Meet the 10 cryptocurrency billionaires who made it to 'Forbes' list

The world is in the midst of a gold rush, the digital kind. In the last few months, a massive spike in valuations of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (the so-called “alt-coins”), resulted in 9 newly-minted billionaires joining the Forbes’ list. As crypto currencies grow, so does the list of billionaires’ club. Altogether, there were are 11 crypto billionaires who made it to the 2021 Forbes list, from just four in 2020. This crypto nouveau-riche club (mostly investors, builders, and issuers) reflects growing prominence of cryptos and the huge pay-off reaped by those who have embraced it. Data based on estimated net worths as of March 5, 2021:

Twins Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss are worth $3 billion each. The former Olympic rowers who sued Facebook and walked away with $65 million have used Bitcoin investments to grow their money. They’ve also launched Gemini, a crypto exchange firm, and digital art auction platform Nifty Gateway.

Michael Saylor, CEO of software firm MicroStrategy, has had a turbulent relationship with fortune but things seem to be looking up. Thanks to a timely buy of Bitcoin, he’s worth $2.3 billion now. Not bad, eh?

Matthew Roszak discovered Bitcoin back in 2011 and has grown his investments to $1.5 billion. At present he is the chairman of Bloq, a blockchain infra-structure company, and an early-stage investor in crypto startups.

Tim Draper saw the value of Bitcoins back in 2014; he bought $18.7 million worth of the stuff that had been confiscated by US Marshals from the Silk Road black market. Those coins are now worth $1.5 billion. Ka-ching!

MIT alum Sam Bankman-Fried is worth a neat $8.7 billion at the grand old age of 29. The founder of the the quantitative trading firm Alameda Research and popular derivatives exchange FTX is also passionate about politics. He reportedly donated $5million to a super-PAC that supported now President Joe Biden’s campaign.

Brian Armstrong, CEO and cofounder of Coinbase currency exchange, is doing so well that it generated more than $1 billion in revenues last year. His current worth stands at $6.5 billion.

Fred Ehrsam, who co-founded Coinbase in 2012, left the company in 2017, but his stake in the firm stands at $1.9 billion.

Changpeng Zhao, founder of crypto exchange Binance, is also worth $1.9 billion. Zhao owns an estimated 30 per cent stake in the company.

Barry Silbert founded Digital Currency Group in 2015. Among the as-sets of this conglomerate are news site CoinDesk and asset manage-ment firm Grayscale, which controls $44 billion worth of Bitcoin, Ether and other assets. Silbert meanwhile is worth $1.6 billion.