Bitcoin Tycoons: Meet The Richest People In The Crypto-Sphere

This extremely volatile list of the wealthiest individuals in the crypto-sphere includes all the most prominent names.

And unsurprisingly, top of the prestigious list is Ripple founder Chris Larsen.

Based on Larsen’s holdings of 5.2 billion Ripple tokens (XRP), Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at nearly $20 billion in early January 2018.

Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Consensys, comes 2nd with a net worth of between $1 billion and $5 billion. The CEO of Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, ranks third with up to $2 billion. The magazine based its statistics on estimated holdings of cryptocurrencies, post-tax profits from trading crypto-assets and stakes in crypto-related businesses, and locked in the estimates using prices on 19 January 2018.

Bitcoin billionaires: The Top 10 of Richest People in Cryptocurrency as follows:

1. Chris Larsen, Co-founder, Ripple — $7.5 billion – $8 billion

2. Joseph Lubin, Co-founder, Ethereum and founder at Consensys — $1 billion – $5 billion

3. Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO, Binance — $1.1 billion – $2 billion

4. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, Co-founders, Winklevoss Capital — $900 million -$1.1 billion each

5. Matthew Mellon, Individual investor — $900 million – $1 billion

6. Brian Armstrong, CEO, Coinbase — $900 million – $1 billion

7. Matthew Roszak, Co-founder, BIoQ, and founder at Tally Capital — $900 million – $1 billion

8. Anthony Di Iorio, Co-founder at Ethereum and founder at Jaxx and Decentral — $750 million – $1 billion

9. Brock Pierce Chairman, Bitcoin Foundation, and advisor at Block.One — $700 million – $1 billion

10. Michael Novogratz, CEO, Galaxy Digital — $700 million – $1 billion