The CEOs of Coinbase, FTX and Binance led the blockchain billionaires list last year as the cryptocurrency market recorded massive gains
The heads of cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase, FTX and Binance have been named the wealthiest people in the blockchain space. According to the Hurun Report’s 2020 Global Rich List published earlier this week, there are 17 blockchain billionaires.
Blockchain billionaires are individuals who made their money from cryptocurrency exchanges, investing in cryptocurrencies or mining them. Amongst the 17 blockchain billionaires, 11 are new to the list as they made their fortune in the current bull cycle, which began last year.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tops the list, with an estimated net worth of roughly $11.5 billion. Coinbase is one of the top digital currency exchanges globally and is preparing to go public soon.
He is followed closely by the CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, with an estimated net worth of $10 billion. The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, came in third and is worth around $8 billion. These three run some of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
A notable absence from the list is Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi is worth around $50 billion and should have taken the number one spot. However, Hurun explained that Satoshi couldn’t be on the list since his identity remains unknown.
Some of the notable new entrants in the blockchain space include; the Winklevoss twins tied in seventh place, worth around $2.8 billion and co-founder of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor, worth roughly $2.4 billion.
The remaining billionaires on the list include; Chris Larsen ($5.1 billion), Jed McCaleb ($3.2 billion), Barry Silbert ($3 billion), Matthew Roszak ($2.4 billion), Li Lin ($2 billion), Tim Draper ($1.9 billion), Zhan Ketuan ($1.8 billion), Xu Mingxing ($1.7 billion), Michael Novogratz ($1.7 billion), Brad Garlinghouse ($1.4 billion) and Dan Morehead ($1.1 billion).
The cryptocurrency market added hundreds of billions of dollars to its market cap as Bitcoin, Ethereum and several other cryptocurrencies raced to new all-time highs. The increasing number of users in the crypto space meant high transaction volumes and record fees for the cryptocurrency exchanges.
Cryptocurrency investors and miners also made money last year as BTC surged by more than 400% in 2020. It continued its rally in 2021 and reached a new all-time high above $58,000 a few weeks ago.