Business Crypto Billionaire Fortunes Vanish as Quickly as They Were Made - Seven of the world’s richest crypto founders have lost a combined $114 billion since November as digital-asset values crumble.

By Tom Maloney
June 13, 2022, 9:33 PM UTC

One built a massive fortune that rivaled the wealthiest US tech titans. Another amassed a war chest that he vowed would change politics and philanthropy. Some were given a second chance at riches after past ventures flamed out.

The cryptocurrency craze turned Changpeng Zhao, Sam Bankman-Fried, Mike Novogratz and a handful of other digital-asset evangelists into billionaires several times over. But just as quickly as they became the new faces of global wealth, they’re now seeing their fortunes vanish at an astonishing rate.

Worth as much as $145 billion on Nov. 9, when Bitcoin reached a record high of almost $69,000, seven billionaires with fortunes tied to crypto have since lost a combined $114 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Many others who have bet big on Bitcoin, from Microstrategy Inc. Chief Executive Officer Michael Saylor to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, are also feeling the pinch as the price of the world’s largest digital token slumped below $23,000 on Monday, the lowest since December 2020.

Crypto Crash​

Seven billionaires lost a combined $114 billion since November's crypto peak

Billionaire	9-Nov-21	13-Jun-22
Changpeng Zhao	$95.8B	$10.2B
Samuel Bankman-Fried	15.1B	8.9B
Brian Armstrong	13.7B	2.1B
Mike Novogratz	8.5B	2.1B
Fred Ehrsam	4.5B	2.1B
Tyler Winklevoss	3.8B	3.0B
Cameron Winklevoss	3.8B	3.0B

Source: Bloomberg Billionaires Index
Note: Changpeng Zhao was added to the index Jan. 7, 2022. The November figure reflects his initial valuation.

Once seen as ushering in a new era of decentralized finance, crypto has been rocked by two high-profile implosions in the span of weeks. Celsius, one of the largest crypto lending platforms, announced Sunday that it was freezing all transactions on its network following speculation it would be unable to meet returns promised on some of its products. That followed the collapse in May of so-called stablecoin TerraUSD and its sister token, Luna — which is memorialized as a tattoo on the left arm of Novogratz, the founder of Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd.

While global markets are in turmoil as the Federal Reserve and other central banks plan to aggressively raise interest rates to fight the highest inflation in decades, the speed at which crypto has plunged in recent weeks stands out. And while there’s little evidence of cracks so far in the broader US labor market, the losses in digital assets have led some crypto billionaires to resort to job cuts.

Zhao, founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said his firm has “a very healthy war chest” and is expanding hiring. Still, the 44-year-old has seen his personal fortune, once the world’s 11th-largest, tumble 89% to $10.2 billion since he debuted on the Bloomberg wealth index in January. His firm has also become a focal point for US investigators seeking to rein in the crypto industry.

Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old CEO of crypto trading platform FTX, is down 66% since his fortune peaked at $26 billion. That could dent his plans to give away his money and spend big in politics. He poured $16 million into super PACs in April, making him one of the top donors to outside groups, and has said he expects to give more than $100 million during the next presidential election to support Democrats.

Novogratz, 57, whose macro fund at Fortress Investment Group was liquidated in 2015 following two years of losses, has staked his comeback on crypto, recently calling Terra a “big idea that failed.” His fortune fell on Monday to $2.1 billion, lower than when he debuted on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in December 2020, when Bitcoin traded around $29,000.

Meanwhile, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss saw their fortunes sag to $3 billion each, from as high as $5.9 billion apiece. The 40-year-old twin founders of crypto exchange Gemini, which announced this month that it would cut about 10% of its workforce, are currently touring with their rock band, Mars Junction.
Coinbase Global Inc., the largest US crypto exchange, rescinded employment offers as crypto prices kept plunging. Founders Brian Armstrong, 39, and Fred Ehrsam, 34, once worth a combined $18.1 billion, have seen their fortunes shrink to $2.1 billion each as shares of the company have tumbled 79% since their initial public offering.

