A wave of bear markets and crypto industry bankruptcies has drained $116 billion from the pockets of founders and investors over the past nine months. according to to a recent quote by Forbes.
The loss is the combined personal wealth of 17 people in the space, with more than 15 people having lost more than half of their wealth since March. As a result, 10 names have been removed from the crypto billionaire list.
One of the big losses came from Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. In March, a 70% stake in the crypto exchange was valued at $65 billion and is now worth $4.5 billion.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s net worth is estimated at $1.5 billion, up from $6 billion in March. Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s fortune fell from his $4.3 billion to $2.1 billion while Gemini’s Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss said he was valued at $4 billion in March. , now worth $1.1 billion each.
Related: FTX Collapse: The Lehman Brothers Moment of the Crypto Industry
Among those who have lost their billionaire status are FTX co-founders Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang, whose fortunes were $24 billion and $5.9 billion respectively in March and dropped to It was $0. According to Forbes, digital currency group founder and CEO Barry Silbert’s $3.2 billion fortune was also lost as a result of the contagious wave caused by the collapse of FTX.
Among the former billionaires are Nickel Viswanathan and Joseph Lay of crypto software company Alchemy, Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah of OpenSea, Fred Ehrsam of Coinbase, Microstrategy founder Michael Saylor, and venture capitalist Tim Draper.
The crypto bear market is unlikely to end anytime soon, as the FTX crisis stymied investor confidence and caused a liquidity crisis across the industry. Cointelegraph reportedAs a result, the market decline is expected to continue until the end of 2023.
