Earlier this week, Forbes published its first-ever list of the top 19 wealthiest people in crypto. Though Forbes is no amature when it comes to compiling billionaire lists, putting together The Richest People in Cryptocurrency was no easy task. Due to the high volatility of the crypto market, calculating the exact worth of these crypto millionaires wasn’t a straightforward process. Ultimately, the list was determined using “net-worth estimates in ranges.” Forbes remarked on how numbers were crunched:
“We based our numbers on estimated holdings of cryptocurrencies (a few provided proof), post tax profits from trading crypto-assets and stakes in crypto-related businesses, and locked in our estimates using prices on Jan. 19, 2018.”
It should be noted that the minimum amount necessary to earn a spot on the list was set at $350 million.
|
Name |
Title |
Crypto net worth |
| Chris Larsen | Co-founder, Ripple | $7.5 billion – $8 billion |
| Joseph Lubin | Co-founder, Ethereum Founder, Consensys |
$1.1 billion – $5 billion |
| Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao | CEO, Binance | $1.1 billion – $2 billion |
| Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss | Co-founders, Winklevoss Capital | $900 million – $1.1 billion each |
| Matthew Mellon | Individual Investor | $900 million – $1 billion |
| Brian Armstrong | CEO, Coinbase | $900 million – $1 billion |
| Matthew Roszak | Co-founder, BloQ Founder, Tally Capital |
$900 million – $1 billion |
| Anthony Di Iorio | Co-founder, Etheruem Founder, Jaxx and Decentral |
$750 million – $1 billion |
| Brock Pierce | Chairman, Bitcoin Foundation Advisor, Block.One |
$700 million – $1 billion |
| Michael Novogratz | CEO, Galaxy Digital | $700 million – $1 billion |
Chris Larsen, co-founder and CEO of Ripple, tops the list with a net-worth of $7.5 – $8 billion. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao took a spot at number three, while Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, known as the world’s first Bitcoin billionaires, followed at number four. Other notable crypto figures include Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz. Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin came in at seventeen.
The Forbes list contained profiles on each person, briefly detailing their path to wealth. The list also published data on the average 2017 price change of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP (14.409%). Additional data revealed the average daily price volatility of the top three cryptocurrencies in January 2018. XRP proved the most volatile with 16.75%. For comparison, the daily price volatility of Apple was 1.37%.
Forbes editor Randall Lane commented on the significance of publishing this list:
“As in the dot-com boom in 1999, some of these crypto billionaires will bust, the Petscom of their era. Others will weather the inevitable reckoning and morph into something stronger, crypto’s eBay or Google. Our list provides a snapshot of a pivotal moment, part of the transparency needed to pull crypto away from its provenance as the favorite currency of drug dealers and into the adolescence of a legitimate class.”
