Anthony Di Iorio is a Canadian entrepreneur primarily known as a co-founder of

Ethereum Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (abbreviation: ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. It is open-s ...

and an early investor in

Bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

. Di Iorio is the founder and CEO of the

blockchain The blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of Record (computer science), records (''blocks'') that are securely linked together via Cryptographic hash function, cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of th ...

company Decentral, and the associated Jaxx

wallet A wallet is a flat case or pouch, often used to carry small personal items such as physical currency, debit cards, and credit cards; identification documents such as driving licence, identification card, club card; photographs, transit pass, b ...

. He also served as the first chief digital officer of the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the List of stock exchanges, 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in th ...

. In February 2018,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

estimated his net worth at $750 million–$1 billion.

Early life

Di Iorio grew up with two older siblings in north

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. He graduated with a degree in marketing from Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University). Di Iorio began developing websites during the early 1990s, and eventually entered the rental housing market as an investor and landlord in Toronto, Ontario. In 2012, he sold his rental properties to invest in Bitcoin, and began to organize companies in the field of cryptocurrency.

Career

Di Iorio began his career working in marketing at a machine manufacturer before he went on to work for his family's patio-door-making business in Woodbridge,

. The family business was sold in 2008, and Di Iorio’s father supported him as he launched a short-lived

geothermal drilling A ground source heat pump (also geothermal heat pump) is a heating/cooling system for buildings that use a type of heat pump to transfer heat to or from the ground, taking advantage of the relative constancy of temperatures of the earth through t ...

company. He first learned about

bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

from a podcast called ''Free Talk Live'' in 2012. According to ''The Globe and Mail'', he "had an

anti-authoritarian Anti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism. Anti-authoritarians usually believe in full equality before the law and strong civil liberties. Sometimes the term is used interchangeably with anarchism, an ideology which entails opposing a ...

streak" and questioned "the fundamentals of

mainstream economics Mainstream economics is the body of knowledge, theories, and models of economics, as taught by universities worldwide, that are generally accepted by economists as a basis for discussion. Also known as orthodox economics, it can be contrasted to ...

." Di Iorio bought his first bitcoin the same day for $9.73. He created the Toronto Bitcoin Meetup Group which held its first meeting at a pub in the same year. As the

Meetup Meetup, headquartered in New York City, is a social media platform and social networking service for hosting and organizing in-person and virtual activities, gatherings, and events for people and communities of similar interests, hobbies, and pro ...

s grew from about eight attendees to hundreds, Di Iorio formed the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada. In 2013 Di Iorio founded a Bitcoin wallet Chrome extension called KryptoKit, with Steve Dakh, who created an app for

web browsers A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scree ...

that allows users to pay for products and services using the

cryptocurrency wallet A cryptocurrency wallet is a device, physical medium, program or an online service which stores the Public-key cryptography, public and/or private keys for cryptocurrency transactions. In addition to this basic function of storing the keys, a cr ...

. KryptoKit was later joined by Buterin, Erik Voorhees, and

Roger Ver Roger Keith Ver (born 1979) is an entrepreneur who was an early investor in Bitcoin, Bitcoin-related startups and an early promoter of Bitcoin, and sometimes known as Bitcoin Jesus. He now primarily promotes Bitcoin Cash. He previously was CEO ...

in 2014. In 2014 Di Iorio co-founded the cryptocurrency platform Ethereum, that has been valued at $7 billion and had a market cap of $1.6 billion in 2017. In 2021, he stated that he intended to leave the crypto market due to "safety concerns."

TSX, Jaxx, and boards

In January 2016,

TMX Group TMX Group Limited is a Canadian financial services company that operates equities, fixed income, derivatives, and energy markets exchanges. The company provides services encompassing listings, trading, clearing, settling and depository faciliti ...

hired Di Iorio as the first chief digital officer of the

(TSX). In February 2016, Di Iorio announced the launch of Jaxx, a unified platform that provides wallet services for both Bitcoin and Ethereum. He left his position at TSX to focus on Jaxx. Di Iorio is the founder and serves as CEO of Decentral Inc., the developer of Jaxx. Di Iorio has been involved in the development of a rating system for initial coin offerings and attempting to unite various cryptocurrencies into one financial ecosystem. In a series of articles published in February 2018, ''

'' named Di Iorio among its list of the top-20 richest people in cryptocurrency.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Di Iorio, Anthony Living people Businesspeople from Toronto 21st-century Canadian businesspeople Canadian chief executives Toronto Metropolitan University alumni Canadian billionaires Canadian technology company founders Year of birth missing (living people) People associated with Ethereum