Two years ago, the world was crazy about cryptocurrencies. From day to day it was expected that bitcoin will replace the dollar and gold in world trade and savings. Simple possession of digital money was more profitable than drug trafficking. Only attention to new millionaires (and even billionaires) grew faster than the exchange rate of cryptocurrencies. Then came the first alarm bells, the price of virtual currency melted like foam in a circle, and interest in the topic of the public faded even faster. But what happened to those who managed to get rich on cryptocurrencies?

Who are they, virtual millionaires?

Here, it is still not clear. On the one hand, there are real people who officially called the source of their wealth cryptocurrency.

But on the other – cryptocurrencies are almost anonymous, or rather pseudonymous. Who really owns the funds in the crypto-bags is unknown. It is not even known whether the inventor and the alleged owner of a million bitcoins Satoshi Nakamoto was a real person or just a virtual character, behind which stood a group of developers.

Therefore, in the story about crypto-rich people, we are forced to rely on their own statements, mentions in the press and the Forbes report for February 2018.

Rating of well-known cryptocurrency owners

In 2018, Forbes made a rating of the richest individuals of the crypto world. Real people who do not hide names and faces, give interviews and confirm their involvement in virtual money. Here are the first seven of the richest cryptomerioides.

Chris Larsen, co-founder of the Ripple project, in February 2018 had $7.5-8 billion at The peak of its assets rose to $20 billion, most of this money is earned on the crypto-currency project.

Against the background of the General decline in cryptocurrency rates, the Ripple coin shaken, there were problems. There was information about the refusal of a large Japanese Bank from Ripple technology.

In July 2019, Larsen's capital amounted to $1.9 billion, But he continues to be engaged in Ripple. He recently donated $25 million in this cryptocurrency to the University of San Francisco.

Joseph Lubin, co-founder of the Ethereum project, owner of ConsenSys. The state at the beginning of 2018 – from $1 to $5 billion.

Now Joseph Lubin is still engaged in high technology, and remains one of the most authoritative figures in the crypto world.

He recently said that the blockchain can stimulate the growth of the world economy by 10-20 times, criticized Libra (Facebook cryptocurrency), promised that the new Ethereum 2.0 platform will work by the end of 2019 and will receive 1000 times more bandwidth.

Changpeng Zhao, founder of binance crypto-exchange. The state of $ 1.1 to $2 billion at the beginning of 2018. Cryptocurrency king of China.

Binance started in mid-2017 with a capital of $15 million, and in six months became the largest crypto-exchange in the world. During 2018, its estimate fell from $150 to $50 million And from the exchange due to hacking missing coins Binance almost $ 41 million

However, the project under the leadership of Zhao works and develops, in 2019 a new platform for the initial placement of digital coins was launched.

The twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, crypto world enthusiasts and world-class rowing athletes. The creators of the exchange Gemini. Really rich sued Mark Zuckerberg $65 million for the idea of creating Facebook and investing these funds in bitcoins. That brought them from $900 million to $1.1 billion.

When the bitcoin rate rose to $10,000, they believed that the cryptocurrency would grow another 30-40 times. By the way, the brothers themselves bought bitcoins for another $120 apiece.

Earned money Winklevoss invest in high-tech startups, including risky. And again claim that the bitcoin will rise.

Brian Armstrong, fortune: $900 million – $1 billion Founder of Coinbase – a place of crypto trading for professionals and retail customers.

He founded and develops Coinbase Custody, a service for managing other people's assets. The project is booming, and in April 2019, Armstrong published a schedule of business growth

Matthew Roszak, net worth: $900 million – $1 billion, One of the founders and managers of the company Bloq, developing programs for the blockchain. As well as a private investment company Tally Capital, investing in digital assets.

Data on personal as Matthew Roszak for 2019 yet. Now he is engaged in investments, remains a recognized expert on digital currencies, gives expert assessments for the Congress and the us Federal reserve system.