The massive 17-carat diamond engagement ring tennis great Serena Williams received from her now-husband Alexis Ohanian came in part from the Reddit co-founder’s $50 million in earnings from investments on early Coinbase and ether investments, Ohanian now is sharing.
The ring for Williams, who retired from tennis in 2022 to focus on being a mom to the couple’s young daughter and work on her venture capital fund, Serena Ventures, is estimated to be worth $3 million.
Ohanian’s Investments
Ohanian, a tech mogul, has invested in 29 startups using cryptocurrency’s underlying blockchain technology. In February 2022, he raised $500 million, largely to finance other tech ventures, Forbes reported.
When discussing his work ethic in an interview with the magazine, Ohanian said that his family’s Armenian background and the events of the Armenian genocide that began in 1915, when an estimated 1.5 million people were killed, led him to his crypto fascination.
In 2011, Ohanian, alongside partners Harjeet Taggar and Garry Tan, founded a venture capital fund called Initialized Capital, which has more than $250 million under management, The Wall Street Journal reported. Its portfolio is worth more than $20 billion, with investments including Coinbase, Instacart, Zenefits, Opendoor, Soylent and Cruise Automation, a General Motors company.
In 2014, when cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin were trendy, Ohanian invested $15,000 to buy 50,000 ether after being introduced to it during his early meetings with Coinbase executives.
However, Ohanian might have pulled out on his ether investment a little too soon. As of this reporting, each ether token is worth around $1,651, making Ohanian’s original stake worth nearly $83 million had he sold it today, Forbes reported.
Ohanian proposed to Williams in December 2016, and the couple has been married since 2017.
“In hindsight, I didn’t invest nearly as much as I should have,” Ohanian told Forbes.
Coinbase went public in 2021, and Ohanian used $26 million in his stock proceeds to kickstart his venture firm, which specializes in blockchain and other tech-centric investments called 776.
The Ring
The ring itself is an emerald-cut diamond with an eternity band that sports a teardrop halo design, and on the tip of the teardrop are three more pear-cut stones, People reported.
Ohanian’s Net Worth
Ohanian’s net worth has been speculated by many financial outlets, but Forbes estimated that he has a net worth of $70 million. Compared to his tennis legend wife, Williams’ net worth, according to Forbes, is $260 million and she is ranked 90th among the top self-made women.
Ohanian is the co-founder of the popular web forum Reddit, but he sold it to publishing company Condé Nast for between $10 million and $20 million in 2006, Business Insider reported.
In 2017, Reddit was valued at $1.8 billion and became the eighth most-popular site, according to Alexa.
