I know, this is an easy post, but, I thought this list was interesting to see some of the names on it. I have already written on my thoughts about the Winklevoss Twins.
- Sam Bankman-Fried: This twenty-something MIT graduate founded the derivatives exchange FTX and the quantitative trading firm Alameda Research. His net worth is $8.7 billion.
- Brian Armstrong: The co-founder and CEO of Coinbase has a net worth of $8.9 billion.
- Chris Larsen: The chairman and co-founder of Ripple, a real-time currency exchange and gross settlement system, has a net worth of $3.4 billion.
- Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss: The twin brothers and former Olympic rowers who sued Facebook began buying Bitcoin in 2012 and are worth about $3 billion each.
- Michael Saylor: The CEO of software firm MicroStrategy is worth about $2.3 billion, thanks to Bitcoin.
- Jed McCaleb: Another Ripple co-founder, he’s worth about $2 billion.
- Fred Ehrsam: Armstrong’s Coinbase cofounder, Ehrsam now leads Paradigm, a cryptocurrency-focused investment firm. His net worth is $1.9 billion.
- Changpeng Zhao: The founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance is worth $1.9 billion.
- Matthew Roszak: The chairman of Bloq, a blockchain infrastructure company, invested in Bitcoin circa 2011 and is worth about $1.5 billion.
- Tim Draper: When the US Marshals in 2014 closed the Silk Road cryptocurrency black market, this Silicon Valley venture capitalist bought $18.7 million worth of Bitcoin. It's now worth $1.5 billion.
Missing from this list, Satoshi Nakomoto, but that is to be expected. It is easy to see what most of these people have in common, Risk. They had enough money early on to make a sizable investment, and the foresight and intestinal fortitude to make a play before most of us caught on.
