Forbes' list of cryptocurrency billionaires has just been updated, the number of people earning abundant fortunes with digital assets has increased significantly.
The list of elites in cryptocurrencies now names 19 billionaires, including 7 new ones, and the list is expanded to 58%. The list announced the richest people in the cryptocurrency sector on April 5, but the top position was unchanged.
Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, ceo and founder of Binance, remains the richest person in the industry. He is currently ranked 19th among the richest people in the world with the wealth he has accumulated recently. The list also shows that CZ's assets have fallen from about $96 billion last year to $65 billion today. However, this wealth still makes him the richest man in the industry.
Sam Bankman-Fried, ftx founder and CEO, won second place behind CZ with a net worth of about $24 billion. He was awarded the title of "Robin Hood of Crypto" because he has repeatedly stated that he wants to contribute the majority of his wealth to society. But with $24 billion on hand, it's clear he has no plans to do so.
Brian Armstrong, CEO and founder of Coinbase, came in third with $6.6 billion. Ripple's Chris Larsen and Gemini's Winklevoss twins retain their place on the list with assets of about $4.4 billion.
New billionaires in the cryptocurrency industry include Gary Wang, ftx's co-founder and chief technology officer, with a net worth of $5.6 billion from his stake in the company; Nikil Viswanathan and Joseph Lau, co-founders of Blockchain and Web3 company Alchemy. The pair are believed to each have a net worth of about $2.4 billion, putting them in 11th place.
Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah, co-founders of the NFT OpenSea marketplace, are also new names on this year's list of cryptocurrency billionaires with each having about $2.2 billion.
There are also many other prominent names on the list, including Song Chi-hyung, founder of south Korea's Upbit exchange, who has $3.7 billion on hand, Kim Hyoung-nyon, deputy managing director of Dunamu in South Korea, with $1.9 billion in assets.
MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor retains his position as a cryptocurrency billionaire with a net worth of $1.6 billion. The company's stock has quadrupled from two years ago after succeeding in a major Bitcoin bet.
Initially, Forbes published a list of cryptocurrency elites in 2018 with only a few people on the list. At the time, the standard for getting onto the list was much lower, with a fortune of about $350 million that could be on the list.
