Who Made the Forbes 400 List From the Crypto World?
The Forbes 400 is full of billionaires from all industries, but the cryptocurrency world has introduced a new type of billionaires to the list.
Oct. 5 2021, Published 2:35 p.m. ET
Forbes released its top 400 list, which lists the top 400 richest Americans. There are many new faces on the list and some of them belong to the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector. The people who made the Forbes 400 list are behind some of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world.
Companies including Coinbase, FTX, and Gemini have former or current staff on the Forbes list. The crypto enthusiasts who made the list are also some of the youngest people to ever be named on the Forbes 400.
Multiple Forbes 400 members originate from the crypto space.
There were seven members on the Forbes 400 list who had a significant amount of their net worth tied to cryptocurrency. Their rankings were spread throughout the list. Some of them ranked in the top 100, while others ranked in the bottom 100. Either way, all of the crypto Forbes 400 members are billionaires.
#32 Sam Bankman-Fried with a net worth of $22.5 billion
The youngest billionaire to make the 2021 Forbes 400 list is no other than the FTX exchange founder himself. Most of Sam Bankman-Fried’s net worth stems from having nearly a 50 percent stake in the FTX exchange as well as a significant share in its native FTT tokens. Founded in 2019, FTX has been one of the biggest rising crypto exchanges in the world. Currently, it ranks fourth in visits among all of the exchanges, according to CoinGecko.
The exchange recently raised $900 million from a funding round in July, which brought its valuation to $18 billion. FTX has been one of the most active companies when it comes to partnerships. FTX has partnered with professional sports teams and players including Stephen Curry.
#60 Brian Armstrong with a net worth of $11.5 billion
It isn't a surprise that the CEO and co-founder of the largest crypto exchange in the U.S. is one of the highest-ranked among all crypto figures on the list. Brian Armstrong owns approximately a 19 percent stake in Coinbase, which allows him to earn $322 million in profits out of the $1.3 billion in total revenue for 2020. Armstrong is the ninth-youngest member of the Forbes 400 list.
Coinbase went public in April and had the seventh-biggest listing in U.S. history with a market capitalization of over $61 billion by the end of that day. The crypto exchange is currently the second-biggest exchange when it comes to trade volume. Coinbase continues to grow as a platform. There are current or future features being implemented like depositing checks early.
#172 Chris Larsen with a net worth of $6 billion
It’s widely forgotten that Chris Larsen was once the fifth-wealthiest person in the world. He reported a net worth of approximately $59 billion in 2018. Larsen’s net worth was competing with the likes of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at one point. However, Larsen lost $44 billion in Ripple (XRP) due to a cryptocurrency crash in 2018. He co-founded Ripple Labs, the company responsible for creating Ripple, which was once the second-largest token in the world before facing market crashes and lawsuits from the SEC.
Before making waves in the crypto industry, Larsen was a pioneer in the lending space. Among the various startups that he’s been a part of, the angel investor co-founded E-Loan in 1996. It was one of the first online platforms that provided lending services as well as free FICO credit scores.
#261 The Winklevoss twins with a net worth of $4.3 billion
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss each have the same net worth. They co-founded Gemini, which is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. The $65 million they gained from a legal settlement with Mark Zuckerberg helped them launch the exchange and stockpile Bitcoin for themselves. Cameron is the president of Gemini, while Tyler serves as the CEO. The Winklevoss twins have been speculated to own approximately 70,000 Bitcoins, which currently equates to over $3.5 billion.
#333 Fred Ehrsam with a net worth of $3.5 billion
The fourth-youngest billionaire on the entire list, Fred Erhsam was the other co-founder of Coinbase. He owns approximately a 6 percent stake in the company. The former Goldman Sachs trader left Coinbase in 2017. Later, he co-founded Paradigm, which is a crypto investment firm that has more than $1 billion in assets. Although he left Coinbase, Erhsam is still one of the board executives for the exchange.
#377 Jed McCaleb with a net worth of $3 billion
Jed McCaleb has been involved in the crypto space since its early stages. He was a part of launching three major crypto exchanges. One of his first creations was Mt.Gox, which was one of the first major crypto exchanges to offer Bitcoin. After launching the exchange in 2010, McCaleb sold it a year later. In 2012, the crypto pioneer co-founded Ripple. He had a brief stint there as well before co-founding the Stellar exchange in 2014.
Most of McCaleb’s net worth is sourced from his estimated holdings of 3.4 billion XRP, which currently equates to over $3.6 billion. It's also plausible to assume that he carries a significant amount of Stellar Lumens (XLM), which is the native token to Stellar.