Perhaps no field offers a more colorful profile to the global elite than cryptocurrencies. Over the past decade, the digital asset industry has turned geeks, thieves, corporate suits, and secretive, anonymous internet users into billionaires in almost equal measure.
For example, consider the anonymous hacker who stole $2 million worth of BTC and ETH from the now-closed Hong Kong cryptocurrency exchange Gatecoin in 2016. The Gatecoin hacker hasn’t touched his coins since running away with the funds eight years ago. Today’s loot is worth a lot. $542 million— and counting.
Then there’s Rain Lohmus, an Estonian businessman who made just $75,000 from Ethereum’s 250,000 ETH presale in 2014. Lohmus has now become the world’s largest individual ETH holder in just one issue. I lost my private key With his Ethereum wallet a few years ago. His cryptocurrency holdings, which Lohmus will likely never be able to access, are currently estimated at approx. $869 million.
But even that enormous wealth won’t account for the final share of the cryptocurrency’s richest people in 2024. It’s not even close.
Below is the list decryption We’ve compiled a list of people in the cryptocurrency industry who currently have the biggest fortunes (and what anonymous wallets we think they hold). The list was determined by referring to on-chain data analyzed by intelligence agencies. arkham and NansenData collected by forbes and bloombergand publicly available information.
The listings look a lot different than they did two years ago (when NFTs were most popular). Something hot and new The first word most people associate with FTX is “basketball.”
For example, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, the second richest person in cryptocurrency in 2022, would still be at the top of the list if he had not received any cryptocurrency. 25 years in federal prison Due to fraud and conspiracy last week. A confiscation order was received from the court. $11 billion.
Many other crypto elites lost their billionaire status during the last bear market. For example, Digital Currency Group (DCG) founder Barry Silbert is worth over $3 billion as of 2022. bloomberg— later took a huge hit to his net worth after becoming personally involved in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit between two companies. New York Attorney General and former business partner Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Most of Silbert’s net worth comes from his 40% stake in DCG, which is currently at risk due to debt and legal issues.
Song Chi-hyung and Kim Hyung-nyeon, co-founders of South Korean cryptocurrency giant Dunamu, had assets of $3.7 billion and $1.9 billion, respectively, in 2022 based on their shares in the company. However, Dunamu’s profits through 2023 will be shriveled More than 80%Both were eliminated from cryptocurrency’s Uber Elite.
Some of the factors that fall from billionaire status have more to do with methodology than bad luck. For example, Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin once said estimated It manages nearly $5 billion worth of cryptocurrency assets. However, most of that estimate comes from rumors that Rubin holds a significant portion of the total ETH in circulation.
In ~ Agreement 2022However, Lubin said he never owned “even close to 0.5%” of ETH’s circulating supply. Given Ethereum’s history (and assuming Rubin is telling the truth), this means the cryptocurrency’s founder has never owned $1 billion worth of ETH. Moreover, he appears to have used a significant portion of his ETH fortune to raise funds. ConsenSysThis is a blockchain project incubator he founded in 2014. (decryption Fall out when you’re tired From ConsenSys in 2022.)
Perhaps surprisingly, even Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, the most well-known figure in the cryptocurrency industry, is not wealthy enough to hold the industry’s top job. Of course, if he hadn’t been so kind, he probably would have donated nearly $1.5 billion in 2021 through ETH and Shiba Inu to COVID-stricken India.
Buterin is currently $863 million Cryptocurrency value is overwhelmingly in ETH. He also owns the Ethereum software company for an undisclosed amount. starkware—but not enough to get over the $2 billion hurdle (the cutoff for this year’s richest list).
Without further ado, we’ve ranked the richest players in the cryptocurrency industry by the amount of wealth they have amassed solely from cryptocurrencies and stakes in crypto companies.
1) Satoshi Nakamoto ($76.67 billion)
The king of crypto kings. Bitcoin’s always elusive, anonymous founder owns part of it. 1.1 million BTC—I’ve never touched it before.
