Top 10+ of the Richest Owners of Crypto Assets in June 2023, According to Magic Rank
In Brief
The ranking of the richest owners of cryptocurrency assets is based on trust in blockchain technology and the level of their wealth in cryptocurrencies.
The global capitalization of the crypto market is $1 trillion, with bitcoin accounting for 47% of this volume.
Magic Rank’s rating was based on public sources, but some market players were excluded due to objective reasons, such as Li Ka-shing, Charlie Shrem, Jered Kenna, and Elon Musk.
It is both simple and complicated to talk about the market volume, turnover and size of capital in cryptocurrencies. Simple, because one of the key principles of blockchain is transparency: wallet addresses are public and open for viewing, and it is possible to track not only the amounts stored on them, but also the transactions. On the other hand, the second key principle of the technology is anonymity, so linking a particular wallet to a particular person in most cases is very difficult – in order to draw any conclusions, one has to make do with fragmentary information from public sources, analyze and collect them together.
The volatility creates an additional problem – even in the process of preparing the material quotes can change significantly, which complicates the process of bringing the overall rating to a common denominator. However, the more difficult the task is, the more interesting and unpredictable the result may be.
Magic Rank experts have enthusiastically taken up this work and today we present to you the Ranking of the Richest Owners of Cryptocurrency Assets.
There are many rankings of the richest people in various fields and regions. However, as a rule, even specialized rankings of cryptocurrency businessmen take into account total wealth, summing up all assets. We set out to identify people who are most trusted in cryptocurrencies and evaluate their assets specifically in this area. Thus, our rating shows not the total wealth of a person, but the degree of trust in blockchain technology and the level of their wealth in cryptocurrencies.
When assessing the total assets of a person, we tried to take into account all types of cryptocurrencies, not just bitcoin, but in the media space, the prevalence of information about the main currency is significant, so many comparisons in the study were made on the basis of bitcoin.
The global capitalization of the crypto market is about $1 trillion at the time of the study. Bitcoin accounts for about 47% of this volume, and its total supply (the number of coins in circulation) is more than 19 million BTC.
According to the Bitinfochart portal, the largest volume of assets (about 4.6 million bitcoins) are in wallets with amounts ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 BTC. However, in this study we are more interested in wallets with amounts starting from 10000 bitcoins. There are a total of 114 such accounts.
The data for the rating was selected from public sources – media, social networks and public reports. Elements of this information are scattered and often contradictory. Therefore, we took a thorough approach to searching, analyzing and comparing this information. For obvious reasons, the results of the study cannot be considered absolutely reliable, this rating is a private expert opinion of our analytical team and Magic Rank can not be responsible for any of your investment and financial decisions based on the findings of this study.
Some seemingly obvious market players appearing in various studies were not included in the rating for objective reasons. For example, Hong Kong entrepreneur Li Ka-shing, who appears in various cryptocurrency rankings, one of the richest people on the planet, was not included in our rating because, despite his commitment to new technologies and, in particular, blockchain, his investments in this sector are limited to infrastructure companies and not directly related to investments in cryptocurrency.
Another traditional contributor to cryptocurrency rankings, Charlie Shrem, is usually cited as a bitcoin enthusiast implicated in a conflict with the Winklevoss brothers and in a dispute over 5,000 BTC. And for the average reader the story remains vague – whether he stole or was stolen from him, but the residue remains…. Anyway, those 5k BTC, if ever Shrem had, hardly remain in his possession, the more so that he himself always denied any such sums in his wallets, that’s why we considered it incorrect to include him in our rating. Another “favorite” of various crypto-ratings – Jered Kenna was also not included in our rating. The reason is simple: as he himself has repeatedly stated, he was disappointed in cryptocurrencies and withdrew almost all his funds into fiat.
And of course, an iconic figure of the crypto-world that cannot be left out: Elon Musk. Elon is one of the most influential people in the crypto market, perhaps the most influential player. His tweets crash and raise coin prices, he discusses crypto a lot and willingly, thus causing market turmoil. The companies under his control own significant amounts of crypto assets, but according to Musk himself, he personally owns only 0.25 BTC, everything else – indirectly. And, since we only consider personal crypto-wealth in this ranking, Elon Musk was not included in it.
In general, one of the basic conclusions of the study is that despite the general popularity of this topic and the increasing interest shown in crypto by “big money,” financial institutions and influential figures, trust in crypto assets is not yet as high as one would expect. This situation is still, of course, fueled by constant regulatory and financial shake-ups of the crypto market. The fortunes of many key market players, who are enthusiastically developing web3 and blockchain, are still mostly formed at the expense of fiat and stock assets, and the “weight” of crypto in these fortunes is not predominant. Perhaps this is due to cryptozyme and when the market turns bullish, the situation will change. That’s why our rating is noticeably different from most published lists of crypto-billionaires – it includes those who are not afraid to trust their funds to new technologies and use cryptocurrency as the basis of their personal fortune.
