The top five wealthiest people in the cryptocurrency space have lost over US$112 billion ($153 million) this year, according to data presented by crypto insights platform Crypto Presales.
Binance co-founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao lost almost US$82 billion, the report says. While Zhao is still the wealthiest figure in the crypto world with a current net worth of US$14.6 billion, his net worth was US$96.5 billion a year ago, before the crypto market downturn.
Citing Forbes Real Time Billionaires data, the report found that Zhao lost more than Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates combined, who both lost US$56 billion and US$23 billion respectively.
FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried was worth an estimated US$24 billion before the collapse of the crypto exchange. Today, his net worth stands below US$1 billion, showing a staggering loss of US$23 billion in just three weeks. His business partner Gary Wang lost US$1.7 billion, with net worth standing at US$4.2 billion as of this week — down from a peak of US$5.9 billion.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong suffered the third largest loss among the top five crypto moguls, with his wealth currently valued at US$1.9 billion, down from US$6.6 billion earlier this year.
The fifth wealthiest person in the crypto space Chris Larsen has seen his wealth shrink by US$1.3 billion in 2022. Statistics show that the wealth of the co-founder of Ripple was valued at US$4.3 billion a few months ago, before dropping to the current US$3 billion, Crypto Presales reports.