As for Saylor, 57, he’s keeping the faith: He tweeted “In Bitcoin We Trust” on Monday, along with a new picture of himself surrounded by lightning. Microstrategy, the software company he founded that plunged in value during the dot-com bubble in 2000, began buying Bitcoin in 2020. Its shares closed at a peak of $1,272 in February 2021, when the 2.36 million shares Saylor currently owns would have been worth $3 billion. They’ve since plummeted about 88%.

Bukele, El Salvador’s 40-year-old president, hadn’t tweeted about Monday’s plunge in crypto as of 4:45 p.m. in New York. About a week ago was the one-year anniversary of his push to make Bitcoin legal tender. At the time, it traded at about $36,000.

Source (Archive)

 

[BigThaiGreenCurry]

I think a few people are missreading this article/not understanding it.

The statement that billionaires are down is valid across every billionaire currently, independent of any crypto shit. The Coinbase/FTX guys are down because the value of their firms are down. Not because their wealth is in shitcoins.

Also, maybe a bit to spergy but in general exchanges (such as Binance/NYSE/Coinbase etc) prefer volatility. They make money on the # of transactions, not the worth of the underlying's that the transaction occurs on. If they are hedging their businesses correctly to ensure they do not hold anything on books they may be celebrating if volumes increase.

Edit: removed accidental bold

 

[Gig Bucking Fun]

Read my other posts about the cycle of the coin. It is $22,000 for something you are saying is worthless, broken, stupid, pointless, etc, etc, etc.

Okay, great. The cycle of the coin is $22,000. Beautiful. How did one of the largest coins on any crypto exchange death spiral in the space of a couple of weeks? And why did said death spiral of a single coin collapse the entire market?

I’m not saying the technology is worthless or stupid, or even broken, and it’s definitely not pointless: I’m saying that for something with so much money being put into it, there should be some measure of failsafe to prevent a complete collapse of their economy in such a short amount of time.

 

[Homegrown Homophobia]

I find it highly amusing the same fucking white niggers (Seriously, that's what you are) who whine nonstop about oppressive government overreach, globo homo, big corporations screwing over the world, etc when given an incredible opportunity to chip away and destroy that governmental/corporate power instead balk at it and continue to carry on with their victimhood and whining.

As for me I'm getting the biggest money boner knowing how many cryptos and securities I can scoop up on the cheap.

 

[Null]

Okay, great. The cycle of the coin is $22,000. Beautiful. How did one of the largest coins on any crypto exchange death spiral in the space of a couple of weeks? And why did said death spiral of a single coin collapse the entire market?

I think I explained it already and I feel you are deliberately wasting my time.

You're literally proving my own point for me. These groups are utterly powerless to prevent government interference. They will cave and have caved whenever directly confronted, because the government directly or indirectly owns them anyway. Every year, the internet grows more regulated, not less regulated.

Companies with names and faces do. Crypto is decentralized. You don't understand how the Internet works and I have no desire to continue this conversation with you.

 

[I (Don't) Have A Gun]

I routinely spend crypto for goods and services.

So I assume you have at least more experience with using crypto as currency then me (which is to say more than zero), what do you think the viability is of seeing crypto become something used day to day by your average person?
It kinda seems that until you can buy something from the Pakistani corner store as easy with crypto as with a credit card it just seems like crypto will remain an internet thing and also strongly tied to fiat currency (since you'd have to continue extracting value from crypto by converting it it fiat in most cases).
I guess we could see a merger of banks and crypto, so your bank can give you a crypto-credit card and even be so kind as to hold all your crypto for you so that you can use existing payment infrastructure to initiate a payment and then the bank handles all the messy backend details and conversions but that doesn't seem ideal... and since I've seen banking software, also scary.

 

[Null]

what do you think the viability is of seeing crypto become something used day to day by your average person?

Very low right now.

1) Niggercattle progressives adopting that proof-of-work is bad for the environment which is just retarded.
2) Niggercattle gamers crying about video card prices, even though ML demand and chip shortagesare also increasing their price.
3) Niggercattle neocons crying about muh internet criminals (((

In general people are just low IQ. They can't think. They're not capable of figuring things out. They think "government money good because government say so, what else would I use? internet points??? SHINY ROCK?????" and that's the end of it.

 

[Sanshain]

Companies with names and faces do. Crypto is decentralized. You don't understand how the Internet works and I have no desire to continue this conversation with you.

