The crypto winter is over. Bitcoin has more than doubled over the past 12 months, hitting an all-time high of $73,000 in March after the U.S. legalized bitcoin-pegged exchange-traded funds. The total value of all outstanding cryptocurrencies increased by 170%, adding some $1.6 trillion in market value over the past 12 months, according to CoinGecko.
That’s helped make at least 17 people crypto billionaires, according to Forbes’ 2024 World’s Billionaires list, up from nine crypto billionaires last year. These 17 investors and entrepreneurs are worth a collective $93 billion, between their estimated crypto asset holdings, publicly disclosed stock holdings and private assets. That’s more than double the $37 billion in collective crypto billionaire wealth last year.
For the third year running, Changpeng Zhao, founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, is crypto’s wealthiest person. Despite pleading guilty to U.S. money laundering charges in November, CZ, as he’s known, is now worth an estimated $33 billion, up from $10.5 billion last year. That makes him the biggest crypto gainer in dollar terms since last year and the 50th-wealthiest person in the world. The bulk of his fortune comes from his majority stake in Binance, which remains the industry’s largest global trading venue by volume.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhyatt/2024/04/02/the-richest-crypto-and-bitcoin-billionaires-in-the-world-2024/
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
That’s helped make at least 17 people crypto billionaires, according to Forbes’ 2024 World’s Billionaires list, up from nine crypto billionaires last year. These 17 investors and entrepreneurs are worth a collective $93 billion, between their estimated crypto asset holdings, publicly disclosed stock holdings and private assets. That’s more than double the $37 billion in collective crypto billionaire wealth last year.
For the third year running, Changpeng Zhao, founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, is crypto’s wealthiest person. Despite pleading guilty to U.S. money laundering charges in November, CZ, as he’s known, is now worth an estimated $33 billion, up from $10.5 billion last year. That makes him the biggest crypto gainer in dollar terms since last year and the 50th-wealthiest person in the world. The bulk of his fortune comes from his majority stake in Binance, which remains the industry’s largest global trading venue by volume.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhyatt/2024/04/02/the-richest-crypto-and-bitcoin-billionaires-in-the-world-2024/
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00 The crypto winter is over. Bitcoin has more than doubled over the past 12 months, hitting an all-time high of $73,000 in March after the U.S. legalized Bitcoin-pegged exchange-traded funds.
00:13 The total value of all outstanding cryptocurrencies increased by 170%, adding some $1.6 trillion in market value over the past 12 months, according to CoinGecko.
00:26 These 17 investors and entrepreneurs are worth a collective $93 billion between their estimated crypto asset holdings, publicly disclosed stock holdings, and private assets.
00:37 That's more than double the $37 billion in collective crypto billionaire wealth last year. Here are the five richest people in crypto on this year's Forbes Billionaires list.
00:49 At number five, Paolo Ordoño. Ordoño serves as Tether's CEO and owns an estimated 20% of the company. He joined Tether's sister company, Bitfinex, as a senior software developer in 2014.
01:05 At number four, Michael Saylor. Saylor is the biggest crypto billionaire gainer in percentage terms on this year's list.
01:14 Shares of MicroStrategy, a software firm Saylor started in the 1990s and refashioned into a Bitcoin investment vehicle in recent years, are up nearly 500% from last year.
01:26 The company now owns about 193,000 Bitcoins, making it the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world, according to its CFO.
01:35 Then there's Saylor's personal Bitcoin stash. Saylor said in 2021 that he holds 17,732 Bitcoins that he bought at an average price of $9,882 per coin.
01:50 And he's in the process of cashing out about $200 million of MicroStrategy stock, which he announced at the beginning of the year.
01:58 At number three, Giancarlo Devicini.
02:02 Devicini is the CFO and likely the largest individual shareholder of Tether, crypto's largest issuer of stablecoins, a form of cryptocurrency that's pegged to the U.S. dollar or other hard currencies and used as a medium of exchange.
02:17 Buoyed by higher interest rates, Tether generated $6.2 billion in profit last year from the interest it generates on customers collateral.
02:26 Devicini owns an estimated 47% stake in Tether, which forbs values by applying the average price-to-earning multiples of a group of publicly traded mid-tier banks and asset managers.
02:38 At number two, Brian Armstrong.
02:41 Armstrong, who co-founded Coinbase in 2013 with fellow billionaire Fred Ersam, is the company's largest individual shareholder with an 18% stake.
02:52 The crypto exchange's stock is up 50% year to date and over threefold since last year, giving it a market cap of nearly $60 billion.
03:02 The business generated $2.9 billion of revenue last year, down from $3.1 billion in 2022 and $7.8 billion in 2021, the last time crypto prices spiked.
03:15 But the company has returned to profitability, generating net income of $100 million compared to a $2.6 billion net loss in 2022.
03:26 Since November, Armstrong has sold more than $170 million worth of Coinbase stock.
03:33 And at number one, Xiongpeng Zhao.
03:36 Zhao, who goes by CZ, agreed to personally pay $200 million in fines last year to settle federal money laundering charges brought by the Department of Justice and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.
03:49 He also agreed to step down as CEO of crypto exchange Binance and is barred from involvement with Binance for three years as part of his guilty plea.
03:58 Yet it hardly left a dent in his fortune.
04:01 His stake in Binance, estimated to be 90% based on corporate documents and conversations with former employees, is worth some $32.5 billion.
04:11 Binance remains the largest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume, generating an estimated $9 billion of revenue last year, according to Forbes' analysis.
04:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:24 [MUSIC ENDS]
04:26 [BLANK_AUDIO]