Crypto Space Welcomes its Twelve Billionaires

Several prominent names in the crypto space have made their way onto Forbes’ 2021 Billionaire’s list. This year’s ranking includes twelve crypto notables which is a huge increase from four that were included last year.

The American business magazine has been compiling lists of the wealthiest billionaires in the world since 1987. The first-ever person on its list was Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, a Japanese businessman, and real-estate mogul. At that time his wealth was estimated to be about $20 billion by Forbes.

This year apart from Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, etc. the magazine also included crypto billionaires who are directly linked to the crypto market. While Musk could pass as a crypto billionaire, he is more of a vocal supporter of crypto than someone instilled in the industry. This list of crypto billionaires is specific to those who have worked with cryptocurrency exchanges or are investors in crypto startups.

Satoshi Nakamoto was not included in the crypto billionaires list of 2021 either. If calculated at the current exchange rates Nakamoto’s worth could be estimated at above $59 billion.

The richest crypto billionaire on Forbes’ list of 12 crypto billionaires is Sam Bankman-Fried who is the Chief Executive Officer of FTX Exchange. Sam, estimated with a worth of $8.7 billion is followed by Brian Armstrong and Winklevoss at the second and third positions, respectively. Armstrong who is the Chief Executive Officer of Coinbase is estimated to have about $6.5 billion. The Winklevoss twins are not far behind with a net worth of $6 billion.

On the fourth position is Ripple Labs’ cofounder Chris Larsen with a net worth of $3.5 billion. Followed by him is MicroStrategy’s chief executive officer Michael Saylor with $2.3 billion in wealth. Jed McCaleb, another of the cofounder of Ripple is also on the billionaires’ list for having about $2 billion.

After McCaleb, the position is shared by Fred Ersham, cofounder of Coinbase, and Binance’s ChangPeng Zhao who both hold about $1.9 billion.

Barry Silbert of Digital Currency Group, Mathew Roszak from Bloq, and venture capitalist Tim Draper have also made it to the list. Silbert and Roszak are estimated with a worth of $1.6 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively.

However, this list might not be conclusive as there are many crypto billionaires who have been left out.

In the world of cryptocurrency, riches can be made overnight, thus it shall be exciting to wait for Forbes’ list of 2022 crypto billionaires. It shall be interesting to see how many maintain their positions on the list and how many more are added to it.

iThe extent of the crypto industry is likely to get much bigger followed by approval of a bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Additionally, corporations such as Coinbase going public are all factors that increase the likelihood of many more crypto billionaires following year.