2) Zhao Changpeng (USD 47.7 billion)
Binance’s founder reportedly owns 90% of his cryptocurrency exchange. It is the largest in the world. Even after reaching an agreement $4.3 billion lawsuit Having pleaded guilty to money laundering with the U.S. government in the fall, he remains the richest (confirmed) person in the cryptocurrency industry.
3) Brian Armstrong ($11.5 billion)
Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong owns about 16% of the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange. 4 times the value Last year.
4) Anonymous Bitcoin Whale #1 ($6.59 billion)
Little is known about this cryptocurrency wallet, as analysts believe it does not belong to any cryptocurrency company or government. This whale thus became the largest anonymous Bitcoin holder besides Satoshi. After five years of dormancy, it has begun moving billions of dollars worth of BTC. last week.
5) Mt. Gox Hackers ($5.57 billion)
In 2011, the initial Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox’s explosive hack shook the cryptocurrency world. Thieves stole hundreds of thousands of BTC, now worth tens of billions of dollars. Most of the funds were stored in warehouses. wallet It has remained dormant since then. Last summer, federal prosecutors charged Two Russian men for exploitation.
6) Michael Saylor ($5 billion)
Saylor, who is publicly one of Bitcoin’s most ardent advocates, founded MicroStrategy. Worth $13 billion of BTC. Not only does Saylor own about 12% of MicroStrategy, he claims: personally own Worth $1.2 billion of BTC.
7) Anonymous Bitcoin Whale #2 ($4.13 billion)
This major anonymous Bitcoin holder controls 0.31% of all BTC in circulation. whale first surface It was active in October 2021 and as recently as January.
8) Anonymous Bitcoin Whale #3 ($3.76 billion)
The next big Bitcoin whale isn’t done yet. single transaction from I received 53,880 BTC in the spring of 2014.
9) Anonymous Bitcoin Whale #4 ($3.73 billion)
In September 2022, this cryptocurrency wallet received over 54,000 BTC from Bitfinex. It completed several transactions through 2023 before going quiet.
10) Anonymous Bitcoin Whale #5 ($3.6 billion)
In 2018, this Bitcoin whale received over 51,000 BTC. multiple transactions— .27% of all Bitcoin in circulation. Since then, it hasn’t even been glimpsed.
11) Fred Ersam ($3.2 billion)
The Coinbase co-founder later paradigmCryptocurrency Investment He also helped start it. Most of his wealth comes from the 6% of Coinbase he still owns.
12) Chris Larson ($3.2 billion)
Larsen co-founded the cryptocurrency company Ripple. XRP Token. later Larsen, who endured brutal litigation from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding XRP, saw the SEC file a lawsuit against him as an individual. fell In the fall. Landmark lawsuit against Ripple continues but not signed look encouraging For the company.
13) Matthew Roszak ($3.1 billion)
Roszak He is the co-founder and chairman of Bloq, a startup that provides consulting to clients such as traditional banks on how to store digital assets.
14) Anonymous Bitcoin Whale #6 ($3.07 billion)
The last Bitcoin whale on the list received By the end of 2019, there were 44,000 BTC. I’ve been inactive since then.
15) Jed McCaleb ($2.9 billion)
McCaleb is Mt. It has a famous history in the cryptocurrency field, including founding Gox. He founded the company after co-founding Ripple Labs. Shortly thereafter, Ripple competitor Stellar emerged. Most of his wealth comes from XRP. He accumulated it while at Ripple.
16) Cameron Winklevoss ($2.7 billion)
The man who once accused Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the idea of Facebook with his identical twin Tyler (below) has found a second act in life as a cryptocurrency evangelist. Winklevii co-founded the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini. got caught in a snare Cryptocurrency lending company Genesis went bankrupt after the cryptocurrency market plunged in 2022. Crucially (for a list like this), the two brothers own about 70,000 BTC. This is enough to make both of them billions of dollars in their own right. .
17) Tyler Winklevoss ($2.7 billion)
See above.
18) Tim Draper ($2 billion)
Draper comes from the more traditional Silicon Valley venture capital world. Approximately 30,000 seized BTC was purchased from a dark web marketplace. silk road At the 2014 U.S. government fire sale, each coin sold for about $630.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
