These are the ten richest crypto billionaires

From Michael Saylor to Satoshi Nakamoto: these are the richest crypto personalities. And their amazing stories.

Ambitious hedge fund managers, controversial pioneers and geniuses shrouded in mystery: the rise of Bitcoin and co. has made many people rich - some even crypto billionaires. The 10 richest crypto investors and their adventure stories.

10: Michael Saylor ($1.2 billion).

He is the CEO of MicroStrategy, a billionaire and a true Bitcoin follower. Every morning he shares a bullish Bitcoin meme on Twitter. With his company, he has also owned Bitcoin since 2020. Some see him as a pioneer, others as a complicated screamer. Fact is: MicroStrategy owns nearly one percent of the total amount of Bitcoins, about 152,000 BTC, the equivalent of several billion U.S. dollars. Saylor's own fortune amounts to US$1.2 billion.

9: Matthew Roszak ($1.4 billion)

Less well known, but even richer: Matthew Roszak has a fortune of $1.4 billion. He is mainly active as an investor in the crypto sector. He worked in traditional finance until 2012, when he discovered Bitcoin and Co. He is a board member of blockchain startup Bloq and co-founder of early DeFi platform Vesper Finance, both launched with Jeff Garzik, one of Bitcoin's core developers.

8: Nikil Viswanathan ($1.8 billion)

Nikil Viswanathan is co-founder of Alchemy, a leading Web3 platform backed by Google, Charles Schwaab and other old-world heavyweights. It is also called the "Microsoft of Blockchain" because dozens of companies use its software.

7: Marc Andreessen (US$1.8 billion)

He is something of a shadow emperor of Web3, a VC magnate and Internet pioneer. Marc Andreessen's career began as a programmer during the birth of the Internet, at Netscape in the 1990s. Today he heads a17, perhaps the most powerful Web3 hedge fund in the world, with stakes in almost every major company (Coinbase, Ripple and Alchemy etc.). He is also known for the influential essay, Software Is Eating The World. The result: a $1.8 billion fortune.

6: Jed McCaleb (US$2.4 billion).

He founded Mt. Gox, the first major Bitcoin exchange, in 2012. Then in 2013, he co-founded Ripple, one of the largest cryptocurrencies in the world. And finally, in 2014, he went into business for himself with Stellar, a blockchain designed for speed but which quickly became irrelevant. Most of his wealth came from sold Ripple tokens. Jed McCaleb owned nine billion of them. With his new startup "Vast," he now wants to go to the moon. But not just metaphorically: he wants to build the first space station with artificial gravity. His fortune: $2.4 billion.

5: Chris Larsen ($2.6 billion)

Au. Chris Larsen still owned nearly $60 billion in 2018. Today, that is "only" 2.6 billion. How he got the heavy wealth? The creation of Ripple, one of the most successful (and controversial) cryptocurrencies in the world. He was still CEO of the company until 2014. Repeatedly criticized: his donations - often to police surveillance cameras, several million dollars. Also: a Greenpeace campaign against Bitcoin: "Change the Code, not the Climate." In it, it demanded: Bitcoin must switch to Proof of Stake.

4: The Winklevoss twins ($3 billion)

They were the first Bitcoin billionaires: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss first bought Bitcoin in 2012, for about US$10. Today, they are best known as the founders of Gemini, one of the leading crypto exchanges in the US, and Nifty, long a leading marketplace for NFT. They are also known for the movie "The Social Network." It's about the birth of Facebook. And a great drama. Mark Zuckerberg once at Harvard stole the idea for Facebook from them, they accuse. Their fortune, about US$1.5 billion each.

3: Brian Armstrong ($3.1 billion).

He is the founder of Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US. And to some: the "king of crypto." His role models: Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. In court, he fights the SEC against arbitrary measures. On Twitter, he sometimes scolds his critics. Unpleasant: When Coinbase employees protested a "toxic work culture," he merely called them "stupid" and threatened to quit. His fortune: $3.1 billion.

2: Changpeng Zhao ($10 billion)

Raised in poor circumstances in China, Changpeng Zhao is now one of the richest people in the world. He founded Binance in 2017, now the world's largest crypto exchange. Today, he is caught in the crossfire of the U.S. Justice Department. The charges weigh heavily: from serious fraud to market manipulation. His fortune: $10 billion.

1: Satoshi Nakamoto ($19-25 billion)

He is said to own between 750,000 and more than a million Bitcoin. And no one knows his identity: we're talking about Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin. He went into hiding in April 2011. Since then, many have claimed his identity. But no one has been able to convince. His fortune is between US$19 billion and US$25 billion. But Satoshi Nakamoto has never touched the Bitcoin allegedly associated with him. Yet mysterious wallet-addresses becoming active after a long time of inactivity. That was the case in 2021 when a wallet address from the time of Satoshi Nakamoto suddenly became active again. Was dit Satoshi Nakamoto?