With a market cap of over $2 trillion, crypto has given birth to several billionaires since the first Bitcoin was mined. Although anonymity makes it difficult to determine who has what, a new report from Forbes has revealed some of the richest people in crypto and what they are worth.
Topping the list is Binance CEO Chanpeng Zhao, with a net worth that is almost 3x higher than that of the next person on the list.
Binace CZ tops crypto’s richest list
According to Forbes’ latest estimates, CZ owns at least 70% of Binance, enough to make him the 19th richest man globally, with a net worth of $65 billion. In 2020, Forbes had put the estimate at $1.9 billion.
Meanwhile, in January, CryptoSlate reported that Bloomberg News estimates CZ’s net worth to be around $96 billion, making him the 11th richest person in the world at the time.
CZ‘s success is mostly tied to the strategic acquisitions and expansionist moves of Binance, which has the largest trading volume of all crypto exchanges. It is reportedly responsible for roughly two-thirds of the trading volume of centralized exchange transactions.
Binance generated approximately $20 billion in revenue in 2021, according to a Bloomberg News analysis. Beyond his stake in Binance, Zhao also owns a vast amount of BNB, as well as some Bitcoin. However, the exact nature of his crypto portfolio is unclear.
Others on the list
The second richest person on the list is FTX exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Forbes estimates that he is worth $24 billion. His net worth includes about half of FTX and the $7 billion worth of FTT, which is the exchange’s native token, that he holds.
Before the Bloomberg report, the common perception was that SBF was the richest person in crypto. However, more public information has shown that to be false. There are still several other billionaires on the list but none of them have a net worth higher than $10 billion.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is the third richest person on the list, with $6.6 billion. He has a 19% stake in publicly traded Coinbase. Others on the list include Gary Wang, the co-founder of FTX, Chris Larsen of Ripple, and the Winkelvoss twins, who own Gemini.
Not everyone on the list is a developer or founder of a crypto startup. Several names are those of investors and venture capitalists, including Tim Draper and Mathew Rosack, both of whom became billionaires through early investments in Bitcoin and other crypto companies.
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