Anthony Di Iorio Net Worth: The Ethereum Co-Founder Who Walked Away From Crypto
by AK Arora 
In July 2021, with Ethereum trading near all-time highs and his estimated fortune likely worth well over a billion dollars, Anthony Di Iorio announced he was leaving the industry he had helped create.
His stated reason was not disillusionment with the technology, and not a financial setback. It was personal safety. “I don’t feel necessarily safe in this space,” he told Bloomberg, citing the “risk profile” that comes with being publicly known as a wealthy, identifiable figure in an industry built on irreversible, often-anonymous transactions. He announced plans to sell Decentral, the blockchain company behind the Jaxx wallet, and redirect his attention toward philanthropy and ventures entirely unrelated to crypto — including a zero-emission car project run by a childhood friend. As of 2026, Anthony Di Iorio’s net worth is estimated at $750 million to over $1 billion, though he has never publicly disclosed his actual cryptocurrency holdings.
Anthony Di Iorio Net Worth: Quick Overview
| Category | Detail |
|---|---|
| Estimated net worth | $750 million – $1 billion+ (Forbes, Feb 2018 estimate; unconfirmed since) |
| Born | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Education | B.Comm in Marketing, Ryerson University (1998) |
| Role in Ethereum | Co-founder and early financier (2014) |
| Other ventures | KryptoKit (2013), Decentral and Jaxx wallet (2014) |
| Toronto Stock Exchange role | First Chief Digital Officer (Jan 2016) |
| Stepped down as Decentral CEO | September 2019 |
| Announced crypto industry exit | July 2021, citing personal safety concerns |
From Patio Doors to Bitcoin
Anthony Di Iorio grew up in Toronto, Ontario, with two older siblings, and graduated from Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) with a degree in marketing in 1998. Before entering crypto, his career path was notably conventional: he worked in marketing at a machine manufacturer, then joined his family’s patio-door manufacturing business in Woodbridge, Ontario, and later ran a geothermal drilling company doing commercial projects, including work for IKEA.
The 2008 financial crisis became a genuine turning point. Di Iorio has described becoming preoccupied with understanding what had actually gone wrong, leading him into broader reading about alternative monetary systems and what he has called “libertarian thinking about sound money.” In 2012, he sold his rental properties — he had been working as a landlord and real estate investor in Toronto — to invest in Bitcoin, while founding the Toronto Bitcoin Meetup group to connect with others interested in the technology.
That meetup group produced the single most consequential connection of his career: at its first event, Di Iorio met a young Russian-Canadian programmer named Vitalik Buterin.
KryptoKit and the Path to Ethereum
In 2013, Di Iorio co-founded KryptoKit with Steve Dakh — a Bitcoin wallet browser extension for Google Chrome that let users pay for goods and services directly from their browser. The project later attracted involvement from Buterin, along with other notable early crypto figures including Erik Voorhees and Roger Ver.
In 2014, Di Iorio co-founded Ethereum, alongside Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, Gavin Wood, and Joseph Lubin. Within Ethereum’s founding group, Di Iorio’s role was distinctly financial rather than technical — he has been described as the project’s primary early financier, using funds from his prior ventures to bootstrap Ethereum’s development and legal counsel before the project’s public crowdsale. Read our Ethereum Merge story guide for more on how the network Di Iorio helped fund has evolved since.
By 2017, Ethereum had grown to a market capitalisation of approximately $1.6 billion, with the broader platform valued at an estimated $7 billion — and Di Iorio, as an early holder and financier, benefited substantially from this growth, though he has consistently declined to disclose the specific size of his holdings.
Decentral, Jaxx, and the Toronto Stock Exchange
After Ethereum’s launch, Di Iorio founded Decentral Inc. in 2014, serving as its CEO. The company became best known for Jaxx, a multi-asset cryptocurrency wallet supporting Bitcoin, Ethereum, and numerous other digital assets through a single, unified interface — later updated and rebranded as Jaxx Liberty, which added portfolio tracking and in-app token swapping through a partnership with ShapeShift. Read our types of crypto wallets explained guide for how multi-asset wallets like Jaxx fit into the broader wallet landscape.
In January 2016, Di Iorio took on an unexpected role: Chief Digital Officer of the Toronto Stock Exchange, hired through TMX Group — making him one of the earliest examples of a crypto-native entrepreneur moving directly into traditional financial market infrastructure. He left this position relatively quickly to focus full-time on Jaxx’s continued development, announcing the platform’s formal launch in February 2016.
He stepped down as Decentral’s CEO in September 2019 — a transition that received considerably less public attention than his more dramatic, fuller exit from the industry roughly two years later.
Walking Away: The July 2021 Exit
This is the single most distinctive chapter of Di Iorio’s career, and the one that separates his story from nearly every other early Ethereum figure.
In July 2021 — during one of crypto’s strongest bull markets, with Ethereum’s price more than doubling since Di Iorio’s last disclosed net worth estimate — Bloomberg reported that Di Iorio planned to sell Decentral and step back from the broader crypto industry entirely. His stated reasoning centred specifically on personal safety, not financial or technological disillusionment: “It’s got a risk profile that I am not too enthused about,” he said. “I don’t feel necessarily safe in this space. If I was focused on larger problems, I think I’d be safer.”
