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The crypto industry has now produced not only millionaires, but also billionaires. The following ranking provides an overview of the wealthiest crypto entrepreneurs and investors.
14th place: Fred Ehrsam
Fred Ehrsam is the co-founder of the crypto trading platform Coinbase, which he founded together with Brian Armstrong in 2012 and is now considered the largest crypto trading platform in the USA. Ehrsam left the company in 2017, but he still holds about six percent of the shares. Forbes estimates his fortune at about one billion US dollars.
13th place: Tim Draper
Tim Draper is a founder of the Draper Fisher Jurveston venture capital firm, which has made hundreds of investments in companies such as Tesla and Theranos. He has also made a fortune through cryptocurrency investments. His net worth is approximately $1.2 billion, according to Forbes.
12th place: Matthew Roszak
Roszak is ranked 12th in the list with a fortune of $1.4 billion. Roszak is the co-founder of Bloq, a blockchain-based startup that advises banks on projects such as storing digital assets. In addition to his income from the company, according to Forbes, he is said to have invested in cryptocurrencies since 2012 and thus built up a sizeable portfolio.
11th place: Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss
The Winklevoss twins, who many will know from the Facebook saga, are each worth $1.4 billion, according to Forbes. They financed their investments in cryptocurrencies through their lawsuits against Facebook. In addition to the income from their crypto investments, they are also the founders of the crypto trading exchange Gemini.
10th place: Joe Lau & Nikil Viswanathan
Lau and Viswanathan co-founded Alchemy in 2020, whose software is now used by many blockchain-based Web3 companies. Lau and Viswanathan currently own an estimated 26 percent of the company each, according to Forbes, giving them approximately $1.8 billion each.
9th place: Kim Hyoung-Nyon
The South Korean is co-founder and vice president of Dunamu, a blockchain securities trading provider . His net worth is $1.95 billion, according to Forbes. He is the business partner of Song Chi-Hyung, who is ranked third in the ranking.
8th place: Devin Finzer & Alex Atallah
Finzer and Atallah are the founders of OpenSea, an NFT platform, making them the first NFT billionaires in January 2021. Forbes estimates their net worth at approximately $2.2 billion each.
7th place: Jed McCaleb
McCaleb is considered a crypto pioneer who has worked on many well-known crypto companies. In 2010, he founded Mt. Gox, the first major Bitcoin trading platform. Shortly thereafter, he co-founded Ripple, and in 2014 he founded Stellar. His fortune is currently estimated by Forbes at $2.4 billion.
6th place: Chris Larsen
Larsen is the co-founder of the blockchain-based payment network Ripple, which is particularly popular among companies. He left the post of CEO at the end of 2016, but still serves as executive chairman. His current net worth is estimated by Forbes at $2.5 billion.
5th place: Brian Armstrong
The founder and CEO of Coinbase, the largest US crypto trading exchange, is in sixth place in the ranking with an estimated fortune of $2.6 billion. The trading exchange is particularly popular with retail investors because of its simple user interface. According to Forbes, Armstrong owns about 19 percent of Coinbase’s shares.
4th place: Michael Saylor
With an estimated fortune of $3.2 billion, American Michael Saylor is in fourth place in the rankings. The CEO of software company MicroStrategy began investing in Bitcoin in August 2020. Since then, Saylor has become one of the world’s best-known Bitcoin advocates. According to Investopedia, as of February 2023, MicroStrategy owns approximately 123,500 Bitcoins, which corresponds to a fortune of approximately $3.2 billion.
3rd place: Song Chi-Hyung
The South Korean is in third place with an estimated fortune of 3.7 billion US dollars. Song Chi-Hyung is the CEO of Dunamu, a blockchain securities trading provider, and founder of Upbit, the largest crypto trading platform in South Korea.
2nd place: Gary Wang
Gary Wang, co-founder of the collapsed crypto trading platform FTX, still has a fortune of around $4.2 billion, according to Forbes. In April last year, his fortune was around $5.9 billion, but in the wake of the FTX scandal, his fortune has decreased by $1.7 billion.
1st place: Changpeng Zhao
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao once again leads the rankings – but with significantly less wealth than a year ago. In the wake of the crypto crisis at the end of 2022, CZ lost a staggering $82 billion in assets, according to statista. CZ now has an estimated fortune of $10.5 billion, according to Forbes. The Canadian is the founder and CEO of the world’s largest crypto trading platform, Binance. US authorities recently filed charges against Binance in connection with an alleged violation of US law regarding the trading of crypto derivatives.
