The scale of the crypto billionaire fortune wipe out revealed
Those who have made billions from crypto, including the founders and CEOs of some of the largest trading platforms, have seen their fortunes wiped out by the market crash, with one losing more than $120 billion in their asset value.
For example, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Coinbase founder, Brian Armstrong, had a personal fortune of US$13.7 billion in November. Now his net worth has dropped 84 per cent to $2.2 billion — a loss of $US11.5 billion.
However, Armstrong went to Twitter to reassure investors and customers that the ship will steady. “We have no risk of bankruptcy … even in a black swan event like this,” he wrote. “Your funds are safe at Coinbase, just as they’ve always been.”
Significantly, Bloomberg reports the hardest hit so far has been Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao, who debuted in the index in January with a net worth of $US96 billion. By Wednesday, that was estimated to be just $US11.6 billion, a fall of $US84.4 billion.
More from the report, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of crypto exchange Gemini, are two more who each lost about $US2.2 billion, or 40 per cent of their wealth this year, while Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of crypto exchange FTX, has seen his fortune halve since the end of March to $US11.3 billion.
Michael Novogratz, CEO of crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, has seen his fortune plummet from $US8.5 billion to $US2.5 billion since November. Mr Novogratz has promoted Terra, the troubled “stablecoin” now on the verge of complete collapse.
Earlier this week, Luna Foundation Guard, which backs Terra, said it had deployed the equivalent of $US1.5 billion in cryptocurrencies to stabilise the coin.
The coin’s founder Do Kwon said on Twitter on Tuesday he was about to present a recovery plan. This could come of use to those who have had to deal with the unfortunate crash.