He indicated he intended to eventually sever ties with other crypto startups he remained involved with and would not fund any further blockchain projects, instead redirecting his focus toward philanthropy and unrelated ventures — including Project Arrow, a zero-emission, self-driving car project run by a high school friend, and discussions with political figures including Paraguayan senator Carlos Rejala on broader policy matters.
Notably, Di Iorio’s announcement came within days of Dogecoin co-creator Jackson Palmer separately announcing his own complete departure from crypto, citing concerns about the industry’s culture and ownership concentration. Unlike Palmer, however, Di Iorio left open the possibility of incorporating crypto into future work where genuinely relevant: “I will incorporate crypto when needed, but a lot of times, it’s not. It’s really a small percentage of what the world needs.” For another founder whose exit timing shaped his own financial legacy, read our Charlie Lee net worth guide.
What Di Iorio’s Exit Reveals About Early Crypto Wealth
Di Iorio’s situation highlights a genuine, underappreciated tension facing early crypto wealth holders: substantial, identifiable digital wealth creates real personal security exposure that traditional forms of wealth — held primarily through banks, brokerages, and other intermediated structures — do not carry in the same way.
Unlike traditional bank holdings, significant cryptocurrency wealth held in personal wallets can, in principle, be directly targeted through coercion against the holder personally, since blockchain transactions are irreversible once confirmed. While Di Iorio has not detailed specific incidents prompting his decision, his stated reasoning reflects a broader, increasingly discussed concern within the industry about the personal security risks of being publicly known as a significant individual crypto holder. Read our how to store cryptocurrency safely guide for security practices relevant to anyone holding meaningful crypto value.
Anthony Di Iorio Career Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1998 | Graduates Ryerson University with a marketing degree |
| 2012 | Sells rental properties to invest in Bitcoin; founds Toronto Bitcoin Meetup |
| 2013 | Co-founds KryptoKit with Steve Dakh |
| 2014 | Co-founds Ethereum with Buterin, Hoskinson, Wood, and Lubin; founds Decentral |
| Jan 2016 | Becomes first Chief Digital Officer of the Toronto Stock Exchange |
| Feb 2016 | Launches Jaxx wallet platform |
| Feb 2018 | Forbes estimates net worth at $750M–$1B |
| Sept 2019 | Steps down as Decentral CEO |
| July 2021 | Announces plans to sell Decentral and exit crypto, citing safety concerns |
FAQs
What is Anthony Di Iorio’s net worth in 2026?
The most recent specific estimate comes from Forbes in February 2018, placing his net worth between $750 million and $1 billion. Di Iorio has consistently declined to disclose his actual cryptocurrency holdings, and given Ethereum’s substantial price appreciation since 2018, his actual current net worth could be considerably different, though no more recent specific disclosure is publicly available.
Why did Anthony Di Iorio leave the crypto industry?
In July 2021, he announced plans to sell Decentral and step back from crypto, citing personal safety concerns related to the “risk profile” of being a publicly identifiable, wealthy figure in an industry involving irreversible digital transactions. He stated he did not feel safe in the space and wanted to focus on other ventures.
What was Anthony Di Iorio’s role in founding Ethereum?
He served primarily as a financier among Ethereum’s founding group, which also included Vitalik Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, Gavin Wood, and Joseph Lubin. Di Iorio used funds from his prior business ventures to help bootstrap Ethereum’s early development and legal costs before its public crowdsale.
What is Jaxx, and is it still operating?
Jaxx (later Jaxx Liberty) is a multi-asset cryptocurrency wallet developed by Decentral, the company Di Iorio founded in 2014. It supports a broad range of cryptocurrencies through a unified, non-custodial interface, with added features including in-app token swapping through a ShapeShift integration.
Did Anthony Di Iorio sell Decentral?
He announced his intention to sell the company in July 2021, valuing it at “hundreds of millions” at the time, with a preference for receiving payment in equity in another business or fiat currency rather than cryptocurrency. The final outcome of these sale discussions has not been comprehensively confirmed in public reporting.
What is Anthony Di Iorio doing now?
Following his 2021 announcement, he has focused on ventures unrelated to crypto, including Project Arrow, a zero-emission, self-driving car project, alongside broader philanthropic and policy-focused interests, while remaining open to incorporating crypto or blockchain technology where he sees it as genuinely relevant to a specific problem.
Final Word
Anthony Di Iorio’s story diverges sharply from the typical arc of an early crypto co-founder. Rather than doubling down on his crypto identity as Ethereum grew into one of the most valuable networks in the world, he chose, at the height of a historic bull market, to walk away — citing personal safety rather than financial or technological disillusionment as his reason.
His net worth remains genuinely difficult to pin down precisely, since he has never disclosed his actual holdings, and the most recent specific public estimate dates back to 2018 — well before several of Ethereum’s largest price movements. What is clear is that his decision to step back, redirect toward unrelated ventures, and decline further public association with the “crypto guy” identity makes his story a notable outlier among early Ethereum co-founders, most of whom have remained far more visibly engaged with the industry they helped build.
Disclaimer: Net worth figures are estimates based on publicly available sources, primarily a 2018 Forbes estimate, and may not reflect current holdings, which have not been publicly disclosed. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
