\n<\/p>\n
I<\/abbr><\/p>\n t\u2019s been a wild twelve months for the world of cryptocurrencies, from the Elon Musk-fueled ascent of Dogecoin, to Web3 innovations and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), to the wild swings in Bitcoin and other crypto tokens. <\/p>\n Amid all the action, there\u2019s also no shortage of money to be made in the $2 trillion crypto economy. Just ask the record 19 billionaires\u20147 more than last year\u2014on Forbes<\/em>\u2019 annual World\u2019s Billionaires list, published Tuesday, who made their money from cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. <\/p>\n Newcomers to the list include the founders of Web3 infrastructure company Alchemy and the founders of OpenSea, a marketplace for nonfungible tokens. The three richest on the list\u2013Changpeng Zhao, Sam Bankman-Fried and Brian Armstrong\u2013all helm cryptocurrency exchanges.<\/p>\n Net worths are as of March 11, 2022.<\/sup><\/p>\n Photographer: Bryan van der Beek\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n \u00a9 2021 Bloomberg Finance LP<\/small> Crypto\u2019s richest person, Binance founder and CEO \u201cCZ\u201d is the 19th richest person in the world. Forbes<\/em> estimates that he owns at least 70% of Binance, the leading global platform for crypto trading. Last year, the company reportedly<\/a> facilitated about two-thirds of all trading volume handled by centralized changes, generating estimated revenue north of $16 billion. Based on those estimates, Forbes<\/em> has raised its evaluation of CZ\u2019s wealth from $1.9 billion last year. The 44-year-old also holds a small chunk of Bitcoin and an undisclosed amount of BNB, Binance\u2019s native token. Binance announced in February that it plans to spend $200 million to buy a minority stake in Forbes <\/em>via a SPAC transaction.<\/p>\n CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The 30-year-old moved from Hong Kong to the more crypto-friendly Bahamas in late 2021 alongside his exchange FTX, which raised<\/a> $400 million in January at a $32 billion valuation. The startup\u2019s 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\u2019s U.S. operations were also recently valued by investors, at $8 billion. A professed adherent of effective altruism\u2013the utilitarian-inflected notion of doing the most good possible\u2013Bankman-Fried has vowed<\/a> 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\u2019s native token.<\/p>\n Getty Images for TechCrunch<\/small><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The CEO and founder of Coinbase took the crypto exchange public through a direct listing in April 2021 at a stunning $100 billion valuation. Its market capitalization is about half that today, still good enough to make Armstrong\u2013with his 19% stake\u2013the third wealthiest person in crypto. A recognizable figure for his plain T-shirts and bald pate, Armstrong raised eyebrows in 2020 after demanding<\/a> his employees to refrain from political discussion at work. In January, the 39-year-old dropped $133 million on a Bel-Air mansion, one of the city\u2019s priciest home transactions to date. More recently, Armstrong has been advocating<\/a> against the EU Parliament\u2019s proposed crypto legislation. <\/p>\n The cofounder 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\u2019s global business and over $600 million worth FTT, the native token of FTX. Before going into crypto, Wang was a software engineer at Google, where he helped build online booking platform Google Flights. He studied math and computer science at MIT. <\/p>\n The cofounder and executive chairman of blockchain company Ripple, whose XRP token is currently the 8th largest cryptocurrency, Larsen has kept busy fighting against a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit\u2013first filed<\/a> in December 2020\u2013that alleges Ripple\u2019s 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. Separate from his legal challenges, the 61-year-old Larsen has partnered with climate groups to launch a campaign\u2013\u201cChange the Code, Not the Climate\u201d\u2013to pressure the Bitcoin community to reduce the digital asset\u2019s heavy carbon footprint. <\/p>\n Patrick McMullan via Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The twin brothers\u2013best known as Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s college nemeses (as immortalized in Hollywood film The Social Network<\/em>)\u2013have 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 crypto exchange Gemini. The duo also own digital art auction platform Nifty Gateway, a beneficiary of last year\u2019s 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). <\/p>\n The founder of South Korea\u2019s leading crypto exchange, Upbit, Chi-hyung has cashed in<\/a> on South Korea\u2019s booming, $46 billion crypto market. He\u2019s estimated to own about a quarter of Upbit\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP<\/small><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n 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 popular crypto news and events company. Through numerous subsidiaries, Silbert\u2019s DCG has invested in more than 200 crypto startups. Prior to crypto, Silbert was an investment banker and entrepreneur who sold stock trading platform Second Market to Nasdaq in 2015 for an undisclosed amount.<\/p>\n McCaleb made most of his fortune from Ripple Labs and XRP, the payments-focused cryptocurrency project he cofounded in 2012; McCaleb left the project in 2013 after a falling out with Larsen and other team members. Since then, McCaleb has sold much of his XRP in periodic increments, adhering to a 2014 separation agreement he struck with Ripple Labs. He\u2019s the founder and chief technology officer of cryptocurrency Stellar.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s top social networking app in April 2016. After discovering the blockchain, 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<\/a> $200 million at a $10.2 billion valuation, less than four months after it was valued<\/a> at $3.5 billion in a fundraising round.