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)

 

[God of Nothing]

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.

Pretty much. When all is said and done, the real wealth is having something to eat, drink, and keeping both of those from everyone else trying to take them. Or taking them from others yourself if you have to.

 

[Null]

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

I am allowed to post on my site.

 

[Sanshain]

Pretty much. When all is said and done, the real wealth is having something to eat, drink, and keeping both of those from everyone else trying to take them. Or taking them from others yourself if you have to.

Absolutely. I'm not opposed to the idea of crypto, but a currency you can't instantly exchange for something tangible is worthless. The only thing in life you can be certain of is what you've got within arm's reach, not stored on a digital device whose most basic principles baffle you.

 

[Kermit Jizz]

I am allowed to post on my site.

Yeah, it was just a joke.

 

[potato fan]

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.

Trading in nice and all, but you must remember that you are a third rate player at this game, way below big financial institutions that control the market and insiders that have more information than you.
BTW I once read an interview with a guy who lived thru the balkan wars of the 90's- the take out from it was that if SHTF, then the most valuable things you could have are: a big, close knit family or community that can together defend from outsiders, then small easily concealable weapons and ammo, then access to clean water (once city water supply gets bobmed), then antibiotics, fuel, long lasting food, medical stuff. Money or jewlery or gold can get virtually worthless overnight during war.

 

[Haramburger]

View attachment 3386617

It is routine that Bitcoin halves, goes way up because of sudden scarcity as miners are not keeping up with demand, and then plummets because it got over-valued. This is not even the hardest correction it has seen. but it was also still overvalued.

I expect that the price will start going back up once inflation kicks in because people are going to start looking for inflation resistant forms of finance.

in another 2 years they're seething they didn't buy the dip yet again.

I'm really tempted to buy the dip

Buy the dip?

BUY. THE. DIP!!!

 

[DamnWolves!]

I member when people said MTG cards were a retarded thing to horde.... An Alpha Lotus was around $2-3K then, it's now $40-50k.

And how much are Star Wars CCG cards worth? How about the many, many trading cards sitting at the bottom of a box in mom's attic? Beanie babies?

Amazon's still around, but Pets.com sure as fuck isn't.

Survivorship bias is not proof of anything except a simple mind.

That said, neither Fiat nor Crypto have anything more than common agreement going for them.

Sure, except fiat has people with guns who come to your house and take your shit if you don't give enough of it to your government. National governments denominate debt in fiat and they always will; pretending like governments are "just people" is the ultimate smoothbrained take.

Why is torrenting still a thing if they have so much control? Certainly they should've been able to crack down on that considering the powers that want it to not exist.

Your national government could regulate your ISP into the Stone Age or clip the submarine cables that connect you to the rest of the world, and then where would you be? The political turmoil that would create prevents that from becoming a reality in the current climate, but spergs on the internet are no match for glowies who are actually trying to oppress a population without regard for how they're perceived.

PS, if your currency makes you MATI enough to call people niggercattle for saying it's stupid, it's not a currency; it's an ideology at best and a Ponzi scheme at worst.

No one accuses you of being a traitor or a sheeple for exchanging USD for GBP or CAD.

 

[legtard respecter]

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.

reminds me of this luke smith video:

 

[Ebonic Tutor]

And how much are Star Wars CCG cards worth? How about the many, many trading cards sitting at the bottom of a box in mom's attic? Beanie babies?

Nigger people were saying that looong after SWCCG was dead. MTG had been around 15 years when I was hearing that shit. SWCCG lasted like 4.

SWCCG was dead the minute they ran out of movie stuff to pull from in the 90's then Lucas/Decipher decided to kill it off for Young Jedi just so they could push Eps 1-3.

There is a reason anything that lasted 10+ years is sitll running pretty strong and has high value cards, cause people actually liked the games at one point.

Old OG Deadlands: Doomtown cards are worth bank too I hear to the right person.

 

[northstar747]

in 2012 i had 100 btc...i sold them.

I have a "friend" who never lets me forget about that.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Do people actually spend 40 thousand dollars on single MTG cards? Or is this like Michael Jordans mansion where it's worth like 30 million but nobody will buy it?

