Bitcoin has created several millionaires and billionaires over recent years. Find out the five people who have significantly benefited from the Bitcoin rush.
Many people describe crypto as a get-rich-quick plan, but profiting from Bitcoin takes a lot of effort, time, and resources. It is not always a walk in the park, especially considering Bitcoin’s high volatility and regulatory pressures. Nevertheless, Bitcoin’s stellar performance over the recent years has seen several people accumulate enormous wealth, worth millions and billions of dollars.
A recent report by Business Insider reveals crypto has generated seven more billionaires in the world in 2022, expanding the Forbes crypto billionaires list by 58%. Some newcomers surpassing the $1 billion mark include FTX co-founder Gary Wang, Alchemy co-founders Nikil Viswanathan and Joseph Lau, and OpenSea co-founders Alex Atallah and Devin Finzer.
While the above names are pretty notable in crypto circles, most of them were already wealthy individuals before the Bitcoin revolution. The following article lists the top 5 people who have become rich because of Bitcoin.
The Tokyo-based investor was born in San Jose, California, and people consider him one of the earliest Bitcoin advocates. He made his fortune from heavy investments in Bitcoin-related start-ups, amassing an estimated $520 million in wealth. He has often advocated for Bitcoin’s economic freedom, earning him the nickname, ‘’Bitcoin Jesus’’ on crypto forums. He has also donated large amounts of his fortune to charity.
The Brooklyn-born Bitcoin millionaire was among the earliest Bitcoin investors who acquired extensive holdings before prices exploded. His Bitcoin ventures and other investments earned him a whopping $450 million. Besides purchasing massive Bitcoin holdings, Shrem founded BitInstant before being found guilty of money laundering for the dark web marketplace, The Silk Road. In 2016, he was released from prison and embarked on an aggressive investment campaign, launching Intellisys Capital, a company that sells investment portfolios to blockchain companies.
Unlike most Bitcoin millionaires who amassed their fortunes from multiple crypto investments, Dave Carlson made his $350 million wealth from individually mining Bitcoin. The former Microsoft engineer started mining Bitcoin in 2010 in Washington, where he still runs the operations. He founded a mining company, MegaBigPower, to mine Bitcoin after seeing its vast potential. Dave Carlson’s mining operations generated about $8 million per month in the early days.
Jared Kenna is a former US Marine from San Fransisco. He attributes his Bitcoin fortunes to investing in crypto early, purchasing his first batch for only 20 cents per coin. Kenna tasted the success of Bitcoin investing after selling the tokens for $200 per coin. He also pioneered dark Bitcoin mining pools where miners could invest anonymously. Most people learned about Jared Keen in 2010 when he lost about $200,000 in Bitcoin after reformatting his hard drive.
The New York-born Winklevoss twins are well-known Bitcoin millionaires. However, their popularity started way back in a lawsuit against Facebook. They sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their idea for the social platform. The suit saw Facebook pay them millions of dollars, enabling them to make a huge investment worth $11 million in Bitcoin. The twins have also funded various Bitcoin-based start-ups and created a financial index for tracking Bitcoin’s average price, called Winkdex. Those endeavors have seen the two amass a fantastic fortune, including a $150 million Bitcoin investment.
Overall, Bitcoin has made several people extravagantly rich since its inception. Experts believe the number will significantly grow in the future as governments, mainstream institutions, investors, merchants, and individuals continue to adopt Bitcoin.
This post was orginally published on: June 30, 2022 and was updated on: February 17, 2023.