The crypto sector is only around 12 years old but it has enabled those who saw the potential early enough to take a position in an aspect of crypto technology and make themselves incredibly wealthy in the process.
With reference to Forbes, top of the list of richest crypto billionaires is Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of the largest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume. It is estimated that Changpeng Zhao (known as CZ) has a personal fortune of $65 billion, which puts him way ahead of anyone else in crypto, and also ranks him as the 19th richest person in the world.
Binance hosts around 2 thirds of all crypto transactions on centralised exchanges, and according to Forbes, $16 billion in sales went through the platform last year. The crypto exchange giant is valued at more than $90 billion, and CZ is said to own at least 70% of the company.
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and co-founder of FTX, comes in second wealthiest among the crypto billionaires. He owns half of the FTX crypto exchange, another of the biggest exchanges in crypto. His personal fortune is estimated at $24 million.
He shares some similarities with CZ in that they are both heads of large crypto exchanges, but they also both publicly say that their fortunes do not mean a great deal. Bankman-Fried has even vowed to give away most of his fortune at some point in the future.
FTX raised $400 million in a funding round in January, which valued it at $32 billion. Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX, and an ex Google software engineer, is also extremely wealthy, with a fortune of $5.9 billion.
Brian Armstrong, CEO and co-founder of Coinbase, is yet another leader of a massive cryptocurrency exchange. The Coinbase CEO took his company public in April 2021 and saw it achieve a more than $100 billion valuation as he did so. His personal fortune amounts to around $6.6 billion.
His co-founder at Coinbase, Fred Ehrsam is worth around $2.1 billion. He also runs Paradigm, an investment company that invests in the protocols and companies of tomorrow.
The following are also notable for their personal fortunes in crypto:
Chris Larson – Ripple – $4.3 billion
Cameron Winklevoss – Gemini – $4 billion
Tyler Winklevoss – Gemini – $4 billion
Song Chi-Hyung – Upbit – $3.7 billion
Barry Silbert – Digital Currency Group – $3.2 billion
Jed McCaleb – Ripple/Stellar – $2.5 billion
Nikil Viswanathan – Alchemy – $2.4 billion
Joseph Lau – Alchemy – $2.4 billion
Devin Finzer – Opensea – $2.2 billion
Alex Atallah – Opensea – $2.2 billion
Kim Hyoung-Nyon – Upbit – $1.9 billion
Michael Sayler – Microstrategy – $1.6 billion
Matthew Roszak – Entrepreneur – $1. 4 billion
Tim Draper – Entrepreneur – $1.2 billion
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
