Who are the richest crypto billionaires in the world? Here’s a list of the wealthiest crypto and blockchain billionaires traders in history.
Cryptocurrency investors have greatly benefited from the online market. Bitcoin was initiated in 2009, and since then, it has been competitive globally. Bitcoin is considered a risky asset class and requires strategic analysis. Bitcoin is a digital asset and payment system with a market capitalization of around $747.34 billion as of April 12, 2022.
It is considered by many to be one of the most successful digital currencies ever created. The first-ever bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) was launched in October 2021, pushing the cryptocurrency to new all-time highs.
Bitcoin’s stratospheric rise since 2009 has created a surprising and diverse set of millionaires. These millionaires have made money by creating products to grow Bitcoin’s still-nascent ecosystem. For example, some have created exchanges for trading cryptocurrency and its derivatives. Others have used it to create financial products and tokens that have minted millions. Their products and services have benefited from a surge in the popularity and price of Bitcoin.
The majority of investors in 2022 are grinning bigger since the digital coins now have a collective worth of more than $1 trillion. There is increased interest from the public in increased earnings from cryptocurrency operations. The world is witnessing many crypto players joining the top 100 list of wealthy people. The majority of Bitcoin millionaires made their fortune by developing products.
Rather than the Musks, Zuckerbergs, and Gates Ellisons of the world, the Cryptocurrency ecosystem has created billionaires on its own. Developers, investors, and founders of trading exchanges, oil the wheels of the crypto ecosystem. Only a couple of names listed in the rankings have discussed or disclosed their actual holding amounts of virtual currencies.
The rankings by Forbes are also indicative of the relatively nascent nature of the industry and include individuals who founded companies and coins but are considered billionaires and multi-millionaires today based on market valuations, trading volumes, and holdings in cryptocurrencies. It is a near certainty that we’ve missed some people and that some of our estimates are wide of the mark.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Launched in 2009, Bitcoin is the first and remains the most successful blockchain-based cryptocurrency in the world.
- The price of Bitcoin is volatile, ranging from under $10 in 2010 to $40,323 on April 12, 2022.
- Most top Bitcoin billionaires became rich by creating products and services to grow the cryptocurrency’s ecosystem.
- This overall price increase has also created Bitcoin billionaires. These are the early adopters who recognized a lucrative opportunity, started accumulating or mining in the early days, and held on.
The article acknowledges the top 20 cryptocurrency investors who have generated billions in the business. The list also seeks to evaluate crypto players in their overall earnings, such as business operations and investments.
Note that where the individuals are paired are counted singly which in all makes them the richest 20 people in Cryptocurrency in 2022.
1. Changpeng Zhao (CZ) – $65 Billion – $96 Billion
- Net worth: $65 billion
- Source of wealth: Binance
- Citizenship: Canada
Changpeng Zhao widely known by the initials of his “CZ” is the richest crypto trader in the world now. CZ is the founder of Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Zhao’s net worth was $96 billion in January 2022. Forbes also estimates Zhao’s net worth o be around $65 billion. The publication writes that Zhao’s fortune could be “significantly higher” because their estimate does not take into account his personal crypto wealth, which includes his holdings of Bitcoin and Binance Coin, the cryptocurrency used for transactions at Binance. In April 2021, Forbes estimated Zhao’s net worth to be $1.6 billion.
Zhao, who immigrated to Canada at the age of 13 from China, came to Bitcoin via a poker game with friends. He went all-in on cryptocurrencies thereafter and even sold his apartment for Bitcoin in 2014. Binance, which was started in 2017, handles transactions that run into billions of dollars on a daily basis. While it may not be as well-known as Coinbase to U.S. customers, Binance is bigger and offers more coins and derivatives to customers than its competitor. Bloomberg reports that it generated $20 billion in revenues in 2021.
The exchange’s nimble ascent has taken a toll on its regulatory standing. It is under regulatory scrutiny in major financial jurisdictions and has been forced to operate without a headquarters. Zhao told Bloomberg that he welcomes crypto regulation. As far as wealth is concerned, he remains unfazed by his billionaire status. “I don’t care about wealth, money, rankings,” he told Bloomberg, adding that he is prepared to give away most of his wealth before he dies.