I'm legit asking I know nothing about card games.

 

[Sanshain]

PS, if your currency makes you MATI enough to call people niggercattle for saying it's stupid, it's not a currency; it's an ideology at best and a Ponzi scheme at worst.

This is why whenever people try and argue for crypto, I just remember Lowtax raging about Mangosteen.

It's the ultimate delusion, the basement dwelling NEET claiming to be a big-brain intellectual because he can quote Jordan Peterson telling him to wash his dick. Except it's even worse than that. These people all claim to be able to tell you how crypto works and how great it is and etc etc, but they can never actually do it. All they can do is go 'well it's a new economy, the old rules don't apply', which is exactly how people sold the 1920's stock market, or the 2000's housing market.

But what's even worse is that when you push them, they don't even have the cultist mindset of presenting a detailed but ultimately meaningless argument to try and bamboozle you into thinking their position has substance. The moment you call them, they just go 'WELL IT JUST WORKS, NIGGERCATTLE. IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU'RE A FUCKING RETARD SHEEP, A SHEEP FOREVER, YOU FUCKING RETARDED SHEEP NIGGER. FUCK OFF WITH YOUR BULLSHIT NIGGER, YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND MY GENIUS, YOU JUST AREN'T INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO GET IT, WHY THE FUCK AM I WASTING MY TIME ARGUING WITH YOU RETARDED NIGGER BIGGER JIGGER? EVERYONE LOOK, THIS FUCKING NIGGER IS ASKING ME TO PROVE SOMETHING USING EVIDENCE AND LOGIC, WHAT A FUCKING SHITHEAD. BUY THE DIP YOU CUNT, BUT THE FUCKING DIP, DON'T FUCKING ASK QUESTIONS CUNT, BUY THE FUCKING SHITCOIN, OR YOU ARE OBJECTIVELY RETARDED.'

And I'm just like 'sure, btw how is luna doing right now?'

 

[CircuSphere]

And how much are Star Wars CCG cards worth? How about the many, many trading cards sitting at the bottom of a box in mom's attic? Beanie babies?

Amazon's still around, but Pets.com sure as fuck isn't.

Survivorship bias is not proof of anything except a simple mind.

Sure, except fiat has people with guns who come to your house and take your shit if you don't give enough of it to your government. National governments denominate debt in fiat and they always will; pretending like governments are "just people" is the ultimate smoothbrained take.

Your national government could regulate your ISP into the Stone Age or clip the submarine cables that connect you to the rest of the world, and then where would you be? The political turmoil that would create prevents that from becoming a reality in the current climate, but spergs on the internet are no match for glowies who are actually trying to oppress a population without regard for how they're perceived.

PS, if your currency makes you MATI enough to call people niggercattle for saying it's stupid, it's not a currency; it's an ideology at best and a Ponzi scheme at worst.

No one accuses you of being a traitor or a sheeple for exchanging USD for GBP or CAD.

See I don't even disagree but I don't think the government has the balls to pull a full crypto crackdown at the moment, not with the bad press from inflation/spending/gas prices and the midterms coming. The hedge funds might even be making money manipulating it now... I think there is time for the coaster to go around at least a few more times and that's the bet I'd be making buying the dip. I don't need it to replace fiat, I don't intend to stay in it, I just want to ride it to near the top and then get off.

 

[Kermit Jizz]

Do people actually spend 40 thousand dollars on single MTG cards? Or is this like Michael Jordans mansion where it's worth like 30 million but nobody will buy it?

I'm legit asking I know nothing about card games.

Yes and no. Rich people do buy some of these cards to collect, or sometimes even play with because who cares when you're that fucking rich. Most people just proxy those cards. However, some normal people do buy those expensive cards as investments, because in all of WOTC infinite retardation they put out a list of old cards that will never ever be reprinted. So they are pretty safe investments all things considered. Kind of like gold but lighter.

 

[ComedyEnjoyer]

This is why whenever people try and argue for crypto, I just remember Lowtax raging about Mangosteen.

