Jonathan Yantis

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Jonathan Yantis

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Career

Jonathan created virtual item trading in 1997, with its inception taking place in the realms of Ultima Online, Everquest & World of Warcraft.

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Later, as founder of the world’s first and fastest growing digital item marketplace, Jonathan oversaw a merger with then-industry giant Internet Gaming Entertainment.

After managing the growth of joint operations to $1 billion in revenue, he successfully exited in 2009.

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An early Bitcoin miner and Blockchain investor, Jonathan was a board member of the first ICO ever, Mastercoin.

Its initial 5,000 bitcoin backing was valued at USD $500,000.

Mastercoin, a digital currency and communications protocol, is built on the bitcoin blockchain, and serves as a pillar of cryptocurrency.

Shortly afterward, Jonathan backed the Ethereum ICO.

The decentralized virtual machine supports P2P contracts with its cryptocurrency, ether.

Initial funding included a public crowdsale in July and August 2014, with participating investing a combined USD $18,439,086 worth of bitcoins.

By May 2016, ether’s market capitalization was valued at more than USD $1 billion.

In addition to serving as a cryptocurrency, Ethereum is used as a distributed application platform by leading companies, including Microsoft, IBM, and JP Morgan Chase.

Before it all, Jonathan's career began as a US Navy weapons electronic engineer.