15T11:19:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:36.839Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095980/vitalik-buterin/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","T100 2021"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5990fb15b07dfcf/698a1cbb457a5283b1d657cf/vitalik-buterin-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5990fb15b07dfcf/698a1cbb457a5283b1d657cf/vitalik-buterin-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095980/vitalik-buterin/","name":"Vitalik Buterin"}}]}] ```