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Forbes 400 Richest Americans! Seven cryptocurrency celebrities make the list, with FTX founder SBF becoming the youngest billionaire

2021/10/6

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The iconic business magazine Forbes has released the list of the top 400 richest people in the United States. Thanks to the rapid rise of cryptocurrencies, seven crypto billionaires have made it onto the list, including FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, and Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong. Among them, SBF has become the wealthiest billionaire under 30, surpassing even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

For the cryptocurrency industry, this year has been fruitful. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the high volatility in the market has made cryptocurrencies the new favorite investment for millennials, leading to the success of many crypto startups. The iconic business magazine Forbes recently announced the top 400 richest people in the United States, with seven crypto entrepreneurs making the list.

The inclusion of seven crypto entrepreneurs on the list also signifies the mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies, and the entry of institutional investors has injected a significant amount of capital into the industry. The total wealth of the crypto billionaires on the list this year exceeds $55 billion, with FTX founder SBF having assets of around $22.5 billion, followed by Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong with $11.5 billion.

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Notably, in addition to being newly included in the top 400 richest Americans, SBF is also the youngest on the list at the age of 29, making him the wealthiest individual under 30 since Mark Zuckerberg.

Below is the list of the newly minted crypto billionaires (ranked by wealth):

Net Worth: $22.5 billion

Sam Bankman-Fried founded the FTX exchange in 2019, with the majority of his assets in the FTX exchange's token FTT. FTX recently completed a Series B funding round of $900 million, valuing the exchange at $18 billion, and SBF's FTT assets doubled in value.

Additionally, SBF also founded Alameda Research, a quantitative fund managing around $2.5 billion in assets. SBF is an altruist, aiming to make as much money as possible and then give back to society.

Net Worth: $11.5 billion

Brian Armstrong is the co-founder of Coinbase exchange, which went public in April this year, becoming the "first publicly traded" cryptocurrency exchange with a valuation of $86 billion.

Brian Armstrong owns about 19% of Coinbase, with a net worth of approximately $11.5 billion.

Net Worth: $6 billion

Chris Larsen is a co-founder and chairman of Ripple, the only crypto billionaire on last year's Forbes rich list. In addition, Chris Larsen is an entrepreneur and angel investor, having co-founded several companies in Silicon Valley in the past, including P2P lending company and online mortgage lender E-Loan.

Net Worth: $4.5 billion

The Winklevoss twins were involved in the founding of Facebook and established the Gemini exchange in 2015. According to CMC data, Gemini exchange has a 24-hour trading volume of $210 million.

Unlike other crypto billionaires, the Winklevoss twins' assets do not solely come from their own startups. In 2013, after accusing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of idea theft, they purchased $11 million worth of Bitcoin when the price was around $120 per BTC, making them crypto whales. However, the twins prefer not to comment much on their asset holdings.

Net Worth: $3.5 billion

Fred Ehrsam is also a co-founder of Coinbase but left the company in 2017 to establish the crypto investment firm Paradigm, investing in many well-known crypto startups.

His investments in startups include decentralized central bank MakerDAO, lending protocol Compound, decentralized exchange Uniswap, and competitive public chain Cosmos. His net worth is estimated at around $3.5 billion.

Net Worth: $3 billion

Jed McCaleb is a co-founder and former CTO of Ripple, who left Ripple in 2013 to create the competitive public chain Stellar. When he left Ripple, he still held 9 billion XRP.

The two parties reached a settlement in February 2016, allowing McCaleb to sell an average of 1.5% of XRP's daily trading volume within a week every day four years later (February 2020), which is the basis for McCaleb's ongoing large-scale sales of XRP.

However, throughout September, Jed McCaleb did not sell any XRP.