Crypto is backed by nothing. A house without its foundations can be built as tall as you like, but it'll still fall over the moment the wind blows. Besides that, you just don't seem to understand that it doesn't matter. You're still using it on systems you have no control or authority over. They can just be switched off, instantly, at the whims of people you don't know, can't contact and hold no authority over. Any illusions of security and anonymity you have are there not because you're in control, but because the tiny, petty and insignificant acts of defiance you're committing against the system don't even merit a reaction.

I feel like I'm slowly going mad when talking to people who grew up with the internet as their sole means of intellectual and emotional expression. There's just something baked into their very neurological conditions that seems to prevent them from comprehending that the internet is fundamentally not real. It will cease to exist in the time it takes light to travel from one end of a cable to another the moment the power goes out. It has no influence beyond what people allow it to have, and that works both ways. Every single argument in favor of this kind of thing depends on the same fallacy; that the internet will always be here, and that nothing which happens in the real world will cut people off from it.

 

[Kosher Dill]

Seething aside, I'd actually love to hear more about Null's life paying for everything with crypto. If you just dropped me in an unfurnished apartment with nothing but a wallet full of bitcoins, I'd have no clue what to do if I couldn't just turn it back into fiat.

 

[BigThaiGreenCurry]

Very low right now.

1) Niggercattle progressives adopting that proof-of-work is bad for the environment which is just retarded.
2) Niggercattle gamers crying about video card prices, even though ML demand and chip shortagesare also increasing their price.
3) Niggercattle neocons crying about muh internet criminals (((

In general people are just low IQ. They can't think. They're not capable of figuring things out. They think "government money good because government say so, what else would I use? internet points??? SHINY ROCK?????" and that's the end of it.

I think this is a bit doomer mate, but I can understand your point of view given the shit you get.

Revolutions in industries don't happen overnight, and Crypto is becoming more mainstream and very quickly given the industry its in (Finance). I disagree with many things about crypto but there are real world people who are using it for G/S all the time.

 

[Null]

Seething aside, I'd actually love to hear more about Null's life paying for everything with crypto. If you just dropped me in an unfurnished apartment with nothing but a wallet full of bitcoins, I'd have no clue what to do if I couldn't just turn it back into fiat.

Services online accept it more often, but this mentality is retarded.

"Polish Zlotny are worth NOTHING because to even spend it in the EU you have to convert it to Euros!"

Like what kind of retard shit is this

 

[DiggieSmalls]

I remember how many but hurt crypto bros @'d me when I talked about how I didn't think crypto was a good investment. so much cope.

 

[LMFAOForgotPw]

I remember the first huge btc drop. Held on to it since then and will continue to do so. I’ve added more xmr past few years, but people view it wtong. There’s a reason so many angles attack crypto from all spectrums.

 

[CircuSphere]

If you've got money burning a hole I'd suggest XMR instead of BTCore.

Thanks. I am aware of the halving and the fact that it is coinciding with this alt coin crash makes me think this might be a second chance to ride the wave. Gonna wait a little and watch it, looking at the history I expect it to keep going down to ~$50.

 

[Null]

I remember the first huge btc drop. Held on to it since then and will continue to do so. I’ve added more xmr past few years, but people view it wtong. There’s a reason so many angles attack crypto from all spectrums.

Every time this happens retards crawl out the wood works to gloat that they're geniuses for doubting emergent technology and not investing any money in something.



People see the number go down from 65k to 22k and they think "haw haw I was right", but bitcoin went down from $1000 to $200 before (when I was in the Philippines, and actively traded crypto at padalas there). I remember even then, these same exact retards saying the same exact thing and gloating like the smug retard niggers they are. Fredrick told me the same had happened before when crypto went down from a dollar to ten cents.

It frustrates me to no end how people who can actively benefit from a technology shit on it for no reason other than the fact that they are angry people made money and they did not. If it makes some Chinese 21-year-old multi-millionaire a measly millionaire instead, then it's worth rooting for their own enslavement.

That's that nigger cattle mentality. That's why I don't even try to help people anymore. I don't want anyone to be free. I hope the government takes its fucking captive bolt pistol and just goes down the line and scrambles our fucking brains like the good little niggercattle we are. I hope everyone fucking dies. We deserve it.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

At least you're being honest.