It's the ultimate delusion, the basement dwelling NEET claiming to be a big-brain intellectual because he can quote Jordan Peterson telling him to wash his dick. Except it's even worse than that. These people all claim to be able to tell you how crypto works and how great it is and etc etc, but they can never actually do it. All they can do is go 'well it's a new economy, the old rules don't apply', which is exactly how people sold the 1920's stock market, or the 2000's housing market.

But what's even worse is that when you push them, they don't even have the cultist mindset of presenting a detailed but ultimately meaningless argument to try and bamboozle you into thinking their position has substance. The moment you call them, they just go 'WELL IT JUST WORKS, NIGGERCATTLE. IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU'RE A FUCKING RETARD SHEEP, A SHEEP FOREVER, YOU FUCKING RETARDED SHEEP NIGGER. FUCK OFF WITH YOUR BULLSHIT NIGGER, YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND MY GENIUS, YOU JUST AREN'T INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO GET IT, WHY THE FUCK AM I WASTING MY TIME ARGUING WITH YOU RETARDED NIGGER BIGGER JIGGER? EVERYONE LOOK, THIS FUCKING NIGGER IS ASKING ME TO PROVE SOMETHING USING EVIDENCE AND LOGIC, WHAT A FUCKING SHITHEAD. BUY THE DIP YOU CUNT, BUT THE FUCKING DIP, DON'T FUCKING ASK QUESTIONS CUNT, BUY THE FUCKING SHITCOIN, OR YOU ARE OBJECTIVELY RETARDED.'

And I'm just like 'sure, btw how is luna doing right now?'

You are very retarded.

 

[DrunkJoe]

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.

Investing is not bad. Investing has made more people wealthy than anything else. Time in markets beats out trying to time markets. There are so many tools available to help invest your money now.

 

[Sanshain]

You are very retarded.

Case. In. Fucking. Point.

 

[ComedyEnjoyer]

Case. In. Fucking. Point.

No one is going to write an essay explaining why you're retarded dude.
"The technology that dominates all human activity in the modern age isn't real because... it just isn't okay!"
You're just a drooling boomer retard declaring the sky is green and asking people to get into an argument with you about it, no thanks, I'll just call you a retard and be done with it. "See, the people who think the sky is blue just call me a retard, as I predicted! I am vindicated!"

 

[SBG]

Entire economy shit itself when the Ukraine stuff kicked off. Everything will probably improve in a year and won’t be surprised if crypto recovers to some all time high.

Crypto has become a project of all sorts of tech billionaires so doubt they’d let it wither on the vine.

 

[Flan Handler]

I have no problems with crypto, although I haven’t gotten into it personally. I am rooting for it, and this is part of the maturation process. It’s through these sorts of stresses that it will harden up in the necessary places. Every part of the economy needs occasional recessions to wash out malinvestment and fraud and crypto is no exception.

People who didn’t borrow to buy crypto will be fine. Sure, the “price” goes down but you can sit and watch as long as you aren’t dealing with fraud. And identify the survivors and strong hands, maybe pick some up at a good price.

I’m having way more fun watching the hedge funds right now. These are the worst people in the world, strip mining the economy with zero-interest borrowed fiat. Today they are down over 60% on average, which is a bloodbath for them, and the goddamn banks that lent that cash to them. Their pain is delicious and I wish to see them suffering and broke.

Peter Schiff had a great quote yesterday: “anyone hired (at the hedge funds) after 2010 is unskilled labor”. This is correct.

I learned about money and investing reading the investment books in thrift stores in the 90s and 2000s, which were mostly written in the 60s, 70s and 80s. And that led me to read some books from the 20s and 30s. And the short takeaway is that the scams never change, and bull markets allow them to come back every generation because new people don’t know them. And it’s worse now because people don’t think history can teach them anything.

Anyways, hold onto your shorts people, there won’t be too many safe havens in this storm. But this too shall pass.

@Null I am mailing you some crappy fiat to spend so you don’t have to liquidate a bit of your crypto. Wishing you well.