<\/p>\n 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\u2013the Ethereum-run collectibles which attracted a cult-like following\u2013they 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\u2014up from $1.5 billion just six months earlier. Finzer and Atallah each hold an estimated 18.5% stake in the company.<\/p>\n A cofounder of Coinbase, Ehrsam now runs Paradigm, which invests mainly in crypto companies and new tokens. In January, Paradigm invested<\/a> in Citadel, 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 \u201chardcore gamer\u201d in highschool. <\/p>\n The executive vice president of South Korea\u2019s Dunamu, Hyoung-nyon owns an estimated 13% of South Korea\u2019s leading crypto exchange, which he cofounded a decade ago with fellow crypto billionaire Song Chi-hyung.<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Saylor has turned MicroStrategy, the business software company he cofounded in 1989, into a Bitcoin proxy. In 2020 alone, the crypto enthusiast oversaw MicroStrategy\u2019s purchase of over 70,000 bitcoins\u2013at a cost of roughly $1.1 billion\u2013using cash reserves and borrowed funds. The bet has paid off as Bitcoin\u2019s value has soared. MicroStrategy\u2019s stock has quadrupled the last two years, returning Saylor to the three-comma-club. (A dot-com era billionaire, the 57-year-old Saylor saw his fortune plummet during the dot-com crash and in the wake of an accounting scandal.) Ever hungry for bitcoin, Saylor\u2019s MicroStrategy announced<\/a> in late March that it took on a $205 million loan to buy more of the leading cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2018 Bloomberg Finance LP<\/small><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n 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.<\/p>\n Sportsfile via Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n 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\u2013or just $632 per coin\u2013from 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 <\/em>he believes Bitcoin would hit $250,000 by the end of 2022; it currently trades under $50,000.<\/p>\nMeet the eccentric personalities and successful companies of crypto\u2019s billionaire club. <\/h3>\n
1.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Changpeng Zhao<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $65 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: Binance<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: Canada<\/h4>\n
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n2.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Sam Bankman-Fried<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $24 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: FTX<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S.<\/h4>\n
\n3.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Brian Armstrong<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $6.6 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: Coinbase<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S.<\/h4>\n
\n4.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Gary Wang<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $5.9 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: FTX<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S.<\/h4>\n
\n5.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Chris Larsen <\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $4.3 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: Ripple<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S<\/h4>\n
\n6.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $4 billion each<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: Bitcoin<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S.<\/h4>\n
\n8.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Song Chi-hyung<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $3.7 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: Upbit<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: South Korea<\/h4>\n
\n9.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Barry Silbert<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $3.2 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: Digital Currency Group<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S.<\/h4>\n
\n10.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Jed McCaleb<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $2.5 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: Ripple, Stellar<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S.<\/h4>\n
\n11.<\/em> <\/sub><\/h3>\n
Nikil Viswanathan and Joseph Lau<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $2.4 billion each<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: Alchemy<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S. (both)<\/h4>\n
\n13.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $2.2 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: OpenSea<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S. (both)<\/h4>\n
\n15.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Fred Ehrsam<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $2.1 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: Coinbase<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S.<\/h4>\n
\n16.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Kim Hyoung-nyon<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $1.9 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: Upbit<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: South Korea<\/h4>\n
\n17.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Michael Saylor<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $1.6 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: MicroStrategy<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S.<\/h4>\n
\n18.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Matthew Roszak<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $1.4 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S.<\/h4>\n
\n19.<\/em><\/sub><\/h3>\n
Tim Draper<\/h3>\n
\nNet worth: $1.2 billion<\/h4>\n
Source of wealth: Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies<\/h4>\n
Citizenship: U.S.<\/h4>\n
\nMORE FROM FORBES BILLIONAIRES 2022<\/strong><\/h4>\n