 

[Retink]

Oh no, they went from being billionaires to being slightly less billionaire. At least you make 15$ an hour in your wage cage, it will only take you over 7 thousand years to make your first billion.

 

[potato fan]

Fiat simply has a country's government backing it. Powerful or influential governments can thus make their monopoly shekels count for more the stronger they are economically and militarily.

That's why Hungarian or Venezuelan money ain't worth much.
Crypto is the same, but without a central (((jew))) there to enforce it. But many (jews) still there to sell you snake oil.

Nothing has an intrinsic value in itself, value of everything is always a result of supply and demand (which is why half the charts explaining economics is just an X with curves of supply and demand, or some off-shots of those)
Metals like gold and silver are thought of having inherent value just because for almost all of human history people wanted it because shiny, thus high demand, but couldnt get it because it's rare, thus low supply. But if there was a secluded, undiscovered amazonian tribe living on top of huge, easily accesible gold ore, gold for them would next to be valueless. Or if science found a way to synthesize gold in big quantity cheaply, the increased supply would tank the value.

Same goes for currencies- their value is an off-shot of supply and demand. Supply is central banks printing money- if they do it too much, the value generally goes down. The demand is dictated by people wanting to buy stuff produced by the country, and thus buying the currency to pay for it, OR people believing that the country's economy will keep being ok in the future, and that the country wont get a govt that will start printing money, so they buy the currency hoping it to be a stable vessel for retaining wealth (exept for US dollar which has the added privilege of being a de-facto world currency, serving as a main currency reserve for most countries, and due to petrodollar being a thing, so the standard rules not always apply)

Venezuelan Bolivar went to shit not because of jews, but because Chavez and later Maduro's policies have gutted the economy, with oil industry, agriculuture and heavy industry all producing less and less each year, while they kept printing more and more currency. Consider this: Switzerland is not an influential country (especially being neutral and stuff) and their economy is 1/6th that of India. Yet I bet you'd be more likely to keep your savings in swiss franks rather than indian rupees. Why? because you'd belive (like most sane people) that the Swiss are less likely to elect some illiterate commie fucko to run their country, who will likely obliterate the economy and devalue the currency immediately, thus making your hard earned wealth valueless overnight.

Btw Bitcoin is similar to gold on the supply thing, as it's supply is limited, and demand comes from enough people believeing it has value and believing that other people will keep believing the same, and then shitton of speculators and investors also jumping on that train. But if whoever controlling the early wallets with buttcoins worth now billions of USD decided to suddenly dump it on the markets, the value would nosedive, maybe even so badly that a lot of people would panic sell their bitcoins, thus making it another worthless, failed coin. OR if governments decided to really destroy it, and made it very hard to trade/exchange for currencies or goods, similar thing might happen. Shit, a country just firewalling own internet away from the rest of the world would probably make bitcoin valueless within its borders

tl;dr: don't think that anything has a stable value ever

 

[God of Nothing]

I remember how many but hurt crypto bros @'d me when I talked about how I didn't think crypto was a good investment. so much cope.

Here's the thing about investments: they're all bad. There is no guarantee your wealth will make wealth. The stock market is just as much as a ponzi scheme as crypto is presented as. 33% of businesses survive ten years. I agree with you wholeheartedly.

I still find crypto something far better to throw my money at than anything else, but that's just me.

 

[Kermit Jizz]

I feel like I'm wasting my time even explaining this to A&H niggercattle.

You hate A&H, yet you participate in A&H slap-fighting. Curious.

Seriously though. I like crypto as much as the next government hating guy, at least the general idea of it considering how many of the currencies are dog shit, but you seem almost enamored with it like it is the end all be all solution to the bank question. Surely you realize how tenuous crypto's existence is? It'd be relatively easy to undercut crypto to the point many of it's users would drop it. They just have to make exchanging it for fiat too much effort and it will die. The way I see it crypto is nothing more than a short term patch to a very big problem.

I find it highly amusing the same fucking white niggers (Seriously, that's what you are) who whine nonstop about oppressive government overreach, globo homo, big corporations screwing over the world, etc when given an incredible opportunity to chip away and destroy that governmental/corporate power instead balk at it and continue to carry on with their victimhood and whining.

