When we think of billionaires, we often think of inventors and creators like Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Elon Musk of Tesla and Space X, and perhaps prominent business people like Bernard Arnault, but did you know that some people are none of these things and are also billionaires?
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Yes, some people have made a giant fortune with nothing but crypto. It sounds unbelievable, but it is true. The same crypto business that has left many people bankrupt has put a lot of money in the banks of these guys. In this article, we’ll look at some people who got crazy rich from crypto, or should we say they got CRYPTO RICH?
Winklevoss Twins
If you’ve seen the movie “The Social Network,” then you probably know about the Winklevoss twins or the “Winklevii”, as Mark Zuckerberg calls them in the film.
According to Forbes, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are the ultimate crypto duo, with about $1.4 billion apiece.
The crazy rich twins made about $65 million from their famous Facebook lawsuit, and they reportedly invested this money in cryptocurrency, Bitcoin to be precise.
They discovered Bitcoin very early, and at the time, they bought 1% of the entire Bitcoin supply off the market and had massive crypto trading success. That transaction was undoubtedly the best deal of their lives after Mark’s $65 million settlement. It made them crazy crypto-rich when Bitcoin’s value went through the roof, giving them Initial Coin Offering (ICO) success.
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But they didn’t stop there; the Winklevoss brothers also went on to start Gemini, their very own cryptocurrency exchange, in 2014. Gemini is one of the leading exchanges in the United States, and needless to say, the brothers are doing fine—crazy rich fine. Did we mention that they were the first crypto and Bitcoin billionaires? We know about the Fantastic Four but these two are a dauntless duo!
Changpeng Zhao (CZ)
If you’re talking about real-life Crazy Rich Asians, then you just have to mention this guy, Changpeng Zhao. Changpeng Zhao is a Chinese-Canadian entrepreneur and founder of Binance. That explains it, right? Anyway, let’s do a little more explaining.
You can’t say CZ had it easy; he came from a relatively struggling family. He had to work at a McDonald’s in his teenage years to help his parents. After graduating college, CZ would work in notable roles like futures trading software engineer at Bloomberg Tradebook and CTO at OkCoin. He also founded Fusion Systems — a high-frequency trading system, before starting his game changer – Binance, in 2017.
Since starting Binance, the rest is familiar history. The crypto exchange is now the biggest in the world regarding trading volume, at least with several billions of dollars traded. CZ is now Forbes’ number one crypto-wealthy individual with an estimated value of $15 billion. CZ is the definition of ultimate crypto wealth. It’s safe to say CZ moved from grass to grace.
Vitalik Buterin
Just like his name says, Vitalik is one of the most vital persons in Crypto. While most young people explain how crypto works to their parents, Vitalik’s dad taught him about crypto, and Vitalik has now made a massive fortune from that lecture.
He started as a writer, contributor, and eventually a co-founder of Bitcoin magazine before starting Ethereum (yeah, that’s where you know him from).
Vitalik became the world’s youngest crypto billionaire when he was just 27. Ether, Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, crossed $3,000 per coin for the first time in May 2021. Many people aspire to be cryptocurrency billionaires, but Vitalik pulled that off at a young age. Of the many Ethereum success stories, Vitalik’s remains the ultimate one; he created it after all.
Ethereum is doing pretty well today, and Vitalik Buterine is still trying to push its limits as the crypto world evolves. Forbes puts his estimated net worth at $1.46 billion. He has a doctorate from the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Basel and a lot of crypto cash.
Brian Armstrong
We don’t know if he’s related to the famous Neil Armstrong, but this Armstrong is famous for something entirely different- digital asset fortunes.
Brian Armstrong, the founder of Coinbase, has established it as the largest crypto exchange platform in America and all of North America in terms of trading volume.
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Interestingly enough, Brian came from an entirely different industry before entering the crypto world. He used to be a software engineer at Airbnb, but he quit his job, and in 2012, he took the most significant step of his life- co-founding Coinbase.
No puns intended, but Coinbase has certainly given Brian a huge coin base; Forbes estimates him to have about $5.3 billion.
Don’t let his plain T-shirts fool you; that man is crazy crypto-rich. His simplicity is evidence that he chose being rich over looking rich.
Chris Larsen
This Chris may not be as famous as Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, or even the Chris everybody hates, but he’s definitely a Chris you should know.
One of the biggest altcoin billionaires, Chris Larsen, co-founded of Ripple, the blockchain with the 8th largest crypto token, XRP. Chris always had a thing for finance before he co-founded Ripple with Jed McCaleb in 2004. He also co-founded e-Loan, an online mortgage platform which he later sold to Yahoo.
Chris Larsen is now worth $2.9 billion, according to Forbes. He may not be as popular as the other Chris variants, but he’s the really rich Chris.
Sam Bankman-Fried
You better believe the “Bankman” in this man’s name because he really is a bankman.
He is one of the many decentralized finance (DeFi) tycoons in the crypto industry. Sam got rich from founding his crypto exchange FTX and Alameda Research trading firm, making him one of the top blockchain moguls. He’s one of the most known crypto figures. He was once called a “poster boy” for crypto.
Sam was once the 41st richest American. His FTX and FTX.US were also once valued, but since his fraud allegations and trials surfaced, users withdrew their money, and FTX has now filed for bankruptcy.
At his peak, the Bankman was worth $26 billion, but now, Forbes’ live net worth counter puts him at $0. The Bankman is now fried.
Conclusion
Currently, there are over 420 million active cryptocurrency users, and out of this massive number, only a handful have been able to squeeze out a billion, two, or twenty-six if you’re the Bankman.
Cryptocurrency has always been and remains a risky investment. Prices fall and rise; nothing is certain in the market.
We could say fortune favours the bold in the case of these crypto-rich people, but sometimes it also doesn’t. Everyone is advised to be careful when investing in cryptocurrency; it’s cryptocurrency, not “cryptocertainty.”.
Recap
This is the current Forbes net worth of these individuals as of the time of this writing:
- Winklevoss Twins: $2.8 billion
- Chanpeng Zhao: $15 billion
- Vitalik Buterin: $1.46 billion
- Brian Armstrong: $5.3 billion
- Chris Larsen: $2.9 billion
- Sam Bankman-Fried: $0 billion
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