Richard Bertch

Last year was a wild one for cryptocurrencies, and it resulted in seven new crypto billionaires. This change has expanded the Forbes crypto billionaires list by 58% featuring 19 individuals. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum and others reached an all-time high on cryptocurrency exchanges like OKX in 2021 and many people made fortunes during this peak season. Some have, however, been on this list for longer and are getting richer by the day, such as:

Changpeng Zhao, 65 Billion

Changpeng Zhao’ CZ’ is the CEO of the Binance crypto exchange and the richest crypto billionaire worldwide today. He owns 70% of the company, and it dominated around two-thirds of the trading volumes in the 2021 centralized exchanges. It generated an estimated $ billion in revenue. Zhao is the 19th richest person in the world. His value rose by $1.9 billion last year, and his reserves are in Bitcoin and BNB.

Sam Bankman-Fried, $24 Billion

Sam Bankman-Fried is a 30-year-old whose exchange FTX received $400 million in January, valued at $32 billion. He is the co-founder and CEO of exchange FTX and is ranked as the second-wealthiest crypto billionaire. He relocated to the crypto-friendly Bahamas from Hong Kong in late 2021. Furthermore, he owns approximately half of FTX and another $7 billion worth of FTT, which is the platform’s native token. Fried vowed to give away his fortune in his lifetime.

Brian Armstrong, $6.6 Billion

Brian Armstrong is the founder and CEO of Coinbase, which took a direct listing in the public crypto exchange at a value of $100 billion. Although Coinbase’s market capitalization is about half that much today, the amount is still good enough to make Armstrong the third-wealthiest crypto billionaire with a 19% stake. The 39-year-old billionaire bought a $133 million Bel Air mansion in January 2022, which is one of the priciest home transactions in the city to date.

Gary Wang, $5.9 Billion

Gary Wang is a co-founder of FTX, where he is the chief technology officer. Wang and Fried launched the crypto exchange in 2019, and he holds a 16% stake in FTX’s global business. He also owns $600 million FTT, which is the native token of FTX. The former software engineer at Google, where he is acclaimed for his role in building the online booking platform Google Flights.

Chris Larsen, 4.3 Billion

Chris Larsen is an executive chairman and co-founder of Ripple blockchain company. Its XRP token is the 8th largest cryptocurrency in the world today. The company is battling a securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that claims that the initial Ripple coin offering was unlawful and the sale of unregistered securities. The 61-year-old, in partnership with climate groups, has launched a campaign dubbed “Change the Code, Not the Climate” aimed to put pressure on the Bitcoin technology to reduce the digital asset’s heavy carbon imprint.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, $4 Billion Each

The Winklevoss twins are best known for the $65 million settlement from Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook platform. They invested their settlement into crypto gold, which amassed a fortune of roughly $4 billion each. The twins who began buying bitcoin in 2012 have diverse portfolios of digital assets besides buying other cryptocurrencies and launching the Gemini crypto exchange.