Cause you're not really chipping away at anything. Crypto as it exists allows you to circumvent banks and other gay regulatory bodies sure, but that's only insofar as it's not worth stopping. As soon as they have a reason to snuff out crypto or someone using crypto to get around them, they'll make it happen anyway. There's nothing stopping them from suiciding Null and burning down the facility where the KF servers are located, crypto doesn't fix those issues. They just don't have a reason to do that.

That's that nigger cattle mentality. That's why I don't even try to help people anymore. I don't want anyone to be free. I hope the government takes its fucking captive bolt pistol and just goes down the line and scrambles our fucking brains like the good little niggercattle we are. I hope everyone fucking dies. We deserve it.

Please don't give yourself stress aneurysm over bucket crabs. If you drop dead my Friday mornings are going to suck more.

Like seriously man, you sound like you're having a really rough day. Go get some booze or whatever you indulge in and relax.

 

[CircuSphere]

Nothing has an intrinsic value in itself, value of everything is always a result of supply and demand (which is why half the charts explaining economic is just an X with curves of supply and demand, or some off-shots of those)
Metals like gold and silver are thought of having inherent value just because for almost all of human history people wanted it because shiny, thus high demand, but couldnt get it because it's rare, thus low supply. But if there was a secluded, undiscovered amazonian tribe living on top of huge, easily accesible gold ore, gold for them would next to be valueless. Or if science found a way to synthesize gold in big quantity cheaply, the increased supply would tank the value.

Same goes for currencies- their value is an off-shot of supply and demand. Supply is central banks printing money- if they do it too much, the value generally goes down. The demand is dictated by people wanting to buy stuff produced by the country, and thus buying the currency to pay for it, OR people believing that the country's economy will keep being ok in the future, and that the country wont get a govt that will start printing money, so they buy the currency hoping it to be a stable vessel for retaining wealth (exept for US dollar which has the added privilege of being a de-facto world currency, serving as a main currency reserve for most countries, and due to petrodollar being a thing, so the standard rules not always apply)

Venezuelan Bolivar went to shit not because of jews, but because Chavez and later Maduro's policies have gutted the economy, with oil industry, agriculuture and heavy industry all producing less and less each year, while they kept printing more and more currency. Consider this: Switzerland is not an influential country (especially being neutral and stuff) and their economy is 1/6th that of India. Yet I bet you'd be more likely to keep your savings in swiss franks rather than indian rupees. Why? because you'd belive (like most sane people) that the Swiss are less likely to elect some illiterate commie fucko to run their country, who will likely obliterate the economy and devalue the currency immediately, thus making your hard earned wealth valueless overnight.

Btw Bitcoin is similar to gold on the supply thing, as it's supply is limited, and demand comes from enough people believeing it has value and believing that other people will keep believing the same, and then shitton of speculators and investors also jumping on that train. But if whoever controlling the early wallets with buttcoins worth now billions of USD decided to suddenly dump it on the markets, the value would nosedive, maybe even so badly that a lot of people would panic sell their bitcoins, thus making it another worthless, failed coin. OR if governments decided to really destroy it, and made it very hard to trade/exchange for currencies or goods, similar thing might happen. Shit, a country just firewalling own internet away from the rest of the world would probably make bitcoin valueless within its borders

tl;dr: don't think that anything has a stable value ever

Here's the thing about investments: they're all bad. There is no guarantee your wealth will make wealth. The stock market is just as much as a ponzi scheme as crypto is presented as. 33% of businesses survive ten years. I agree with you wholeheartedly.

I still find crypto something far better to throw my money at than anything else, but that's just me.

I never really trade, as a teenager I tried to pretend trade a few times but all my life the market has been very volatile, outside of blue chip stuff with low returns. It makes me paranoid and I feel like I don't have the vigilance/energy to trade without loosing my shirt.. but watching my savings get halved by a senile old fuck and a half baked CCP bioweapon is really convincing me I have to diversify my USD holdings. Maybe a little cypto while it's low but I know currency is risky. Maybe also a little copper or cobalt or rare earths.

Although if it all goes to shit and there is no electricity for crypto, no mining industry... I guess 9mm and MREs are really the ultimate investment.