Anthony Di Iorio is a Canadian entrepreneur best known as a co-founder of Ethereum and the founder of Decentral, a Toronto-based company associated with the Jaxx family of multi-asset crypto wallets. His work has focused on consumer-facing infrastructure for self-custody and on community building during the early growth of Bitcoin and smart contract platforms.
Overview
Di Iorio emerged as a prominent figure during the 2013 to 2016 period, when cryptocurrencies moved from niche communities into broader developer and investor circles. He has been linked to early ecosystem activity in Canada, including meetups and advocacy, and later to product development aimed at simplifying how users hold and exchange multiple digital assets without relying on custodial intermediaries.
History and Background
Di Iorio’s public biographies describe a marketing-focused education and early work across small business and technology. He began developing websites in the 1990s and later became involved in Toronto’s startup scene. In 2012, he became an early Bitcoin buyer and organizer, establishing the Toronto Bitcoin Meetup Group, which grew into a larger local community.
As the meetup expanded, he helped form the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada, an advocacy and industry coordination effort. During this period, he also collaborated on KryptoKit, a browser-based Bitcoin wallet extension designed to make payments and basic wallet interactions easier for everyday users.
Ethereum and Early Ecosystem Roles
Di Iorio is widely recognized as a co-founder of Ethereum, the open-source smart contract network launched in 2015 that enabled programmable tokens, decentralized applications, and modern DeFi and NFT markets. While Ethereum’s development involved many contributors, Di Iorio is often described as an early supporter and organizer who helped fund and coordinate early-stage work during the project’s formative years.
In later interviews and public commentary, Di Iorio has framed Ethereum’s role as complementary to Bitcoin, with Ethereum emphasizing general-purpose programmability while Bitcoin remains a primary store-of-value and settlement narrative for many market participants.
Decentral and Jaxx
Di Iorio founded Decentral in 2014. The company has been positioned as an innovation hub and software developer focused on decentralized technologies. Decentral has also been associated with community programming in Toronto, including events intended to connect developers, founders, and users across the blockchain sector.
Decentral’s most widely known product line is Jaxx, a multi-asset wallet designed to support a broad set of cryptocurrencies through a unified interface. Jaxx Liberty, an updated version of the wallet platform, has been marketed as a non-custodial product that keeps users in control of their private keys while offering portfolio tools and in-app conversion features. Jaxx Liberty has also been linked to partner integrations, including collaboration with ShapeShift for in-wallet swapping functionality.
- Multi-asset focus: Designed to manage a range of digital assets in one interface, rather than requiring separate wallets per chain.
- Self-custody model: Emphasizes user control over keys, aligning with the broader shift toward non-custodial storage after major exchange failures.
- Consumer-oriented UX: Positioned around simplifying onboarding and everyday portfolio monitoring for non-technical users.
Institutional and Academic Work
In 2016, Di Iorio served as the first Chief Digital Officer of the Toronto Stock Exchange (via TMX Group), reflecting a period when major financial institutions began exploring blockchain as infrastructure rather than solely as a speculative asset class. Public profiles have also listed him as an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, indicating involvement in education and talent development alongside product and ecosystem work.
Use Cases and Market Position
Di Iorio’s market relevance is closely tied to the role of wallets as gateways to Web3. As on-chain activity expanded across DeFi, NFTs, and multi-chain ecosystems, wallets became central to user security and onboarding. Jaxx’s positioning, a multi-asset, consumer-focused wallet with optional exchange integrations, places it within a competitive segment that includes both browser wallets and mobile-first portfolio apps.
Risks and Considerations
Wallet products carry distinct risks, even when they are non-custodial. Users remain responsible for key management, phishing resistance, and device security, and wallet integrations can introduce dependency on third-party services for swapping, pricing, and data feeds. More broadly, founders and wallet operators operate under shifting regulatory expectations around consumer protection, disclosures, and marketing claims. For Di Iorio and Decentral-linked products, long-term credibility depends on transparent product security practices, cautious integration design, and clear user education around self-custody trade-offs.
