Sam Bankman-Fried
The biggest loser (in USD) is Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research. As one of the youngest self-made billionaires on Forbes’ billionaire list, Bankman-Fried’s net worth skyrocketed after launching FTX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, in 2019.
The majority of Bankman-Fried’s wealth comes from the FTX shares he holds. At one point, Bankman-Fried’s assets reached $16.7 billion at the peak of Bitcoin on May 10. However, the value of FTX has dropped by 37%, causing this wealth to fall to $11.5 billion by May 19.
The Winklevoss Twins
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the famous twin brothers who have a ‘feud’ with Mark Zuckerberg over the founding of Facebook, have seen their net worth decrease by $900 million each in the past 9 days, a 24% drop to about $2.9 billion each.
Since 2012, this twin duo has used a $65 million settlement from their dispute with Facebook to invest in Bitcoin, before launching the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini in 2014. Gemini is now handling a trading volume of $200 million per day.
Michael Saylor
The individual most affected in terms of asset value is Michael Saylor – CEO of MicroStrategy. The former dot-com billionaire has now become a Bitcoin investor. In October 2020, Michael Saylor purchased 17,732 Bitcoins for $175 million. Throughout 2020, he also directed his business analytics software company MicroStrategy to invest in Bitcoin; the company bought 70,784 Bitcoins for $1.1 billion. At the peak of Bitcoin, Saylor’s assets were worth $3.3 billion, but they dropped by 45% to $1.8 billion in just 9 days.
Vitalik Buterin
The cryptocurrency market being flooded in red has also taken away the billionaire status of Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain platform, which lasted only a few weeks. Accordingly, Vitalik Buterin became a billionaire on May 3 when Ether reached nearly $3,300 each. But his total assets were estimated at around $1.4 billion when Ether’s value surged past $4,300 on May 12.
However, with the recent crash in the electronic market, Forbes estimates that Vitalik Buterin’s current net worth is only about $850 million.
Brian Armstrong
Brian Armstrong is the current CEO of Coinbase, one of the largest and most popular Bitcoin exchanges in the world. With most of his wealth being in Coinbase shares, Brian Armstrong quickly became a billionaire when the exchange successfully went public and was valued at $85 billion on Nasdaq on April 14. By May 10, Brian Armstrong’s total assets were worth about $9.8 billion. However, after Bitcoin’s crash on May 19, Brian Armstrong’s total assets dropped by 15% to $8.3 billion.
Fred Ehrsam
Like Brian Armstrong, Fred Ehrsam – co-founder of Coinbase – has most of his wealth in the exchange’s shares. Fred Ehrsam quickly became a billionaire when Coinbase successfully listed. By May 10, Fred Ehrsam’s total assets were valued at about $3.4 billion. However, by May 19, Fred Ehrsam’s total assets had decreased to $2.9 billion, marking a drop of up to 27%.
Chris Larsen
Chris Larsen is the co-founder of Ripple (XRP) – the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. As the largest holder of Ripple, Chris Larsen is considered by Forbes to be one of the richest cryptocurrency billionaires in the world. As of May 10, 2021, the net worth of the ‘father’ of XRP was approximately $6.9 billion. However, by May 19, 2021, Chris Larsen’s assets had decreased by 19%, to only $5.6 billion.
Jed McCaleb
Along with Chris Larsen, Jed McCaleb is also a co-founder of Ripple. The former programmer also holds a large amount of XRP. On May 10, Jed McCaleb’s asset value was around $6 billion. However, that wealth shrank by about $1.6 billion by May 19, dropping to $4.4 billion, as the value of XRP plummeted.
Barry Silbert
Barry Silbert is one of the five founding members of the Digital Currency Group. Among the subsidiaries of the Digital Currency Group, Grayscale is the largest, specializing in managing and overseeing digital assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies with a total value of up to $28 billion.
Barry Silbert’s assets primarily come from his stake in Grayscale. As of May 19, Barry Silbert’s assets were only $1.8 billion, a decrease of about 14% from earlier.
Changpeng Zhao
Changpeng Zhao (or “CZ”) is one of the notable figures in the blockchain and cryptocurrency community. Currently, CZ is the CEO of Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. In 2014, he sold his house to invest in Bitcoin. In 2017, he founded Binance and made the exchange popular just a year later.
According to Forbes, Changpeng Zhao currently holds an estimated net worth of about $1.9 billion, primarily from Binance. Interestingly, unlike the aforementioned billionaires, Changpeng Zhao’s assets have seen almost no depreciation between the two dates of May 10 and May 19.
Source: Forbes