The loss represents the collective personal capital of 17 people in the space, including 15 who have lost more than half of their wealth since March.
The bear market and wave of crisis in the crypto industry has taken $116 billion out of the pockets of founders and investors in the past nine months, according to the latest estimates from Forbes.
The loss represents the combined personal capital of 17 people in the room, more than 15 of whom have lost more than half of their wealth since March. As a result, 10 names were removed from the list of crypto billionaires.
One of the biggest losses was attributed to Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. In March, his 70% stake in the crypto exchange was valued at $65 billion, but he is now worth $4.5 billion.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion, up from $6 billion in March. Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s fortune has risen from $4.3 billion to $2.1 billion, while Gemini’s Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss were valued at $4 billion in March but are now worth $1.1 billion each.
See also: FTX Collapse: The Crypto Industry’s Lehman Brothers Moment
Among those who have lost billionaire status are FTX co-founders Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang, whose fortunes were estimated at $24 billion and $5.9 billion in March and $0 in December, respectively. . The $3.2 billion fortune of Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, was also lost following the contagious wave caused by the collapse of FTX, according to Forbes.
Former billionaires also include Nickel Viswanathan and Joseph Lay of crypto software firm Alchemy, Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah of OpenSea, Fred Ehrsam of Coinbase, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor and venture capitalist Tim Draper.
The cryptocurrency bear market is unlikely to end any time soon as the FTX crisis has shaken investor confidence and sparked a liquidity crunch in the industry, Cointelegraph reported. As a result, the market decline is expected to last until the end of 2023.
