Cryptocurrency market adoption is on the rise. This means more money goes to various crypto projects. Because of its wealth potential, people are investing in cryptocurrencies, leading to the rise of billionaires.
Why are crypto billionaires increasing every year?
Many people have started investing in crypto because of the great success stories that can be found all over the internet. From crypto investors who bought tens and hundreds of dollars worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and chose hodl for years, to crypto whales who started a crypto-related business, there are a lot of stories on social media. You can become a crypto whale by making a good investment or already having good fortune. Thus, it is possible to be significantly active in the crypto market with large companies.
The crypto market is growing day by day. There are also many opportunities in the market for crypto investors to grow their holdings and become crypto billionaires. However, the crypto market is a very volatile one. This brings unavoidable risks and opportunities. Despite this, the money goes to many new crypto companies and relatively young companies developing decentralized applications (DApps). These DApps focus on Web3, the evolution of the current World Wide Web.
How many cryptocurrency billionaires are there?
In total, there are 19 crypto billionaires. To determine what a crypto billionaire is, it’s helpful to first define this term. A crypto billionaire must have made a fortune by investing directly in cryptocurrencies or crypto-related companies. The crypto market is relatively young. This is why crypto billionaires also have a chance to become so rich with a combination of both possibilities. Therefore, we do not discriminate among billionaires as long as they make their fortunes through the crypto world.
Almost all of these 19 crypto billionaires made their fortunes from Bitcoin investments or their own blockchain-related companies. For example, as we’ve reported on Cryptokoin.com, you can find Alex Atallah and Devin Finzer from OpenSea, Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb from Ripple, and Brian Armstrong from Coinbase among the 19 billionaires. Vitalik Buterin, perhaps the twentieth crypto billionaire, could be added to the list, but his wealth is structurally too volatile to include. 16 out of 19 wealthy crypto investors hold US passports.
Who is the richest cryptocurrency billionaire?
Changpeng Zhao, CEO and founder of Binance, is the richest crypto billionaire. He has more than 20 billion assets and is among the richest people in the world. Binance is said to own more than 70 percent of its shares. These shares represent quite a lot of value. Indeed, Binance is one of the crypto companies that owns a large amount of BTC. It also gives millions of people the ability to trade and invest in Bitcoin and altcoins, keeping many crypto investors’ dreams of becoming crypto millionaires alive. In addition to his stake in Binance, CZ has Bitcoin in his investment portfolio. However, BTC is not the only cryptocurrency CZ owns.
He also privately owns a large number of BNB Coins (BNB). Following CZ on the list of the richest crypto billionaires is Sam Bankman-Fried and Brian Armstrong, co-founders of FTX Exchange and Coinbase, respectively. Therefore, providing services that meet the needs of people in the crypto industry can be a profitable business. In addition to these crypto exchange founders, there is another possible billionaire, Satoshi Nakamoto. Nakamoto holds the most Bitcoins by far, with a total of 1.1 million BTC.
Who is the youngest crypto billionaire?
The latest crypto billionaire is Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and founder of FTX Exchange. As the price of Ethereum (ETH) soared, Vitalik Buterin, the CEO and founder of Ethereum, became the youngest crypto billionaire. Two familiar faces are fighting over who is the youngest crypto billionaire in the crypto world. There are times when Vitalik Buterin was the youngest crypto billionaire. However, Sam Bankman-Fried is two years older than Buterin. Age is not the most important factor, but the popularity and value of ETH is the deciding factor. When the price of ETH rises, the value of Vitalik’s assets rises with it.
This is because Vitalik Buterin owns more than 290,000 ETH, the largest of his assets. However, when the price drops, the title of the youngest crypto billionaire belongs to Sam Bankman-Fried. The owner of FTX Exchange has a net worth of over $22 billion. Sam’s pace of growing his money has not only earned him the title of the youngest crypto billionaire. He also became the fastest billionaire. This title previously belonged to Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg.
Bitcoin whales: Who are the biggest BTC holders?
Satoshi Nakamoto has over 1 million BTC. This makes him the largest Bitcoin owner. It is followed by the founders of Grayscale and Binance, who own the same amount of BTC as Satoshi Nakamoto. These companies have over 600,000 BTC and 400,000 BTC respectively. These are numbers that most Bitcoin investors can only dream of. After these top three Bitcoin holders are the cryptocurrency exchanges Bitfinex and OKX, both of which hold more than 200,000 BTC. Next come companies with more than 100,000 BTC, with MicroStrategy and Block.one.
All these large amounts are not stored in a single wallet, but multiple wallets are used. For example, Satoshi Nakamoto uses around 22,000 wallets to store his BTC, while Bitfinex and Binance both use a lot of wallets. In total, there are only five wallets where more than 100,000 BTC are stored. This accounts for more than 4% of the total amount of Bitcoin in wallets.