The world of cryptocurrencies is changing and volatileHowever, many pioneers who believed in Bitcoin are now crypto millionaires. Forbes has a list of 28. But Only 11 were the ones who had faith in this digital asset whose release date was 2009 with a value of 0,0076 dollars.
But Who are these billionaires who invested in BTC when no one else did? Here is the list of 11 of the 28 on the planet:
11. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss
Current net worth: US$ 2.700 billion.
Source of wealth: investments in Bitcoin and his company Gemini.
The Winklevoss twins They owe much of their fortune to their investments in Bitcoin. Both have been enthusiastic about this cryptocurrency since 2013. Although they haven't made it public, they are also believed to own significant amounts of Ethereum and Filecoin.
Their level of wealth is also due to the fact that They own 75% of the Gemini exchange., which they founded and created to compete with the leading platforms Coinbase and Binance.
10. Jed McCaleb
Current net worth: US$ 2.900 billion.
Source of wealth: XRP sales.
We face one of the pioneers in the field of cryptocurrenciesA year after the creation of Bitcoin, in 2010, Jed McCaleb founded Mt. Gox, the first BTC exchange. He sold the company the following year, before it suffered the cyberattack that bankrupted it.
In 2012, he co-founded the Ripple blockchain and then left the project and sold his shares due to disagreements with the other founders. Jed McCaleb owes his fortune to the sale (in 2022) of his share of the 9.000 billion XRP he earned as an investor and co-founder of Ripple. He has also become richer since 2014, when created Stellar, a direct competitor to Ripple.
Thanks to his cryptocurrency investments and profits, McCaleb founded Vast, a company dedicated to space exploration, in 2021.
9. Mateo Roszak
Current net worth: US$ 3.100 billion.
Source of wealth: investments in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Mateo Roszak is another of the pioneers in investing in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance's native token, BNB, from which much of his current fortune comes. He began buying Bitcoin in 2010 and has accumulated much of his fortune through its sales.
His most recent investments have been in BlocK, a blockchain startup belonging to the Block Conglomerate, Inc., owned by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey who founded it in 2009 under the name Square, Inc. This company is dedicated to investing in the cryptographic field and advising projects related to blockchain and digital assets.
8.Fred Ehrsam
Current net worth: US$ 3.200 billion.
Source of wealth: Coinbase and Paradigm.
Fred Ehrsam and Brian Armstrong created, in 2012, the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, one of the largest and most heavily traded digital asset markets. However, Ehrsam left the company's board in 2017, where he still owns 5% of the shares.
His departure from Coinbase was to co-found Paradigm along with former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang. This company is a cryptocurrency investment firm that currently manages over $8.000 billion in assets.
7. Chris Larsen
Current net worth: US$ 3.200 billion.
Source of wealth: Ripple and XRP sales.
Larsen founded Ripple in 2012 with Jed McCaleb with the aim of simplifying international payments using the XRP cryptocurrency. Although he stepped down as Ripple's CEO in 2016, he remains its executive chairman. He also owns 18% of the company.
This participation is valued as of today, at approximately 3.800 million according to data from Forbes. In addition, has a considerable amount of XRP which are estimated at around 2.800 billion tokens. What makes him one of the world's crypto millionaires is that these investments in digital assets allowed Larsen to own about $1.000 million in cash and other capital from previous XRP sales.
6. Jean-Louis van der Velde
Current net worth: US$ 3.900 billion.
Source of wealth: tether.
Van der Velde is another of the crypto millionaires on our list. This senior executive He owes part of his fortune to having served as CEO of Tether. Today, he is considered a key player in high-level strategic relationships between traditional companies such as banks and between regulators and emerging organizations in the crypto ecosystem.
Furthermore, He still owns approximately 20% of Tether's shares.In 1985, he left his homeland in the Netherlands to study at a university in Taiwan. From there, he went on to co-found several technology and computing startups in Asia before joining Tether in 2014.
5. Paolo Ardoino
Current net worth: US$ 3.900 billion.
Source of wealth: tether.
Ardoino is a computer engineer graduated from the University of Genoa who serves as CEO of Tether. He also owns nearly 20% of the company.
He is one of the most active in the crypto space and, In 2014, he joined Bitfinex, an exchange that considers itself a sister company to Tether. There he holds the position of senior software developer. But before that, Ardoino had worked at several projects from various startups as a developer.
4.Michael Saylor
Current net worth: US$ 4.400 billion.
Source of wealth: investments in Bitcoin and MicroStrategy.
Michael saylor He is the crypto-millionaire with the highest percentage gains in recent years.. Shares of MicroStrategy, the software company he founded in 1989 with Sanju Bansal and Thomas Spahr, have become his Bitcoin investment vehicle, rising by nearly 500%.
Currently, the software development company for processing large amounts of data and storing it in the cloud, owns about 193.000 BitcoinsThis makes MicroStrategy one of the largest corporate organizations investing the most in this cryptocurrency worldwide.
3. Giancarlo Devasini
Current net worth: $9.200 million.
Source of wealth: tether.
Devasini is an Italian physician, graduate of the University of Turin and today holds the position of financial director. He is probably the largest individual shareholder of Tether., a company of which he is a co-founder.
Devasini holds an estimated 47% stake in TetherAdditionally, he is the CFO of Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange. Before assuming this position founded several successful companies in the technology, logistics and distribution sectors and linked to plastic and cosmetic surgery.
2.Brian Armstrong
Current net worth: $11.200 million.
Source of wealth: Coinbase.
Brian Armstrong, who founded Coinbase Founded in 2013 alongside Fred Ehrsam, he is currently the company's largest individual shareholder, holding an 18% stake. The cryptocurrency exchange's stock has increased its value by 50% in recent months and has tripled compared to previous years. According to Forbes, they have reached a market capitalization close to $60 billion.
Armstrong has increased its capital by selling Coinbase shares for over $170 million. He achieved this through an automated trading plan known as 10b5-1-1. This is a cutting-edge method that uses technology to make it easier for company executives to sell shares, even at times when organizational policies would restrict such transactions to individuals like him with access to confidential information.
1. Changpeng Zhao
Current net worth: $33.000 million.
Source of wealth: Binance.
Known as CZ, this young genius creator of Binance, one of the largest exchanges in the world, agreed to pay a US$200 million fine out of his own pocket to resolve federal money laundering charges. The fine was imposed by the Department of Justice and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. But that doesn't stop him from being The richest person on the planet who owes his fortune to BitcoinDespite not being the CEO of Binance, he owes his wealth to the company, in which he owns nearly 90% of the shares.
