Reddit Co-Founder Used a Portion Of His $50M Crypto Fortune to Pay For Serena Williams’ $2M Engagement Ring

Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian recently revealed that his $50M cryptocurrency windfall helped him pay for his wife, Serena Williams’ engagement ring, estimated to be worth about 2 million dollars. The couple met in Rome, Italy, while Williams was competing in the Rome Masters in 2015 and Ohanian happened to be a guest at the same hotel as Williams. After dating for about a year, Ohanian proposed to the tennis superstar in Rome, in 2016. The now-retired tennis champ and internet entrepreneur and investor wed in 2017 with a Disney Beauty and the Beast-inspired ceremony in New Orleans. The power couple are now proud parents of a daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian.

​Ohanian’s crypto gold mine came about as a result of investing $15,000 in 50,000 Coinbase Ethereum tokens back in 2014. Ethereum, or Ether for short, are well-known cryptocurrency tokens that rank close in popularity to Bitcoin. Ether, at the time of Ohanian’s investment, was an emerging cryptocurrency, making Ohanian’s initial investment a lucky gamble. During early meetings with Coinbase executives in 2014, Ohanian first learned about Ether tokens, prompting him to take a chance on the then-developing cryptocurrency. Currently, a single ether token is worth about $1,651; with that said, Ohanian’s original investment would now be worth nearly $83 million! In hindsight, Ohanian wishes he could have purchased even more than he had at that time. The entrepreneur and investor explained that his Armenian heritage is one of the main reasons why he is so fond of cryptocurrency. Ohanian’s great-grandparents fell victim to Turkish soldiers during the Armenian genocide in 1915 and his family’s heirloom rugs and other personal belongings were stolen by the Ottomans. Due to his ancestral tragedy, Ohanian embraces the security of having assets that are unseizable by centralized institutions. Ohanian has been quoted as saying, “any group of people who have in their consciousness, or in their collective history, some idea of persecution, especially by a state, makes the idea of a store of value that is not controlled by any single state very attractive. And so, in some ways, it was hardwired in me then and made me, in a way, receptive to the idea of a decentralized currency.”

Now Let’s Take a Look at the Tennis Legend’s $2M Sparkler!

The 23-time Grand Slam champion’s engagement ring features a large, oval-cut center diamond estimated to be around 12 carats, flanked by two smaller semi-circle diamonds, estimated to be about 1 carat each, giving it a total diamond weight of 14 carats! The trilogy-set ring has an elegant and sturdy platinum band. Platinum is the most durable metal choice for engagement rings, making it perfect for someone as active as Serena Williams. The three stones in this meaningful ring setting symbolize the couple’s past, present, and future, with the largest stone representing the present moment.

If you would love to have a diamond engagement ring in this style but don’t have two million dollars to spare, we can help you custom-design something similar with a FAR more affordable price tag! Our gemologists are ready to assist you—contact us today!

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