Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (commonly known as CZ) was the crypto billionaire who lost the most money following the crypto crisis of 2022, with a net worth drop amounting to 82 billion U.S. dollars.
Its billionaire promoters have lost a combined $110 billion in the last year, according to Forbes' 2023 World's Billionaires List, an annual compilation of ten-figure fortunes. Last year Forbes identified 19 crypto billionaires, the most ever, who were worth a collective $140 billion.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of failed crypto exchange FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday after US prosecutors filed criminal charges against him, according to a statement from the government of the Bahamas.
In addition to any lasting reputational damage, Brady and his supermodel ex-wife, Gisele Bündchen, have likely lost most or all of the sizable financial stake they had in FTX. The crypto space has long been awash with A-listers.
The biggest loser (in dollar terms) is Sam Bankman-Fried, the 29-year-old founder of quantitative crypto trading firm Alameda Research. A former Wall Street trader, Bankman-Fried was worth $16.7 billion at Bitcoin's peak on May 10, but is now down to $11.5 billion as of Wednesday afternoon.
In a matter of days, Sam Bankman-Fried has gone from crypto hero to villain. His billion-dollar fortune has collapsed. He is facing Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations. His firm, FTX, is bankrupt, and with it many hopes for the future of crypto itself.
The four crypto billionaire deaths within a month gave fuel to several conspiracy theories among the crypto community. One user associated the string of deaths with a mafia-style hit job and said that the “crypto world is taking a page from the mafia handbook.”
Bloomberg put it this way: “Bankman-Fried's Assets Plummet From $16 Billion to Zero in Days.” The story under that headline reported that Bankman-Fried's entire fortune had been “wiped out” in “one of history's greatest-ever destructions of wealth.”
The crypto crash has seen the number of Bitcoin millionaires decline by more than 75% since November last year.
A massive sell-off in cryptocurrencies wiped over $200 billion of wealth from the market in just 24 hours, according to estimates from price-tracking website CoinMarketCap. The broad plunge in the crypto complex, driven by the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin, hit major tokens hard.
The so-called stable coin, LUNA has now crashed to even zero, wiping out many investors' wealth. Among these is also crypto exchange Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as "CZ". Zhao has lost breathtakingly more than a billion due to LUNA's collapse.
ChatGPT argued that ETH and BNB will also stand the test of time. Commenting on Ethereum, it explained: Ethereum's robust ecosystem and ongoing development make it a prominent player in the cryptocurrency space.
The sister token of controversial stablecoin TerraUSD is now basically worthless. Luna plunged to $0 Friday, according to data from CoinGecko, marking a stunning collapse for a cryptocurrency that at one point was worth more than $100.
The three notable crypto luminaries who died within a few weeks of one another were Nikolai Mushegian, 29, Tiantian Kullander, 30, and Vyacheslav Taran, 53.
Investors flocked from crypto to safer asset classes in response to the Federal Reserve's continued rate increases. There are several continuing bankruptcy proceedings from 2022: FTX, Blockfi, Celsius and Voyager. Below is a list of major layoffs, bankruptcies and other distress so far this year.
Cryptocurrency has two kingpins. Forbes' 2018 ranking of the world's billionaires includes only a couple people who accumulated their vast fortunes from digital assets: Chris Larsen and Changpeng Zhao.
A crypto millionaire is a person who has amassed millions of dollars through cryptocurrency investments. Some have established lucrative crypto-related enterprises and become rich. However, the path to becoming a crypto millionaire is typically treacherous and arduous.
James Howells was doing some housecleaning in 2013 when he mistakenly threw out a hard drive that contained 8,000 Bitcoin he had mined. At the time, it was a mistake that cost him anywhere from $108,000 to $8.6 million depending on when he tossed the drive (2013 was a particularly volatile year for Bitcoin).
North Korean hackers have stolen the equivalent of billions of dollars in recent years by raiding cryptocurrency exchanges, according to the United Nations.
Tiantian Kullander, who co-founded the multibillion crypto exchange Amber Group, died while sleeping on Nov. 23 at age 30.