Forbes published a list of the world's wealthiest crypto investors. One way or another, the world's most wealthy crypto-owners have accumulated their fortunes via the creation of major cryptocurrency ventures and exchange platforms where users exchange bitcoin for cash or other cryptos. Several others are cryptocurrency miners who have made a huge profit, whether as individuals or as part of investment organizations.
Crypto millionaires all seem to have one common trait: they “HODL” (hold on for dear life), indicating they do not exchange bitcoin for cash or any other currency they were holding during market downturns and cling onto their coin. Read further to know who these people are.
Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss
After suing Facebook, the pair of twin brothers who were Olympic rowers made $65 million in fortunes. In 2012, the brothers started to invest in bitcoin. In addition, they established Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange, and acquired Nifty Gateway, a digital art auction site. They exchanged the cash for bitcoin instead of exchanging the Bitcoin for cash.
Michael Saylor
Within the first dot-com collapse, MicroStrategy's CEO earned and lost millions of dollars. Having exchanged cash for Bitcoin early on in the bubble, Saylor is worth $2.3 billion, both to himself and to his business, which has helped drive its stock price higher.
Matthew Roszak
His early cryptocurrency purchases are worth $1.5 billion, thanks to his long-term crypto evangelism and Bitcoin discovery in 2011. Currently, Roszak serves as the chairman of Bloq, a blockchain technology firm, and is an early-stage investor in cryptocurrency companies.
Tim Draper
Tim purchased $18.7 million in seized Bitcoin from the now-defunct Silk Road illicit market in 2014. Those old coins have grown in value to be worth $1.5 billion today. Things could be different if he had exchanged those Bitcoins for cash.
Sam Bankman-Fried
Bankman-Fried has an estimated net worth of $1 billion. He established quantitative trading company Alameda Research and popular derivatives exchange FTX that help people exchange Bitcoin for cash. In 2020, he caused a stir for his $5 million contributions to Joe Biden's presidential campaign.
Brian Armstrong
The wealth of Coinbase's CEO and co-founder, Brian Armstrong, has increased by a factor in six folds in the last year due to the growing cryptocurrency market. As of last year, Coinbase was the leading crypto exchange in the United States, with sales exceeding $1 billion. The company has just filed to become publicly traded.
Fred Ehrsam
Ehrsam and Armstrong launched Coinbase in 2012 with Ehrsam serving as the company's first employee. Although he departed the business in 2017, he is still on the board of directors, and his 6.0% share is believed to be worth $1.9 billion. Ehrsam now serves as the CEO of the blockchain investment company Paradigm.
Changpeng Zhao
Creator of Binance's Changpeng Zhao has a net worth of $1.9 billion. Binance's value has risen as cryptocurrency investment has soared across the world. Zhao is believed to control 30% of the business.
Barry Silbert
Digital Currency Group (DCG), the cryptocurrency corporation he established in 2015, is where Silbert made his money. The cryptocurrency media outlet CoinDesk and the asset management company Grayscale, which manages $44 billion in Bitcoin, Ether, and other assets, are two of DCG's holdings. DCG also owns DCG.
Chris Larsen
The chairman and co-founder of Ripple saw his wealth rise by $800 million as the XRP currency of his company gained value. He has a 17.5% interest in Ripple Labs and approximately 3 billion XRP.
Jed McCaleb
The majority of McCaleb's fortune comes from his 3.4 billion XRP holdings, another Ripple co-founder. After a rift with his Ripple colleagues in 2014, he created the cryptocurrency Stellar Lumens, which he now owns in the millions of dollars.
Even though Elon Musk is a crypto millionaire, many believe him to be more of a proponent of the technology than someone well-versed in it.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of the Bitcoin digital currency, is also not included in the list of 2021's crypto millionaires. Nakamoto's net worth may be as high as $59 billion based on current currency rates. He refused several temptations to exchange Bitcoin for cash in its early days were there are no significant results.
In an age when money is becoming digital, should we be concerned that the vast majority of our assets are nothing more than numbers on a screen?
Notable financial gurus, including Warren Buffett, have cautioned against purchasing bitcoin. In general, the wealthy investor believes that cryptocurrencies will have a negative outcome.
However, we disagree our money in your bank account is simply a collection of figures on a screen. The only difference between crypto and fiat money is that Bitcoin cannot be produced indefinitely. Obviously, in the crypto community not exchanging bitcoin for cash is necessary to build wealthy profile.
