Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian scored a $50 million windfall from an early guess on cryptocurrencies that helped him seal his love match with tennis legend Serena Williams.
Ohanian, 39, revealed in an interview with Forbes that he used a portion of his income to purchase a $3 million, 17-carat engagement ring when he proposed to Williams in December 2016.
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Williams, who received a report 23 main singles titles earlier than retiring final yr, married the tech entrepreneur in 2017, The New York Post reviews.
The grandson of Armenian refugees was an enormous title within the tech world earlier than assembly the tennis icon, co-founding social news web site Reddit and a enterprise capital agency.
Ohanian mentioned he earned the $50 million via an early funding within the cryptocurrency change Coinbase and by shopping for up ether, a number one cryptocurrency token that ranks simply behind bitcoin in recognition.
Ohanian advised the outlet he realized concerning the token throughout his early conferences with Coinbase executives in 2014.
He invested $15,000 to purchase 50,000 ether. Today, a single ether token is price about $1,651, that means Ohanian’s authentic stake could be price almost $83 million.
“In hindsight, I didn’t invest nearly as much as I should have,” Ohanian advised Forbes.
After Coinbase went public in 2021, Ohanian used $26 million in his inventory proceeds to launch his enterprise agency 776, which focuses on blockchain and different tech-centric investments. The agency has greater than $750 million in belongings underneath administration, based on its web site.
He additionally donated $1 million towards ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s nonprofit “Know Your Rights.”
Ohanian additionally advised Forbes a humorous story about his first date with Williams, which almost went off the rails after the celebrity athlete tried to entry Reddit. At the time, the social media platform didn’t have a cell app.
“She asked me what I did. I said I started and run this company called Reddit. She pretended like she knew of it, but she didn’t. She goes to her phone and searches the app store and she’s like ‘how do you spell it?’ and I’m like ‘R-E-D-D-I-T.’ I’m sweating because I have to try to explain to her we don’t have an app,” Ohanian mentioned.
“I was like, I haven’t heard of it. And there’s no app? It mustn’t be real,” Williams added.
Ohanian had been unapologetically aggressive in his assist of his spouse of 5 years, blasting her critics on Twitter and carrying daring T-shirts that declare her greatness.
In 2019, Forbes estimated that Ohanian has a web price of $70 million. As of final August, the outlet projected Williams’ fortune to be $260 million.
Coinbase’s inventory has plunged by greater than 82 per cent because the firm went public. The cryptocurrency agency carried out layoffs final yr as an financial downturn and the fallout from FTX’s chapter rattled the whole business.
— This story initially appeared on nypost.com.au and has been republished with permission
Source: www.news.com.au
