How the world’s crypto billionaires made their fortunes

Key points:

• There are only 22 crypto billionaires in the world
• Most crypto billionaires made their money by investing in crypto early, mostly Bitcoin
• Owners and founders of cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and centralized exchanges occupy the top of the crypto billionaire food chain.

With cryptocurrency and blockchain permeating most parts of the globe, there are only 22 crypto billionaires so far. It becomes more noteworthy when you realize that they make up about 0.8% of the 2700 billionaires globally and have managed to keep their billionaire status despite the recent crypto crash in 2022. The following are some ways a chosen few have managed to leverage this relatively new technology and make themselves into billionaires.

Investing in crypto assets and tokens is the foremost and most popular way most crypto billionaires have chosen to amass their fortunes. The idea is to invest in promising projects before they are mainstream and pricey, which is nearly effortless, with new ones launching frequently.  An example is the case of the Winklevoss twins — Cameron and Tyler, each worth about $1.5 billion and famous for suing Mark Zuckerberg for stealing and making their idea into Facebook. The Winklevoss brothers bought $11 million worth of Bitcoin in 2011 when the price was low. They held about 1% of the total Bitcoin in circulation at that time.

A grander scale would mean owning and operating a venture capital company to focus on the digital market. This is significantly costlier to set up, but it gives more reach. This is how Barry Silbert, the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), operates with a net worth of $3.2 billion. With the help of GrayScale, DCG’s digital asset manager, he manages over $28 billion in digital assets, majorly Bitcoin and Ether, similar to what Elon Musk does when Tesla HODLs Bitcoin.

One other way to become a crypto billionaire is to offer a service to the over 425 million identity-verified crypto users worldwide. This is what many billionaires were able to do, starting with Alex Atallah and Devin Finzer of OpenSea, each worth $2.2 billion.

They created the world’s first open marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other tradable crypto assets. Running an NFL marketplace is not as popular as offering a cryptocurrency exchange service. The most popular one is Binance, owned and managed by Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ. According to Forbes, his current net worth is estimated to be $10.2 billion, and his highest net worth was under $100 billion, which makes him the richest billionaire in the crypto industry.

Other crypto exchanges and their billionaire owners include Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, with an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion. Song Chi-hyung, founder of Upbit, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, is also on the list, with a net worth of $3.7 billion. Kim Hyoung-nyon, cofounder and executive vice president of Dunamu, another South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, also has an impressive net worth of $1.95 billion.

DISCLAIMER: The information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.