They say everyone likes to count money of others. And the magazine Forbes also made a name for itself on this. But it is perhaps even more difficult to count the
capital of cryptomagnates than to measure the thickness of the purse of some secretive oligarch: the crypt is not only anonymous by default, it is also incredibly volatile. However, taking as a basis known information about their cryptoactive assets, profits from the sale of cryptoactive assets after paying taxes and shares in businesses related to cryptotechnologies, the journalists compiled the first Forbes cryptographic wealthy ranking consisting of the
19 largest cryptocapitalists they managed to find. All calculations - as of January 19, 2018.
We have written out from this list those who, at least at the upper boundary of the estimated capital, are among the cryptomillionaires, and told a little more about which projects and which solutions ensured their success, and what they are staking on now.
In February, when the Forbes list was published, the estimated cryptomillionaires were exactly 10. However, in April, private investor Matthew Mallon, who ranked fifth in his line, passed away, and now, according to the latest news, his cryptoactives will be transferred to Fiat as quickly as possible.
And then there were nine
№ 1. Chris Larsen
The status of the head of the list of bitcoin billionaires Chris Larsen, according to Forbes, an impressive 7.5-8 billion dollars. Chris co-founded the online mortgage loan service E-Loan and was one of the owners of Prosper Marketplace. Over the period of work in these companies, they have accumulated initial capital, partially invested in digital currencies. He invested a lot in Silicon Valley startups. Larsen is an active supporter of financial confidentiality, so he was probably not very happy to see himself in this selection on the first line. In September 2012, he co-founded OpenCoin, which was later renamed Ripple Labs.
Understanding all the shortcomings of the traditional banking system, including slow processing of transactions and high fees for money transfer, initiated the development of the Ripple payment protocol for direct, instantaneous transfer of money without the participation of correspondent banks.
Number 2. Joseph Lubin
Forbes estimates that the 53-year-old cryptomillionaire owns $ 1–5 billion cryptoactive assets. One of the top managers of Goldman Sachs in the past, he built a successful career at the intersection of information technology and finance. A strong financier, he quickly grasped the potential of the blockchain and cryptocurrency. He made his main cryptocapital on the “air” in which he had invested since 2014. In October 2014, Lubin founded
ConsenSys , a
company that serves the Ethereum ecosystem.
According to unconfirmed reports, he is the largest private holder of Ethereum.
№ 3. Changphen Zhao
Of course, without the Chinese, the top cryptomagnates could not have done. Changpeng
Zhao 's cryptoactive
assets are valued at between $ 1 billion and $ 2 billion. The third in wealth, Zhao is the first in terms of its earnings. It took only 7 months for Binance, which he founded in 2017, to become the
largest in the world . Zhao's practical experience in software development and solid competence in the area of financial IT analysis helped him to succeed. In 2013, I became acquainted with Bitcoin - and since then, I have been exclusively interested in crypto-projects.
Binance now ranks third in the world with a daily turnover of $ 1.67 billion. Unlike other kryptomonet, holders of Binance tokens (BNB) receive a discount on commission fees. Changpeng Zhao's income is generated from the retail investor’s trading activities, which commit 1.4 million transactions every day in 1 second.
№ 4. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss
Thanks to the David Fincher film “Social Network”, the name of
the Winklevoss brothers became known to the whole world. But the litigation with Zuckerberg was by no means the peak of their biography - on the contrary, everything that was most interesting had just begun: the $ 65 million brothers received from Mark Zuckerberg, according to a court decision on Facebook, were
acrobats rowers in a crypt. In 2013, they purchased 91,666 bitcoins for the full amount - about 1% of the total volume of this cryptocurrency at that time - at $ 120. In December 2017, their coins were already worth $ 2 billion. The film-makers, drawing the image of the major dummies, who themselves did not understand what they had invented, were clearly underestimated.
So that this time the fruits of their foresight did not take advantage of someone else, the brothers keep their bitcoins as secure as possible: on cold wallets, the private keys to which are printed on paper, and the paper is cut into pieces, each of which is stored in its cell in different US banks . Now their capital is estimated by Forbes at $ 1 billion, but the Winklevoss believe in the growth of Bitcoin and are not going to sell their coins in the near future.
No. 5: Brian Armstrong
According to the most modest estimates, Brian Armstrong, owner and CEO of the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, owns cryptocapital in the amount of $ 900 million to $ 1 billion. Successful crypto-financial project Brian Armstrong launched in 2012. Now it is the most famous bitcoin platform in the USA for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, including using fiat banknotes. Buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is conducted through bank accounts, and the most gambling traders are betting on the growth of digital assets. The number of active users of the exchange exceeded 4 million, and the Coinbase mobile application in 2017
came out on top among the free ones in the American AppStore.
In the same 2017, the total revenue of Coinbase
was $ 1 billion . Today, the Brian Armstrong project has already served over 9 million customers.
No. 6: Matthew Roszak
Forbes journalists counted coins of at least $ 0.9–1 billion in cryptocurrency coffers of co-founder Bloq and founder of Tally Capital. Matthew is not only one of the most influential figures in the world of crypto-finance, but also an ideological follower of Satoshi Nakamoto's philosophy. Roszak invested in Bitcoin back in 2011, when he was worth only $ 31, buying $ 1.5 million in coins. According to him, he took an active
participation in the very first ICO.
As is often the case, if success in a crypto-business is not related to the development of a project that has soared, then, most likely, this is a professional financier. Seeing his breakthrough potential in Bitcoin Matthew helped with 20 years of experience in venture capital investments. It is possible that people like Roszak do not invent new things themselves - but with their bold investments they help bring the future closer no less.
