Cryptocurrency Tycoons Who are Now Worth Billionaires

Change is in the air and cryptocurrencies are no longer restricted to geeks and tech-savvy nerds. Today, they offer real investment possibilities and trading opportunities to there common people. It is true that the early crypto traders have made billions from their investments, but cryptocurrencies are volatile and assessing the real wealth of a crypto investor is a tricky proposition.

With that qualifying remark, there is no doubt that a few pioneering traders have minted a huge fortune from cryptocurrency deals and investments.  Look before you leap into the cloud generated ‘World of Cryptocurrency’ and study the pioneers before taking on the volatile traders in ‘Cryptos’. According to Forbes Magazine, these are the names of the richest cryptocurrency pioneers and how they made a fortune;

Nakamoto

The person who actually created bitcoin used Nakamoto as a pseudonym. There is much speculation about who actually Nakamoto is or whether there are more than 1 person, who are collectively called Nakamoto. Speculation apart, he has admitted to owning about 1 million bitcoins, which are worth about $19 billion, easily qualifying him as one of the world’s richest people.

Chris Larsen

Chris has a net worth of about $7.5 to $8 billion, and made his crypto fortune taming volatile cryptocurrencies for the use of major  financial institutions and banks. He is the co-founder and executive Chairman of Ripple, which makes use of blockchain technology (a system which verifies and records transactions of various kinds of assets, including its own currency called XRP). He has an impressive record of identifying and backing off-beat technology companies and start-ups, including the very first peer-to-peer financier in USA.

Joseph Lubin

Lubin is one of the co-founders of Ethereum, a blockchain platform, and is also a strong backer of ConsenSys, which spins off or launches cryptocurrencies around the world. Inspired by an instrumental paper authored by Nakamoto during the early cryptocurrency years, Lubin believes that if we were to share infrastructure, it could become an organizing principle for the entire planet. According to unofficial figures, his cryptocurrency net worth is said to be between $1 billion to $5 billion.

Changpeng Zhao

Known to friends and admirers as “CZ”, he is the founder of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, which has now over six million users. Binance launched its own token in 2017, named the binance coin (BNB), and it operates on the Ethereum blockchain. After the launch of Binance, CZ’s crypto-wealth is about $2 billion now.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss

These former Olympic rowers once sued Mark Zuckerberg when he created Facebook, claiming that Mark had stolen their idea of HavardConnection (now called ConnectU) to make his own website. The $65 million secured through the lawsuit helped them fund their subsequent projects, including making capital investments in bitcoin. Some years ago, if estimations were to be believed, the brothers jointly owned 1% of the world’s bitcoins, and their crypto-wealth was more than $1 billion. In 2015, the brothers launched Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange. They also had made investments in other cryptocurrencies such as ether.

Matthew Roszak

Roszak claims to be the first to introduce bitcoins to Bill Clinton and Richard Branson. He can be generous, having generated a portfolio of about $1 billion. An early votary of cryptocurrencies, he dabbled in bitcoins since 2011. A founder partner of Tally Capital, Blockchain Capital’s First Fund, he has invested in more than 20 start-ups through the fund.

Anthony Diiorio

As one of the founders of Ethereum, Anthony has been a champion and pioneer of the cryptocurrency movement. He seeded newfangled cryptocurrencies in their premature life-cycle stages, then moved out and redeployed capital in new cryptos. Some big names in his investment portfolio include Qtum, Zcash and Vechain. His net worth in cryptocurrency alone is estimated at around $1 billion.

Brian Armstrong

It is often said that the major profiteers at the time of the Gold Rush were people who manufactured the shovels and pickaxes and so it may very well apply to cryptos, as well. If true then Armstrong holds a great position as his venture, Coinbase, as it is the major entry point in USA for cryptocurrency trading. Started in 2012, it has 2 main silos: a brokerage where retail customers buy cryptocurrency through any bank account, and then there is an exchange for bigger traders. His net worth in terms of cryptocurrency is estimated to lie in the $900 million to $1 billion range.

Brock Pierce

A former actor, Pierce founded Blockchain Capital (BCC), which is a venture capital firm, in collaboration with Bradford and Bart Stephens in 2013. The company witnessed the largest ICO in the whole of 2017, totally raising around $700 million. He has now resigned from Blockchain Capital, and has generated enough wealth from his Blockchain investments, reportedly between the sums of $700 million and $1 billion.