$78 billion is the estimated combined wealth of the top ten richest crypto businessmen in 2024. Who are these people and how did they become so wealthy?

Who are we talking about?

In 2024, the richest crypto billionaires were: Changpeng Zhao, Brian Armstrong, Giancarlo Devasini, Michael Saylor, Paolo Ardoino, Jean-Louis van der Velde, Chris Larsen, Fred Ehrsam, Matthew Roszak, and Jed McCaleb.

Forbes magazine estimates the wealth of billionaires as part of its annual
World’s Billionaires ListLet’s take a look at what each of the top heroes earned.

Changpeng Zhao – net worth $33 billion

Changpeng Zhao is a Canadian-Chinese entrepreneur and co-founder of one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world – Binance. Before creating the exchange, he worked in large high-tech companies (Bloomberg Tradebook, Fusion Systems and Blockchain.com). In 2017, Binance appeared.

Changpeng Zhao currently does not hold a leadership position in the company, but he retains a massive 90% stake in Binance.

A US court recently sentenced the businessman to four months in prison for failing to properly build a customer verification system and anti-money laundering (KYC/AML) system at Binance during his tenure. Zhao is currently serving his sentence.

Brian Armstrong – net worth $11.2 billion

Brian Armstrong is an American entrepreneur and investor, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. Before creating the exchange, Armstrong worked as a software engineer at several technology companies, including IBM and Airbnb.

In 2021, Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange to go public. The company’s listing on the NASDAQ exchange marked a new stage in the legalization of the entire cryptocurrency industry.

However, since the middle of last year, the exchange has been in litigation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The agency accuses the company of illegal brokerage activities and trading in cryptocurrencies, which, according to the regulator, are securities. Bloomberg estimated the exchange’s chances of winning against the SEC at 70%.

Giancarlo Devasini – net worth $9.2 billion

Giancarlo Devasini is an Italian doctor who became a successful crypto entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CFO of Tether, the issuing company of USDT, the most popular stablecoin in the world.

Despite his education in plastic surgery, Devazini chose to pursue a career in finance. In 2014, he and his partners founded Tether.

Devazini owns approximately 47% of Tether shares, which is
according to Forbes estimatesmaking him the company’s largest shareholder. In addition, Devazini receives significant income from the interest Tether generates on its customers’ collateral.

Michael Saylor – net worth $4.4 billion

Michael Saylor is the co-founder of the American software development company MicroStrategy.

In 2020, the entrepreneur decided to invest the company’s funds in Bitcoin. Four years later, the strategy surpassed the investment returns of one of the world’s most famous investment companies, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. As of August 10 this year, MicroStrategy had 226,500 BTC worth $13.771 billion, which
acquired at an average price of about $37,000.

Paolo Ardoino – net worth $3.9 billion

Paolo Ardoino is the CEO of Tether. He is the main public face of the company, owning approximately 20% of the shares.

Ardoino’s path to success began in 2014 when he joined Bitfinex, a subsidiary of Tether, as a senior software developer.

Jean-Louis van der Velde – net worth $3.9 billion

Jean-Louis van der Velde is a crypto entrepreneur and one of the founders of Tether.

At Tether, van der Velde was a key contributor to the platform’s development and launch, serving as the company’s CEO until 2019.

Today he still remains an influential figure, owning about 20% of the shares.

Chris Larsen – net worth $3.2 billion

Chris Larsen is an American entrepreneur who is considered one of the first cryptocurrency billionaires. He is the co-founder of Ripple Labs, the company that created the XRP cryptocurrency.

Although Larsen stepped down as Ripple’s CEO in late 2016, he still serves as the company’s executive chairman.

Late last year, the SEC dropped charges against him in a probe into allegedly violating securities laws by selling XRP to institutional investors, or legal entities.

Fred Ehrsam – net worth $3.2 billion

Fred Ehrsam co-founded Coinbase and Paradigm, a cryptocurrency investment company.

Ehrsam began his career at Goldman Sachs. In 2012, he founded Coinbase with Brian Armstrong. Ehrsam left Coinbase in 2017, but remains on the board and owns about 4% of the shares.

Matthew Roszak – net worth $3.1 billion

Matthew Roszak is a venture capitalist and early investor in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He was one of the first people to invest heavily in Bitcoin, when the first cryptocurrency was worth just a few cents.

In addition to Bitcoin, Roszak also successfully invested in Ethereum, BNB, and a number of other cryptocurrencies, many of which subsequently showed impressive growth.

Jed McCaleb – net worth $2.9 billion

Jed McCaleb is the founder of the first major Bitcoin exchange MtGox and co-founder of Ripple.

McCaleb launched MtGox in 2010, then sold it a year later before the marketplace was hacked. He co-founded Ripple in 2012. But he left the company a year later due to disagreements with other founders.

The entrepreneur’s main capital came from the sale of 9 billion XRP coins received as a co-founder of Ripple.

Conclusion

Over the course of cryptocurrency’s existence, many have managed to make money on them. But those who realized the potential for development at the dawn of the cryptocurrency industry’s formation made a fortune. Some of these people simply invested in digital assets, earning on the growth of their value. And some created an entire infrastructure: exchanges and new coins.