3X as many cryptocurrencies make the list of Forbes 2021 billionaires as last year

Forbes unveiled their annual list of billionaires on April 6, with Amazon owner Jeff Bezos and his $ 177 billion topping the list for the fourth consecutive year.

The “digital gold rush” has added nine new crypto-billionaires to the Forbes list, raising the total to 12 (depending on whether you consider the Winklevoss twins as one or two entries.) This is just four in Forbes’ past year. World list of billionaires

Sam Bankman-Fried – newcomer

Sam Bankman-Fried is the richest crypto-billionaire, with a net worth of $ 8.7 billion. Bankman-Fried founded the trading company Alameda Research and the popular derivatives exchange FTX. The 29-year-old has made headlines in the crypto space, with FTX recently winning the naming rights at Miami Heat’s home stadium for 19 years. Cointelegraph recently named Bankman-Fried as the third most influential figure in crypto for 2020.

The Winklevoss Twins – newcomers

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have a net worth of $ 3 billion each and started investing in Bitcoin in 2012. The brothers have sued Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, over IP theft and won a $ 65 million settlement they used to invest in Bitcoin. They started the crypto exchange Gemini in 2014 and they bought Nifty Gateway in November 2019.

Chris Larsen – Return

Larsen, the co-founder of Ripple Labs, has increased its net worth over the past year from $ 2.6 billion to $ 3.4 billion.

Ripple CEO Larson and Brad Garlinghouse have been battling an ongoing dispute with the SEC over XRP and unregistered security offerings. However, it appears that the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple does not affect the token too much, with XRP increasing by 387% over the past 12 months.

Jed McCaleb – newcomer

McCaleb is another co-founder of Ripple and reportedly has 3.4 billion XRP and 1 billion Stellar Lumens – the cryptocurrency he founded after leaving Ripple – with a net worth of $ 2 billion. Cointelegraph reports that McCaleb sold $ 400 million worth of XRP shares in 2020 alone.

Michael Saylor – newcomer

Saylor is the CEO of listed company MicroStrategy and founded the software giant in 1989 and now has a net worth of $ 2.3 billion. Saylor has become the leading advocate for companies that hold Bitcoin on balance sheets. Since the first purchase of Bitcoin in August 2020, Microstrategy has invested $ 2.226 billion, bringing its score to 91,579 Bitcoins at an average cost of $ 24,311 per Bitcoin.

Brain Armstrong – Return

Armstrong is the CEO and co-founder of Coinbase and its net worth went from $ 1 billion to $ 6.5 billion within 12 months. Coinbase also had a successful year with revenue of $ 1 billion, and it will list directly within a week. It will value Armstrong’s shares somewhere north of $ 14 billion, which means it could very well be the list of crypto-billionaires next year.

Fred Ersham – newcomer

Ersham co-founded with Brian Armstrong Coinbase in 2012 and left the firm in 2017. He is now a board member of the company, and its 6% stake is estimated at $ 1.9 billion.

Changpeng Zhao

Zhao is the founder of the largest crypto exchange Binance and owns an estimated 30% stake in the company. Zhao’s net worth is $ 1.9 billion, and the digital gold rush was good for the founder of Binance, with Binance Coin becoming the second largest altcoin by market capitalization. Zhao revealed earlier this week that he owns almost 100% of his portfolio in crypto.

Matthew Roszak – newcomer

Roszak is the chairman and co-founder of blockchain technology company Bloq and is a leading investor in crypto and blockchain. Roszak is also a founding member of Tally Capital, a crypto-focused private investment firm, with a net worth of $ 1.5 billion.

Tim Draper – newcomer

Draper is a crypto-evangelist with a net worth of $ 1.5 billion. He bought $ 18.7 million of Bitcoin in 2014 after it was confiscated on the Silk Road black market. Draper was also one of the main investors in the Tezos project and was co-founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a leading investment company in early stages of technological start-up.

Barry Silbert – newcomer

Silbert founded the crypto-conglomerate Digital Currency Group in 2015 and has a net worth of $ 1.6 billion. DCG owns asset management firm Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which currently has $ 46 billion in assets under management.