No. 7: Anthony di Iorio
Ethereum's co-founder's capital is $ 0.7–1 billion. Anthony di Iorio joined the crypt in 2012, when he met programmer Vitalik Buterin at the Bitcoin Meetup conference in Canadian Toronto. Then he became one of the key investors in the Ethereum project. Anthony di Iorio is the author of several decentralized applications. One of his ideas is the Jaxx cryptocurrency wallet, which is still waiting for its high point among retail investors.
Publicity di Iorio is not afraid and communicates with representatives of government agencies to take an active part in the regulation of the cryptocurrency market and the development of the digital economy, and still participates in blockchain conferences and other events.
No. 8: Brock Pierce
The state of CEO Mastercoin, co-founder of Coinbase and Ethereum Brock Pierce, journalists estimated $ 700 million - $ 1 billion. However, Pierce himself clearly believes that they underestimated him. In March, he promised to invest $ 1 billion in a project based on the blockchain decentralized self-governing community, whose members will have equal voting rights in making decisions about their spending. Billionaire Pierce does not mind: "I will earn more. It doesn't bother me. ”
It was Brock Pierce with his partner Scott Walker who
conducted the first ICO in history in 2013. A successful venture investor and regular speaker at international crypto-conferences, Pierce believes that transferring the global financial system to the blockchain will help accelerate economic growth in all countries of the world.
Number 9: Mike Novograc
The state of the top manager of the company Galaxy Digital was also estimated at around $ 700 million - $ 1 billion. Back in 2013, during a speech at the UBS conference in New York, Mike Novograts hinted that he already had an adequate supply of bitcoins. Then he urged to safely invest in cryptocurrencies, the cost of which, he was sure, would increase markedly. Bitcoin then cost only $ 100. Now a cryptomillionaire, Michael Novograc still believes in the growth of cryptocurrency. He has invested 10% of his capital in cryptoactives, with which he predicts great potential.
In general, Michael is famous for his optimism. According to him, the cryptocurrency market is only at the beginning of its growth, and by 2022 it will grow by one order of magnitude, reaching $ 5 trillion.
Second tier
Separately, we decided to mention a few people who, according to Forbes, up to a billion, strictly speaking, do not reach out - but they are changing the world today, and most likely their entry into the club of nine zeros is just a matter of time.
Number 5: Acne Buterin
The author and co-founders of the blockchain, Ethereum, owns "Ether" for $ 400–500 million. The main life principle of Vitaly Buterin: “Give each agent a utility function, allow them to act independently in order to maximize their own goals.” He became interested in cryptocurrency in 2011, and he presented his own
project Ethereum to the world in November 2013.
Since then, “Efir” confidently holds the position of blockchain # 2 in importance after Bitcoin. And due to the technology of smart contracts, the number one influence on cryptomir has long been number one.
№ 4. Valery Vavilov
Valery Vavilov , one of the founders of BitFury, the global manufacturer of hardware for mining bitcoin and software for conducting operations in the cryptocurrency market. In 2017, he launched the Exonum framework, a hybrid product that allows you to develop private blockchains with reference to the bitcoin blockchain - the largest and most reliable in the world so far. Bitcoin in this bundle is responsible for data security, and the private blockchain on the basis of Exonum already solves specific problems for which it was developed.
For miners, bitcoin is good news: more transactions - more money on commissions.
No. 3: Dan Larimer
Dan Larimer is a talented programmer and successful cryptoinvestor who has earned on the crypt, according to Forbes, about $ 600–700 million. In 2014, he implemented the
first successful project on the blockchain - the decentralized crypto-exchange of BitShares 1.0. In 2016, he launched the distributed blockchain-media platform Steem, in which he was responsible for the technical side of the project.
In his projects, Dan Larimer personally works on software architecture, writes libraries and the code itself.
No. 2: Tim Dreyper
Tim Dreyper was known long before the invention of the blockchain. Back in the 80s, he invested in the first projects aimed at the development of the Internet. In 2013, in an interview with Bloomberg, he predicted that in four years the cost of Bitcoin would reach $ 10,000. The more interesting is his forecast of a bitcoin value of $ 250,000 in 2022, and later on - up to a million dollars per coin. In 2014, Tim Drayper earned money on “confiscated” by buying at auction about 32,000 bitcoins seized in the Silk Road case for less than $ 20 million. Now their course is $ 270 million.
However, since then, according to Draper, he has made
more than 40 cryptoinvestments .
Number 1: Pavel Durov
Pavel Durov took the cryptocurrency market by storm: the rush demand for his cryptocurrency Gram turned out to be so high that it brought the project $ 1.7 billion for the first two closed ICO rounds. Durov guarantees a refund in the event of a project failure and promises an unprecedented rate of one million transactions per second, which represents a huge leap forward compared to other cryptocurrencies. And, as you can see, the market believes him unconditionally.
Pavel Durov's reputation in itself is worth billions of dollars. He created two consecutive super-successful projects - Vkontakte and Telegram, but his main capital was not products, but enemies, to which he did not surrender.
The history of public conflicts of Pavel Durov shows how his reputation cemented, starting in 2010, when he called Mail.ru a trash holding and prior to his recent clashes with the Russian government. In case of successful implementation of the TON project, he will finally have to “get into the cache” on a large scale - no doubt in this case, adding to, if not heading, the top cryptomillionaires.
What do you think, what conclusions, useful for an ordinary cryptoinvestor or miner, could we draw from these stories?