The drop in the capitalization of cryptocurrencies by 70% devalued the state of crypto-billionaires who were at the origins of the birth of Bitcoin exchange trading. In the 2022 rating published by Forbes magazine, the founder of the infamous Mt.Gox exchange and the creator of the Ripple protocol, Jed McCaleb, flew out of the top 400 list.
The Winklevoss brothers, Cameron and Tyler, who became an example of classic luck, also lost the status of crypto-billionaires.
They bought 1% of the Bitcoin issue in 2013, spending $ 11 million on the deal from funds received as compensation from Mark Zuckerberg in a lawsuit over the rights to Facebook. The brothers decided to link themselves to the cryptocurrency market by opening the Gemini exchange, focused on institutional crypto investors.
Fred Ersam, co-founder of the largest exchange Coinbase, was the third to drop out of the list of billionaires this year. The founder of this company, Brian Armstrong, is still in the top 400 list, despite the loss of $9 billion of fortune.
Cryptocurrency exchanges are still a profitable business, judging by the inclusion in the rating of Sam Bankman Fried, who founded the FTX platform. She brought him a fortune of $17.2 billion. Fried's business partner, former Google programmer Gary Wang, also entered the list of crypto billionaires, earning $4.6 billion.
Chris Larsen closes the list of 4 "surviving" crypto billionaires. The co-founder of Ripple is ranked 380th and his position in the top 400 ranking now directly depends on a court decision in the United States. Larsen may leave the rating if the court recognizes the XRP token as a security.
