Who earned the most from the growth of bitcoin - Forbes rating

In just one month (from the beginning of December 2020 to January 2021), bitcoin more than doubled in price and exceeded the value of $ 41,000. In parallel with bitcoin, prices for other cryptocurrencies also grew. For example, the cost of Ethereum for the same period increased from $ 598 to $ 1217.

Forbes has compiled a list of investors who managed to make a fortune on cryptocurrencies, resisting the temptation to sell their assets during the fall in prices.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss - $ 1.4 billion 

 

The co-founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, which now has a daily turnover of about $ 300 million in digital asset trading, were among the first recognizable names to buy bitcoins.

By April 2013, entrepreneurs who initially became famous for hiring Mark Zuckerberg to create the predecessor of Facebook (and then suing Facebook for stealing their idea) reportedly owned $ 11 million worth of bitcoins (then the price of the cryptocurrency was $ 120 per coin ).

Assuming that they held most of their crypto assets, the fortune of each of them can be estimated at more than $ 1.4 billion.

Matthew Roszak - $ 1.2 billion

 

 Matthew Rosszak bought his first bitcoins in 2012. Today, his main job is co-founder and chairman of blockchain startup Bloq, which works with clients such as Citigroup and Discover.

Bloq advises on everything from processing payments for "stablecoins" (cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of a traditional currency) to helping banks store digital assets securely. Roszak has been a longtime crypto evangelist and recently promoted an initiative to provide every member of Congress with $ 50 digital assets.

According to Forbes, his cryptocurrency capital today is $ 1.2 billion, although just a year ago his fortune was estimated at $ 300 million.

Tim Draper - $ 1.1 billion

A member of the Silicon Valley Draper family investment dynasty, in 1985 he became a founding partner of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a venture capital firm that has made hundreds of investments in companies ranging from Tesla to the now defunct blood testing company Theranos.

According to him, in 2014 he bought 29,656 bitcoins, confiscated by US marshals on the black market, for $ 18.7 million (the price was only $ 632 per coin).

    “Dollars are the currency of the past. Bitcoin is the currency of the future. We are now seeing a global anthropological shift from dollars to bitcoins. Seeing this, I continue to be a hodler and buy additional cryptocurrency, ”Draper said in a comment for Forbes.

Assuming Draper kept everything he bought in 2014, his cryptocurrency is now worth about $ 1.1 billion.

Michael Sailor - $ 600 million

 

The CEO of business analytics company MicroStrategy burst into the bitcoin market in 2020, prompting MicroStrategy to invest over $ 1.1 billion in cryptocurrency at an average price of around $ 15,964 per coin. These bitcoins are now worth $ 2.4 billion.

He has expressed concerns about the dollar devaluation resulting from the printing of trillions of dollars by the Federal Reserve and is now leading efforts to tune his company's software to analyze bitcoin data.

MicroStrategy's shares have quadrupled since the company announced its first Bitcoin purchase on August 11. In October, Sailor revealed that he personally spent about $ 175 million on the purchase of 17,732 bitcoins, which are now worth $ 600 million. Add that to his $ 1.2 billion stake in MicroStrategy and we have another new billionaire.

Mike Novogratz - $ 478 million

 

 Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, which specializes in investing and developing cryptocurrency-related services.

In 2013, he personally invested $ 7 million in bitcoins, and then used those assets as seed funding for Galaxy. According to information released in September 2020, Forbes estimates Galaxy's crypto assets at $ 621 million, which is 300% more than in May of the same year.

Since Novogratz owns 77% of the company, his stake is $ 478 million. And this estimate does not include cryptocurrency, which he may personally own.

Vitalik Buterin - $ 360 million

 

 Vitalik Buterin is the inventor of Ethereum, which is the second largest cryptocurrency network and is valued at $ 123 billion.

He is better known for his academic and social interest in cryptocurrency than for being an investor. But this does not mean that he was unable to make money on cryptocurrencies.

He now owns more than 333,000 Ether coins worth about $ 360 million.A year ago, these same digital coins were worth only $ 45 million.