2. Satoshi Nakamoto – $48 Billion
- Net worth: $48 billion
- Source of wealth: Bitcoin
- Citizenship: Japanese
The true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is unknown, but they’re credited as the person who first developed Bitcoin. The latest estimates predict that Nakamoto has 1 million Bitcoin, which in today’s money translates to about $60 billion, making him/her/them by far the richest in crypto.
Satoshi is of Japanese origin. Satoshi is the brain behind Bitcoin development. The idea of Bitcoin development started in 2009 before a group of innovators actualized its development. The specific developers of Bitcoin are unclear, and this is challenging to acknowledge. There is an instance where an article by Satoshi was developed with the writer not being defined. The cryptocurrency offers investors liquid cash to trade in the market. He created the blockchain database and participated in the original implementation of the Bitcoin reference. Satoshi designed the Bitcoin white paper, which has gained popularity among investors. According to Forbes, he is worth $48 billion with the ownership of 1.1 million Bitcoins.
3. Sam Bankman-Fried – $24 Billion
- Net worth: $24 billion
- Source of wealth: FTX
- Citizenship: U.S.
Sam Bankman-Fried is one of the richest people we know in crypto, thanks to his FTX exchange and Alameda Research trading firm. Sam Bankman-Fried’s ascent to crypto billionaire status has been fairly rapid. The MIT grad moved from Hong Kong to the more crypto-friendly Bahamas in late 2021 and founded FTX, one of the world’s most popular crypto exchanges, in 2019.
The startup’s backers include crypto VC shop Paradigm (headed by Coinbase founder Fred Ehrsam, another crypto billionaire), venture capital firm Sequoia, buyout firm Thoma Bravo and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board.
FTX raised $900 million from the likes of Coinbase Ventures and SoftBank in July 2021 at an $18 billion valuation. FTX’s U.S. operations were also recently valued by investors, at $8 billion. A professed adherent of effective altruism–the utilitarian-inflected notion of doing the best possible–Bankman-Fried has vowed to give away his entire fortune over his lifetime. He owns around half of FTX and more than $7 billion worth of FTT, the platform’s native token.
FTX differentiates itself from the competition by offering a slate of innovative products unavailable at other exchanges. This mix includes sophisticated derivatives, digital tokens of physical stock, and pre-initial public offering (IPO) contracts.
Bankman-Fried generated headlines when he made a donation of more than $5 million to current U.S. President Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020. He is a California native and vegan who calls himself an effective altruist—someone who maximizes his social impact across a broad range of societal initiatives.
4. Brian Armstrong – $6.6 Billion – $9.69 Billion
- Net worth: $6.6 billion
- Source of wealth: Coinbase
- Citizenship: U.S.
Brian Armstrong is the founder of Coinbase, North America’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. He co-founded the exchange in 2012 after quitting his job as a software engineer at Airbnb. Armstrong has a 19% stake in Coinbase and is estimated to be worth $10.4 billion by Forbes in January 2022.
Forbes estimates Armstrong’s net worth to be around $6.6 billion. In its billionaire index, Bloomberg had Armstrong’s net worth as $9.69 billion in the same time period.
Due to its easy-to-use interface and credibility, Coinbase is considered the gateway for retail investors to join the crypto ecosystem. The exchange has suffered many hiccups, such as halts in trading while attempting to scale operations in the midst of crypto volatility. The exchange went public in April 2021 and had a total market capitalization of $41.736 billion at the close of trading on April 11, 2022.17 Armstrong has said that he started Coinbase because he wanted the world to have a “global, open financial system that drove innovation and freedom.”
A recognizable figure for his plain T-shirts and bald pate, Armstrong raised eyebrows in 2020 after demanding his employees refrain from political discussion at work.
In January, the 39-year-old dropped $133 million on a Bel-Air mansion, one of the city’s priciest home transactions to date. More recently, Armstrong has been advocating against the EU Parliament’s proposed crypto legislation.
5. Gary Wang – $5.6 Billion
- Net worth: $5.9 billion
- Source of wealth: FTX
- Citizenship: U.S.
The co-founder and chief technology officer of FTX, the press-shy Wang launched the crypto exchange with Bankman-Fried in 2019. Wang holds a 16% stake in FTX’s global business and over $600 million worth of FTT, the native token of FTX. Before going into crypto, Wang was a software engineer at Google, where he helped build the online booking platform Google Flights. He studied math and computer science at MIT.
