There has been a recent spurt in the list of billionaires who made their riches in the cryptocurrency market. There are now 19 billionaires on the top list of crypto elites. There were only 12 of them last year which pegs the increase at 48%.
Forbes released its most recent list and the emperor remains firmly entrenched at the top. Binance founder and CEO, Chang Peng Zhao remains the richest in the crypto world and is the 19th richest on the general list with his newly acquired wealth.
This year has seen a downturn in CZ’s fortunes from around $96B last year to a present estimate of around $65B. But it still places him at the top of the crypto industry and makes CZ the most influential man on the market.
The second spot goes to the CEO and founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried. He is way behind on the list but that still takes him way ahead of the competition with $24B. Bankman-Fried has repeatedly expressed his intention to finally give all his fortunes away and this led to Bankman-Fried being called the Robin Hood of the Crypto world as he has stated his wish to donate the bulk of his fortune.
Several Newcomers In The Forbes Crypto Elite List
In 3rd place is Brian Armstrong, Coinbase founder, and CEO with $6.6B. Gemini’s Winklevoss twins and Chris Larsen of Ripple are on the Forbes list with about $4B.
Other new arrivals to the Forbes list of crypto billionaires include the co-founder of FTX and CTO Gary Wang who is worth $5.6B with a 16% holding. Joseph Lau and Nikhil Vishwanathan of Web3 and blockchain company Alchemy have a total worth of around $2.4b each, ranking them 11th on the list.
Alex Atallah and Devin Finzer of NFT marketplace OpenSea are other newcomers on the Forbes crypto-list with an approximate $2.2b each.
The Forbes list of crypto elites was first published in 2018 with only a handful of executives making it when the bar was placed lower at $350M.