In this ranking cryptocurrency rates are fixed at the time of this writing – June 15, 2023:
- Bitcoin (BTC): $24,856
- Ethereum (ETH): $1,628
- XRP: $0.47
- Stellar (XLM): $0.077
So, our ranking of the richest owners of cryptocurrency assets:
#1 Satoshi Nakamoto
Estimated net worth: $27,34 B (≈ 1100000 BTC)
Satoshi is the founder, father, son, and holy spirit of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. No one knows who it is, no one knows if it is a man or a woman, no one knows how many people are hiding under that name or if it is a person at all. All that is known about Satoshi is that in early 2009 he released the first version of a virtual wallet using bitcoin and launched the Bitcoin network. It is not known for certain how many bitcoins are in Nakamoto’s wallets, but most researchers agree that the amount is a little over a million coins, which at the time of the ranking is $27.34 billion.
#2 Changpeng Zhao
Estimated net worth: $10 B
The founder and CEO of the largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is one of the brightest enthusiasts and promoters of cryptocurrencies. In his own words, he has “about 100 percent” of his fortune invested in cryptocurrency. Estimates of Changpeng Zhao’s (CZ) fortune vary widely and according to various sources amount to $96 billion, taking into account his stake in Binance (70-90 percent). However, CZ has recently been haunted by one problem after another, which could not but affect his personal well-being. For example, just two days after the SEC filed a lawsuit against Binance and CZ personally, his fortune is believed to have declined by $1.4 billion. www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires estimates CZ’s personal wealth currently stands at $10.5 billion. As for personal cryptocurrency assets, there is no exact information on them. Based on publicly available information, we assume that Zhao’s personal wealth (100% of which is invested in cryptocurrencies, as noted above) is currently around $10 billion.
#3 Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss
Estimated net worth: $2,98 B (≈ 120000 BTC)
The twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are American entrepreneurs and billionaires who became famous for suing Mark Zuckerberg for $65 million, claiming that he “stole the social network idea from them. Back in 2013, the twins invested approximately $11 million in bitcoins, buying about 1% of the cryptocurrency’s volume at the time, and in December 2017 became the world’s first (publicly known) bitcoin billionaires. The brothers’ total combined fortune at the time of the ranking is $4.4 billion, and the value of their cryptocurrency assets is $2.98 billion (120,000 BTC).
#4 Chris Larsen
Estimated net worth: $2,43 B (≈ 5 B XRP)
The co-founder and executive chairman of the blockchain company Ripple, a cryptocurrency platform for payment systems focused on currency exchange transactions without chargebacks, based on an open distributed database. In essence, Ripple is a competitor to SWIFT and will probably replace it in the future. At various times, Larsen was one of the five richest people in the world and was number one in Forbes’ ranking of crypto-billionaires. At its peak, his fortune was $59 billion (according to the NYT). Larsen’s net worth is now estimated to be $3.2 billion and his cryptocurrency holdings are $2.43 billion (5.19 billion XRP tokens).
#5 Michael Novogratz
Estimated net worth: $2 B
American entrepreneur and investor, hedge fund manager, former owner of Fortress Investment Group. CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, focused on Bitcoin and Etherium investments. He was a Forbes dollar billionaire until the financial crisis of 2007-2008, subsequently regained his lost position as a result of successful investments in crypto-assets. In 2017, he stated that 20% of his capital was in Bitcoin and Ether. At the time, it was $250 million. Today, we estimate that Novogratz’s cryptocurrency fortune, taking into account rate changes and guaranteed additional investments, is about $2 billion.
#6 Barry Silbert
Estimated net worth: $1,24 B (≈ 50000 BTC)
Barry Silbert is an American investor and entrepreneur, creator of Digital Currency Group. Silbert was one of the first investors in the crypto industry, having started his activities back in 2012. Various sources differ in their estimates of Silbert’s cryptocurrency wealth, but the most reliable information is that he owns 50,000 BTC.
#7 Roger Keith Ver
Estimated net worth: $1,1 B
Roger Keith Ver is known as an early investor in cryptocurrencies. Ver is sometimes referred to as “bitcoin-jesus,” as he likes to call himself, but many market participants call him a “bitcoin Judas” for actively promoting bitcoin-harming forks, the most successful of which was Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Ver’s total net worth varies widely from $1 billion to $8 billion, according to various estimates. Magic Rank estimates the value of his cryptocurrency assets at $1.1 billion.
#8 Matthew Roszak
Estimated net worth: $1,1 B
Matthew Roszak is an American billionaire venture capitalist and cryptocurrency investor. Roszak is the co-founder and chairman of blockchain company Bloq. Matthew has been a long-time and extensive buyer of various coins, and is a thought follower of Satoshi Nakamoto’s philosophy. Roszak’s total net worth is now estimated to be $1.2 billion and, according to media reports, almost all of the funds are crypto-assets. Our estimate is $1.1 billion.
