The richest people in cryptocurrency; Forbes magazine releases list

Forbes magazine has released the first-ever "Crypto Rich List," a compilation of the 20 wealthiest people in the crypto world. The list is topped by Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, with an estimated crypto net worth of $7.5 to 8 billion — the values were estimated based on the price as of January 19.

According to Forbes, the numbers are based on estimated holdings of cryptocurrencies (a few provided proof), post-tax profits from trading assets and stakes in crypto-related businesses.

"Identifying the biggest crypto winners and estimating the scale of their wealth is no simple task," says Forbes staff writer Jeff Kauflin.

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"The virtual currencies exist almost entirely outside the global financial system, and the newly minted crypto rich live in a strange milieu that blends paranoid secrecy with ostentatious display."

Former Goldman Sachs executive Joseph Lubin, who funded blockchain platform Ethereum, is the second-richest, with an estimated net worth of $1 to $5 billion.

The report says, CZ (born Changpeng Zhao) cut his teeth making high-frequency trading systems for Wall Street's flash boys, and he built Binance to be a Ferrari. His exchange can process a blazing 1. 4 million transactions a second and on a peak trading day in January processed 3.5 billion new orders, cancels and trades.

As per Forbes report, there are now nearly 1,500 crypto-assets in existence, valued at an aggregate of $550 billion, up 31 times since the beginning of 2017. While the prices of individual cryptocoins continue to swing wildly—Bitcoin is down almost 50% from its peak—it's clear that blockchain-based currency is here to stay and that these virtual assets have real, albeit volatile and speculative, value. Black-market transactions, tax avoidance by individuals and sanctions-dodging by countries like North Korea fuel part of the demand, but so does a widespread excitement over the technology and an ideological desire for money to be free from the whimsies of nation-states.

Source: Forbes