Vitalik is a businessmen, I do not see a hacker spirit inside him. I suppose this is some PR campaign promoting him as an intellectual, but usually this word means something more than running a successful business and writing a blog about technologies in cryptocurrencies.
The PR campaign is for crypto to have a public intellectual and thus appear more credible. He is currently their most suitable candidate, and he does make efforts to be seen as such, writing about broader topics than crypto currencies. However he is completely shallow and remains invisible outside the crypto bubble, showing no talent or strategy that would make things otherwise.