#9 Brian Armstrong
Estimated net worth: $1 B
The founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. The California entrepreneur uses a principle known since the gold rush times to multiply his capital: not those who wash gold get rich, but those who sell shovels to them: the cryptocurrency exchange he set up is the largest in the US and second only to Binance by the trading volume in the world. Armstrong’s total wealth is currently estimated at $2.3 billion. As for his personal cryptocurrency fortune, all that is known is that Armstrong’s savings in etherium are less than in bitcoin. It can be cautiously assumed that the amount of Brian Armstrong’s cryptocurrency assets is about of $1 billion.
#10 Joseph Lubin
Estimated net worth: $1 B
Joseph Lubin is a co-founder and partner of Ethereum, and is also the founder of ConsenSys, which serves as a “venture capital software production studio” for the Ethereum ecosystem. Lubin began his career in robotics and machine vision software, and later worked in finance, building trading systems, and managing hedge funds. Being a versatile person, he devoted a certain period of his life to participating in a music project in Jamaica. Lubin considers the cryptosphere to be less secure than the traditional banking system (though much more promising), so he prefers not to advertise his assets. Magic Rank cautiously estimates his cryptocurrency fortune at about $1 billion.
#11 Tony Gallippi
Estimated net worth: $919 M (≈ 37000 BTC)
Tony Gallippi is the founder and CEO of BitPay, Paypal’s counterpart in the crypto world. He acquired 34,000 BTC in 2011 and since then he keeps increasing his assets in cryptocurrencies. We estimate that his current crypto wealth is equivalent to $919 million (≈37,000 BTC).
#12 Vitalik Buterin
Estimated net worth: $782 M (≈ 480800 ETH)
One of the most influential and iconic people in the crypto world, Vitalik is the founder of Ethereum, the second most important cryptocurrency on the planet. Vitalik was born in Russia, has Canadian and Montenegrin citizenship. He is the co-founder and former editor of Bitcoin Magazine. In 2014, he won the World Technology Award for the idea of Ethereum, beating Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other contenders. Vitalik reportedly owns about 0.4% of the tokens in circulation. To date, that’s 480800 ETH, or the approximate equivalent of $782 million.
#13 Tim Draper
Estimated net worth: $720 M (≈ 29000 BTC)
One of the pioneers of the U.S. venture business, co-founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). Tim Draper has long invested in cryptocurrencies, in particular became one of the major investors in the Tezos project, which in July 2017 raised a record $232 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum at the time. Since then, the value of the cryptocurrency raised has grown significantly, but all funds have been blocked as a result of internal conflict within the project team. In 2014, Draper bought 29,000 bitcoins confiscated by U.S. marshals at the FBI’s closed Silk Road online marketplace.
#14 Michael J. Saylor
Estimated net worth: $440 M (≈ 17732 BTC)
American entrepreneur, executive chairman and co-founder of MicroStrategy, a business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud services company. The company actively invests in bitcoin and currently owns at least 130,000 BTC. In Michael Saylor’s own words, he personally owns 17,732 BTC.
Read more related posts:
Disclaimer
In line with the Trust Project guidelines, please note that the information provided on this page is not intended to be and should not be interpreted as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other form of advice. It is important to only invest what you can afford to lose and to seek independent financial advice if you have any doubts. For further information, we suggest referring to the terms and conditions as well as the help and support pages provided by the issuer or advertiser. MetaversePost is committed to accurate, unbiased reporting, but market conditions are subject to change without notice.
About The Author
Damir is the team leader, product manager, and editor at Metaverse Post, covering topics such as AI/ML, AGI, LLMs, Metaverse, and Web3-related fields. His articles attract a massive audience of over a million users every month. He appears to be an expert with 10 years of experience in SEO and digital marketing. Damir has been mentioned in Mashable, Wired, Cointelegraph, The New Yorker, Inside.com, Entrepreneur, BeInCrypto, and other publications. He travels between the UAE, Turkey, Russia, and the CIS as a digital nomad. Damir earned a bachelor's degree in physics, which he believes has given him the critical thinking skills needed to be successful in the ever-changing landscape of the internet.
More articles
Damir is the team leader, product manager, and editor at Metaverse Post, covering topics such as AI/ML, AGI, LLMs, Metaverse, and Web3-related fields. His articles attract a massive audience of over a million users every month. He appears to be an expert with 10 years of experience in SEO and digital marketing. Damir has been mentioned in Mashable, Wired, Cointelegraph, The New Yorker, Inside.com, Entrepreneur, BeInCrypto, and other publications. He travels between the UAE, Turkey, Russia, and the CIS as a digital nomad. Damir earned a bachelor's degree in physics, which he believes has given him the critical thinking skills needed to be successful in the ever-changing landscape of the internet.
