Crypto Winter: Prominent Crypto Execs Lose Billionaire Status

As the year 2022, which has not been such a good one for the broader crypto industry continues to wind down, several prominent crypto figures have lost their billionaire status. This is chiefly due to the bear market conditions that continuously plagued the industry which was made worse by the several bankruptcy filings of some major players in the industry.

According to a recent Forbes report several prominent figures in the industry who began the year as billionaires now have their net worth severely plummeted while some others are now worth $0. As such, 10 individuals have now been dropped from the prestigious 17-man crypto billionaire list which recorded a collective loss of $116 billion since March.

Top on this list is Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of leading crypto exchange platform Binance who is now worth $4.5 billion, which is enough to make him remain the wealthiest crypto billionaire. As of March, the billionaire was valued at $65 billion.

Notably, other billionaires most of which are exchange founders or crypto investors that were significantly affected include Brian Armstrong, Tyler Winklevoss, Cameron Winklevoss, Michael Saylor, and Tim Draper who still believes Bitcoin (BTC) will experience a parabolic climb to $250,000 sooner than almost everyone believes.

However, Jed McCaleb appears to be the only billionaire who did not suffer a significant impact. The Ripple co-founder is now worth $2.4 billion down from $2.5 billion after he sold most of his crypto holdings.

FTX-Linked Crypto Billionaires are now Worth $0

According to the list, three individuals, all of which have ties to collapsed FTX now have all of their fortunes wiped out.

Co-founders of bankrupt FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, and Gary Wang, both of which were previously valued at $24 billion and $5.9 billion respectively are now worth $0. Sam, who was recently granted a $250 million bail after his arrest in the Bahamas, worries about how to pay his legal fees.

Another billionaire who is now worth $0 is Barry Silbert, the founder, and CEO of Digital Currency Group. His firm was one of the many that suffered from the effect of the contagion that followed FTX’s collapse.