6. Chris Larsen – $4.3 Billion
- Net worth: $4.3 billion
- Source of wealth: Ripple
- Citizenship: U.S
Chris Larsen is the co-founder and chairman of crypto payment protocol Ripple and the cryptocurrency XRP. Ripple counts American Express and Santander among its 100-plus customers. Larsen stepped down as Ripple CEO in December 2016 but remains executive chairman. His estimated net worth is $4.3 billion.
Larsen has kept busy fighting against a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit–first filed in December 2020–that alleges Ripple’s initial coin offering was an unlawful offer and sale of unregistered securities. Still winding its way through federal courts, the case is perceived by many crypto watchers as a landmark one for future token sales. Larsen and Ripple have denied wrongdoing.
Larsen has partnered with climate groups to launch a campaign–“Change the Code, Not the Climate”–to pressure the Bitcoin community to reduce the digital asset’s heavy carbon footprint.
7. Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss – $4 Billion
- Net worth: $4 billion each
- Source of wealth: Bitcoin
- Citizenship: U.S.
The twin brothers–best known as Mark Zuckerberg’s college nemeses (as immortalized in the Hollywood film The Social Network)–have turned their $65 million settlement with Zuck into digital gold, amassing crypto fortunes of roughly $4 billion apiece.
The siblings, who began buying bitcoin in 2012, have since diversified their digital assets portfolios, acquiring other cryptocurrencies and launching the crypto exchange Gemini. The duo also owns the digital art auction platform Nifty Gateway, a beneficiary of last year’s NFT craze (and the target of a lawsuit filed by art collector Amir Soleymani in October 2021, who accused the platform of changing its terms of sale; Nifty Gateway alleges Soleymani owes them $650,000).
9. Song Chi-hyung – $3.7 Billion
- Net worth: $3.7 billion
- Source of wealth: Upbit
- Citizenship: South Korea
The founder of South Korea’s leading crypto exchange, Upbit, Chi-Hyung has cashed in on South Korea’s booming, $46 billion crypto market. He’s estimated to own about a quarter of Upbit’s parent company, Dunamu, which was valued at $17 billion last November when Hybe, the agency behind K-pop sensation BTS, bought a 2.5% stake. Qualcomm, the U.S. semiconductor giant, previously held 6% of Dunamu.
10. Barry Silbert – $3.2 Billion
- Net worth: $3.2 billion
- Source of wealth: Digital Currency Group
- Citizenship: U.S.
The founder of investment group Digital Currency Group, Silbert has built a diversified crypto conglomerate. His investment firm controls Grayscale, which manages some $28 billion of crypto assets, as well as CoinDesk, a piece of popular crypto news, and events company. Through numerous subsidiaries, Silbert’s DCG has invested in more than 200 crypto startups. Prior to crypto, Silbert was an investment banker and entrepreneur who sold the stock trading platform, Second Market, to Nasdaq in 2015 for an undisclosed amount.
11. Jed McCaleb – $2.5 Billion
- Net worth: $2.5 billion
- Source of wealth: Ripple, Stellar
- Citizenship: U.S.
McCaleb was an early pioneer in the blockchain space who helped launch three well-known crypto firms. In 2010 he created Mt. Gox, the first major Bitcoin exchange, which he sold a year later before it was hacked. McCaleb co-founded Ripple in 2012 but soon left over reported disagreements with fellow founders. His next venture in 2014 was co-founding Stellar, a Ripple competitor that aims to speed up cross-border payments. Most of McCaleb’s wealth comes from the estimated 3.4 billion XRP he still holds, from the original 9 billion XRP he pocketed as a Ripple founder. His estimated net worth is $3.2 billion.
12. Nikil Viswanathan and Joseph Lau – $2.4 Billion
- Net worth: $2.4 billion each
- Source of wealth: Alchemy
- Citizenship: U.S. (both)
The cofounders of blockchain decacorn Alchemy, Viswanathan and Lau first met in 2011 at Stanford while serving as TAs for a computer science class; they have since built over 10 products together. Their first hit, meetup app Down To Lunch, was briefly the Apple App Store’s top social networking app in April 2016. After discovering crypto, the duo started Alchemy in 2017 as a toolkit for blockchain entrepreneurs and developers.
