Crypto Billionaires See Wealth Eroded With This Week's Market Crash

The billionaire CEOs of major crypto exchanges saw their personal fortunes diminish as Bitcoin BTC/USD and the wider crypto market extended losses this week.

What Happened: A report from Bloomberg on Wednesday details significant declines in worth for some of the biggest names in the crypto industry.

Coinbase Global Inc COIN CEO Brian Armstrong’s personal net worth dropped from as much as $13.7 billion in November to under $2.2 billion this week, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Coinbase is now trading 84% lower than its Nasdaq debut last year. The firm ended its first day of trading with an $85.7 billion valuation and the direct listing reportedly created 1,000 millionaires.

Another crypto exchange CEO that saw his fortune sink was Binance founder Changpeng Zhao or “CZ.” In January, CZ’s estimated net worth was a whopping $96 billion — a figure that has now shrunk to $11.6 billion.

Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss each lost $2.2 billion of their wealth this year. According to Bloomberg, this figure equates to around 40% of their net worth.

Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of crypto exchange FTX, has lost 50% of his wealth since the end of March. Over the course of a few weeks, Bankman-Fried’s wealth has fallen to $11.3 billion.

Mike Novogratz, the CEO of crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital Holdings BRPHF, has seen his net worth decline from $8.5 billion to $2.5 billion. Earlier this year, Novogratz shared a picture of a tattoo inspired by Terra LUNA/USD – a token that has lost 97% of its value over the last day alone.

I’m officially a Lunatic!!! Thanks @stablekwon And thank you my friends at Smith Street Tattoos. pic.twitter.com/2wfc00loDs

— Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) January 5, 2022

GlobalBlock analyst Marcus Sotiriou said that Terra’s stablecoin TerraUSD UST/USD losing its peg presented a fundamental risk to the wider crypto industry.

See Also: How To Trade A Bear Market In Crypto

Bitcoin (CRYPTO:  BTC) was trading at $26,600, down 12.35% over the last 24 hours. Ethereum ETH/USD was down 21% over the same period, trading at $1,797.

Photo: Courtesy of Coinbase