- The largest crypto investors have collectively lost about $116 billion in personal wealth since March 2022.
- Apart from those that lost a significant portion of their net worth, a handful of other industry players no longer belong to the billionaire category.
The crypto market bloodbath does not spare even the strongest among the industry players. Some of the wealthiest investors have witnessed their net worth plummet in 2022. Founders and key investors are seeing their wallets drained by a bear market and a series of bankruptcies. According to a Forbes report, the largest crypto investors have collectively lost about $116 billion in personal wealth since the beginning of March 2022.
Source: Forbes
The Biggest Losers
In addition, the report indicates that the loss represents the combined total equity of 17 influential people in the digital asset space. However, of the total number of individuals affected, more than 15 have lost over half of their funds since the start of March, with ten names leaving the list of billionaires in the crypto industry. Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former FTX boss, is one of the biggest losers as his net worth fell from $24 billion within this time frame to zero in December, as revealed by the Forbes report.
With the spectacular collapse of the FTX empire, reports indicate that SBF is likely without any funds to show for his time. Of the losers, none is more profound than that Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who is reported to have suffered personal losses more than others. At the beginning of March, CZ’s stake in Binance was about 70 percent with a valuation of $65 billion, which has now dropped to $4.5 billion in December.
Furthermore, Forbes revealed that Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s CEO, had a net worth of $6 billion in March, which has significantly decreased to $1.5 billion this month. Chris Larsen, Ripple’s co-founder, saw his worth drop to $2.1 billion from $4.3 billion. In comparison, Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are now worth $1.1 billion each, down from their previous $4 billion net worth as of March 2022.
Former Crypto Billionaires and Market Uncertainty
The latest Forbes report shows the scary events occurring in the digital asset industry for months, with billions of dollars worth of assets down the drain.
Apart from those that lost a significant portion of their net worth, a handful of other industry players no longer belong to the billionaire category. Michael Saylor, founder of MicroStrategy, Devin Finzer, and Alex Atallah, owners of the popular NFT marketplace, OpenSea, and Fred Ehrsam of Coinbase, are notable names that no longer belong to the crypto billionaire club.
It is difficult to predict with accuracy what will happen to the crypto market in the coming year due to the volatile nature of virtual assets. In addition, the liquidity crisis, worsened by the FTX collapse, has left many exchanges on the brink of bankruptcy or already bankrupt.
Nevertheless, the crypto market bear trend is likely to continue, given the impact of the FTX debacle on investors’ confidence in the industry. However, given the regulatory challenges that have been part of the broader digital ecosystem, a quick positive turn of events is still far away.
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