Changpeng Zao, Brian Armstrong and Michael Saylor are the biggest winners from the current rise in bitcoin.
This will probably not have escaped you: since the start of the year, the price of bitcoin has gained 60%, allowing the queen of cryptos to reach an all-time high, at $73,750 on March 14. A situation that benefits its owners.
Today, there are 17 crypto-billionaires in the world compared to 9 last year, according to the latest ranking of billionaires in 2024 established by Forbes. Their total wealth is estimated at $93 billion, “between their estimated publicly disclosed holdings of cryptocurrencies, stocks, and private assets.” This is three times more than last year, when their total fortune stood at $37 billion.
Here are the 5 richest crypto-billionaires of the moment:
1st. Changpeng Zao: $33 billion
For the third year in a row, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder and former boss of the Binance crypto exchange, is the richest man in the ecosystem. His fortune stands at $33 billion, compared to $10.5 billion last year. This is due to its “majority stake in Binance, which remains the largest crypto platform by volume,” says Forbes. The latter, however, left his post last year, as part of the record fine of $4.3 billion paid by Binance to the American justice system, to put an end to a legal investigation. Also implicated in a personal capacity by the courts, he will receive his prison sentence on April 30.
2e. Brian Armstrong: 11,2 milliards de dollars
Brian Armstrong’s fortune is now estimated at $11.2 billion compared to $2.2 billion last year. Co-founder of the American crypto exchange Coinbase, he holds an 18% stake. Shares of this Nasdaq-listed exchange “have risen 50% since the start of the year, and more than three times since last year, giving it a market capitalization of nearly $60 billion,” can -we read. Since November, the latter “has sold more than $170 million worth of Coinbase shares,” specifies the media.
3rd. Giancarlo Devasini: $9.2 billion
Giancarlo Devasini has a fortune of $9.2 billion, compared to $4 billion in 2023. He is the financial director of the company Tether, at the head of the largest stablecoin on the market (USDT, which weighs more of 106 billion dollars). “Supported by higher interest rates, Tether generated a profit of $6.2 billion last year. Giancarlo Devasini holds an estimated 47% stake in Tether,” Forbes points out.
4th. Michael Saylor: $4.4 billion
The maximalist bitcoiner Michael Saylor can boast of being at the head of a fortune of 4.4 billion dollars compared to 760 million dollars last year. This makes him “the biggest crypto-billionaire winner, in percentage terms, on this year’s list,” Forbes points out. Not only is he the head of a company, Microstrategy, whose shares have increased by 500% in one year. But he also personally holds 17,732 bitcoins purchased at an average price of $9,882 in 2020.
5th. Paolo Ardoino: $3.9 billion
The fortune of Paolo Ardoino, boss of Tether, is now worth $3.9 billion compared to $1.8 billion last year. The latter owns 20% of the company.
Despite these great fortunes, let us remember that crypto-billionaires have lost a lot of money since the crypto winter of 2022. In the 2022 ranking (established before the bankruptcy of the Terra ecosystem in May 2022), the total fortune of the latter weighed 140 billion dollars.
Source: https://www.bfmtv.com/crypto/bitcoin/hausse-du-bitcoin-qui-sont-les-5-crypto-milliardaires-les-plus-riches-de-2024_AV-202404050577.html
