In the last eight months, crypto billionaires amassed wealth plummeted over the Bitcoin crash From January 2022, crypto billionaires watched over $100 billion (Ksh 11.8 trillion) whipped out of their wealth The cryptocurrency market continued to worsen even as inflation hit a record high across the world.
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These are not the best time for cryptocurrency investors, more so for those who have amassed a huge fortune from it.
In a few years, known tech enthusiasts became some of the most powerful men in the world after raking billions of dollars selling their digital assets.
In Forbes’s 2022 richest billionaires list, 19 of the names listed all made their money from cryptocurrency. Top of the list is Changpeng Zhao, Sam Bankman-Fried, and Brian Armstrong– all are at the helm of cryptocurrency exchanges.
According to the Bloomberg report, seven crypto billionaires were worth as much as $145 billion (KSh 17.1 trillion) in November 2021, when Bitcoin reached a record high of almost $69,000 (KSh 8.2 million).
Fast forward six months later, the seven billionaires’ fortunes tied to crypto have since lost a combined $114 billion (KSh 13.5 trillion).
For instance, Changpeng Zhao Crypto’s richest person, Binance founder and CEO “CZ” as of 31 March 2022, was worth $64.5 billion (KSh 7.6 trillion) and was sitting comfortably as the 19th richest man in the world.
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Bloomberg billionaire index for as of Wednesday, July 13, showed Zhao’s worth dropped to $19 billion (KSh 2.2 trillion), falling to 76th, which is 13 places behind Aliko Dangote at 63rd.
Forbes top 10 richest crypto and blockchain billionaires in the world 2022
While most of them have seen their fortune drop massively, here are Forbes 10 richest crypto billionaires.
| Name | Source of Wealth | Worth according to forbes |
| Changpeng Zhao | Binance | $65 billion |
| Sam Bankman-Fried | FTX | $24 billion |
| Brian Armstrong | Coinbase | $6.6 billion |
| Chris Larsen | Ripple | $4.3 billion |
| Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss | Bitcoin | $4 billion each |
| Song Chi-hyung | Upbit | $3.7 billion |
| Barry Silbert | Digital Currency Group | $3.2 billion |
| Jed McCaleb | Ripple, Stellar | $2.5 billion |
| Nikil Viswanathan and Joseph Lau | Alchemy | $2.4 billion each |
| Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah | OpenSea | $2.2 billion |
