Crypto billionaires have seen their personal wealth plummet this year as the entire market suffered a $2-trillion wipe-out. The crash of the world`s second-largest crypto exchange, FTX, was an added disaster.
But while FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried lost billions of dollars in a matter of days, the sudden collapse of his crypto exchange also hit the fortunes of other crypto titans.
According to data from CryptoPresales.com, the five wealthiest people in the crypto space have lost a shocking $112,7-billion this year.
Changpeng Zhao lost $82-billion – more than Zuckerberg and Gates combined
The fortunes of the world’s crypto billionaires plummeted this year, but the Chinese crypto king, Changpeng Zhao, has undoubtedly seen the biggest loss of them all.
The Binance CEO lost tens of billions of dollars as crypto prices cooled but, luckily, he doesn’t really care much about money, as he explained in one interview.
Zhao is still the wealthiest figure in the crypto world with a current net worth of $14,6-billion, but the sum was $96,5-billion a year ago before the crypto market began spiralling. According to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires data, the Chinese crypto king lost almost $82-billion this year – more than Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates combined. The wealth of the chairman and CEO of Meta plummeted by $56-billion this year, while Gates lost around $23-billion.
FTX co-founders Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang lost nearly $25-billion
After the collapse of his crypto exchange, FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried found himself out of the Forbes Billionaires club. Before his company’s cash crunch, the FTX CEO was worth an estimated $24-billion, with his stakes in FTX and a crypto trading house Alameda as his most valuable assets. Today, his net worth stands below $1-billion, showing a staggering $23-billion loss in just three weeks.
FTX co-founder Gary Wang, the youngest person to appear on the Forbes top 400 rich list in 2022, lost $1,7-billion. According to Forbes, his net worth stands at $4,2-billion as of this week, down from a peak of $5,9-billion.
Statistics show the chief executive of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, suffered the third-largest loss among the top five crypto titans, with his wealth melting by $4,7-billion in 2022. Armstrong is currently valued at $1,9-billion, down from $6,6-billion earlier this year.
The fifth wealthiest person in the crypto space, Chris Larsen, has seen his wealth shrink by $1,3-billion in 2022. Statistics show the co-founder of Ripple was valued at $4,3-billion a few months ago. Now, his wealth stands at $3-billion.