News JVTech These 17 billionaires have lost an astronomical sum since the start of the crypto winter
Published on 26/12/2022 at 11:20
When the price of the first cryptocurrency began to seriously unscrew downwards last March, the rest of the virtual assets followed lower. Thus, a majority of investors deplore the decline. The first to suffer major losses are obviously the sector’s billionaires. Among them, 17 recorded a monumental loss of their capital.
Crypto billionaires in decline
While a Bitcoin was worth over €40,000 in March 2022, it has gradually fallen to €15,000 today. This correction in value had the inexorable effect of reducing the portfolios of investors in the sector.
The small portfolios of ordinary investors are not the only ones to be at a loss. Indeed, the biggest whales (the biggest portfolios) record staggering losses.
The bear market in cryptocurrencies coupled with the collapse of several crypto companies has cost 17 billionaires in the sector nearly 110 billion euros. According to Forbes, of those 17 people, 15 lost half of their wealth during the price declines of the past nine months. As a result, 10 of these personalities lost their crypto-billionaire status.
Who are these struggling crypto billionaires?
Between the fall in the price of Bitcoin and an unfortunate fate for certain companies, such as the collapse of the FTX crypto buying platform, the market suffered some turbulence during 2022. These various events emptied the pockets of a majority of investors, but also several players in the crypto field.
Among those who have lost billionaire status are, unsurprisingly, the names of the founders of FTX. After the dramatic turn of the Crypto Exchange in November, Sam Bankman-Fried’s fortune, initially estimated at over 22 billion euros, dwindled to around 5.5 billion euros. Its co-founder, Gary Wang, suffered an even more disastrous fate with a fortune totally wiped out, reduced to €0 in December.
This is also the case for Barry Silbert, the CEO of the investment fund Digital Currency Group, whose fortune of 3 billion euros was squandered following the FTX crash.
The CEO of the first crypto platform, Binance, is also one of its billionaires in loss. Although Binance is doing fairly well during this delicate period, Changpeng Zhao, known as “CZ”, saw his investment in the platform drop from 61 billion to 4.2 billion euros.
In the same context, Brian Armstrong, CEO of the Coinbase platform, lost three quarters of his fortune. The American entrepreneur finds himself with 1.4 billion, against 5.6 billion last March.
Beyond the CEOs of the platforms, the founder of Ripple and the cryptocurrency XRP is also recording a decline in his fortune. On trial for more than a year, Chris Larsen, lost half of his fortune, from 4 billion to 2 billion euros.
In addition, we must also add to this list the founders of the crypto and NFT companies Gemini, Alchemy, OpenSea or MicroStrategy.
Thus, even the giants have not been able to protect themselves from the various fortuitous events in the crypto sector. This massive loss of 110 billion euros is likely to have repercussions on the liquidity available on the market, according to several analysts.