Today, Alchemy is a leading development platform for Web3 applications, including NFT powerhouse OpenSea and decentralized exchange Kyber. In February, the company raised $200 million at a $10.2 billion valuation, less than four months after it was valued at $3.5 billion in a fundraising round.
14. Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah – $2.2 Billion
- Net worth: $2.2 billion
- Source of wealth: OpenSea
- Citizenship: U.S. (both)
The 30-somethings cofounded blockchain startup OpenSea, an early player in the booming NFT market. OpenSea serves as a peer-to-peer platform for users to create, buy and sell non-fungible tokens. In 2018, the duo entered the Y Combinator accelerator program with the idea of paying people in crypto to share their Wi-Fi hotspots. After discovering CryptoKitties–the Ethereum-run collectibles which attracted a cult-like following–they pivoted to the idea of a marketplace for nascent NFTs, which exploded in popularity last year. OpenSea raised capital in January at a $13.3 billion valuation—up from $1.5 billion just six months earlier. Finzer and Atallah each hold an estimated 18.5% stake in the company.
16. Fred Ehrsam – $2.1 Billion
- Net worth: $2.1 billion
- Source of wealth: Coinbase
- Citizenship: U.S.
A co-founder of Coinbase, Ehrsam now runs Paradigm, which invests mainly in crypto companies and new tokens. In January, Paradigm invested in Citadel Securities, one of the largest market-makers in U.S. equity trading markets. The 34-year-old Ehrsam left Coinbase in 2017 but remains on the board and still holds a 6% stake in the company. Before discovering crypto, Ehrsam worked as a foreign exchange trader at Goldman Sachs. The young mogul partly credits his crypto success to being a “hardcore gamer” in high school.
17. Kim Hyoung-nyon – $1.9 Billion
- Net worth: $1.9 billion
- Source of wealth: Upbit
- Citizenship: South Korea
The executive vice president of South Korea’s Dunamu, Hyoung-nyon owns an estimated 13% of South Korea’s leading crypto exchange, which he co-founded a decade ago with fellow crypto billionaire Song Chi-hyung.
18. Michael Saylor – $1.6 Billion
- Net worth: $1.6 billion
- Source of wealth: MicroStrategy
- Citizenship: U.S.
Bitcoin has attracted numerous unconventional investors over the years. None, however, has the zeal and enthusiasm of Michael Saylor, CEO of software firm MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR). The firm began acquiring the cryptocurrency in August 2020 by snapping up Bitcoin worth $250 million. At that time, the firm said it was buying the cryptocurrency to make better use of the cash holdings on its balance sheet.
Over time, Saylor has become a fierce supporter of Bitcoin and appeared at news and cryptocurrency conferences to evangelize its benefits and use cases. By December 2021, MicroStrategy had increased its holdings in Bitcoin to $3.5 billion, swooping in to buy the cryptocurrency during price dips. The strategy has served Saylor and his company well.
MicroStrategy’s stock price skyrocketed by more than 337% (as of December 2021) after it announced the Bitcoin acquisition. Meanwhile, Forbes estimates Saylor’s net worth to be $1.6 billion as a result of his bet on Bitcoin.
19. Matthew Roszak – $1.4 Billion
- Net worth: $1.4 billion
- Source of wealth: Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies
- Citizenship: U.S.
Roszak began buying bitcoin in 2012 and participated in early initial coin offerings, buying up tokens such as Mastercoin, Factom, and Maidsafe in 2013. Roszak has also invested in various crypto startups, including popular exchanges Coinbase and Kraken. Prior to crypto, Roszak worked as a venture capitalist at firms like SilkRoad Equity (where he settled SEC charges of insider trading) and in private equity for Advent International in the United Kingdom. A true believer, Roszak recently co-led an initiative to give every member of Congress $50 worth of digital assets and says he gave Richard Branson and Bill Clinton their first bitcoins.
20. Tim Draper – $1.2 Billion
- Net worth: $1.2 billion
- Source of wealth: Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies
- Citizenship: U.S.
A venture capitalist by trade, Draper first invested in Bitcoin in 2012. Two years later, in 2014, he bought 29,656 bitcoins for $18.7 million–or just $632 per coin–from the U.S. Marshals, in an auction of tokens it had confiscated from the Silk Road, the infamous online market for illicit goods and services. Earlier this year, Draper told Forbes he believes Bitcoin would hit $250,000 by the end of 2022; it currently trades under $50,000.
