How Many Bitcoin Millionaires are There?

How many Bitcoin millionaires are there? Bitcoin is the most successful and popular crypto coin that rules the crypto market.

In fact, the ups and downs in the crypto market are primarily due to the performance and price of Bitcoin.

This specific crypto coin has seen a meteoric rise in its price since its launch in 2009. In fact, the price of each Bitcoin on January 3, 2022 was $47,284.

Therefore, it is quite natural that this digital currency and payment system will have a very high market cap, which was about $881.85 billion as of January 3, 2022.

This is supposed to be a new all-time high which is the result of the launch of the first-ever Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund in October 2021.

All these do not mean Bitcoin is a safe crypto asset to buy, sell or hold. It is as unsafe as the other different types of crypto coins that you may come across in the market.

People trade Bitcoin in the same market that is free from any regulatory measures and is also subject to price volatility, illegal transactions and activities, and more.

How Many Bitcoin Millionaires are There?

However, these drawbacks of the coin and the market have not deterred people from owning it and earning millions.

All the features and high potential of Bitcoin have created a diverse and surprising set of millionaires.

It is quite hard to say how many Bitcoin millionaires are out there because the number of them grows just like the value of the coins itself.

For example, a year ago there were just about 15,000 Bitcoin millionaires which grew up to 25,000 just three months ago.

These millionaires have however played a significant role in making Bitcoin the most successful digital asset even though the crypto market is considered still to be a nascent ecosystem.

For example, some of these millionaires have used this crypto coin to create other tokens and financial products.

On the other hand, a few others have created exchanges for trading this crypto coin as well as its derivatives.

Either way, they have, in turn, minted millions of dollars.

Today, there are as many as 100,000 Bitcoin millionaires out there.

In fact, according to the statistics of BitInfoCharts, there are 101,554 accounts that hold Bitcoin worth $1 million or more in them as of now.

Out of these, 8110 accounts have Bitcoin worth more than $10 million in them.

Some of them are the early adopters while some were very good in predicting the economic opportunities offered by this particular crypto asset class and grabbed them with two hands.

If you want to know about these successful Bitcoin millionaires this is the right place to be.

Few Top Names

Though the article is not long enough to include all those 100,000 names, here are some of the major names in the list.

A few names in this list also feature in the Forbes list of 12 Cryptocurrency Billionaires in 2021 such as Sam Bankman-Fried or FTX and the Winklevoss twins.

Sam Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried has made billions, and not millions, worth Bitcoin and that too at quite a rapid pace.

He is just 29 years old which shows how swiftly he built his fortune based on Bitcoin.

This MIT grad is the founder of FTX in 2019 which is one of the most popular crypto exchanges in the world.

It offers most innovative and unique products that you will hardly get on other crypto exchanges and it includes digital tokens of physical stock, sophisticated derivatives, and pre-initial public offering contracts.

According to Forbes, his net worth was valued at $26.5 billion as of October 2021.

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss garnered most of their wealth from Bitcoin investments though they have made millions from a lawsuit against Facebook for cryptocurrencies.

These twins, however, are the first billionaires in the crypto ecosystem after the price of Bitcoin surged in 2017.

The Winklevoss twins are also the owners of the Gemini crypto exchange which is valued at $7.1 billion after it raised funds over $400 million in November 2021.

In addition to that, they also own a Nifty Gateway which is a platform that allows users to buy and sell NFTs or Non-Fungible Tokens.

According to Forbes, the net worth of each of these two twin brothers is estimated to be $5 billion.

Barry Silbert

Barry Silbert is the founder and CEO or Chief Executive Officer of DCG or Digital Currency Group.

This is a global financial system that builds and supports Bitcoin and blockchain companies.

This has allowed Silbert to broaden his reach across several industries of which one is media.

In fact, Silbert has invested in more than 100 such companies which gives him the nickname of ‘The King of Crypto.’

CoinDesk, one of the leading news sources of Bitcoin, was acquired by the company in January 2016.

It runs Consensus, the yearly Bitcoin industry conference.

DCG also owns Genesis, a trading and market making firm dealing with digital currencies.

Later on it went on to own Grayscale, a digital currency investment company, when it started GBTC or Grayscale Bitcoin Trust which is an Exchange Traded Fund that tracks the value of Bitcoin.

With all these under the umbrella of Digital Currency Group, the total number of AUM or Assets Under Management increased significantly and that for Grayscale alone increased to more than $20 billion in spite of the COVID 19 pandemic.

According to Forbes, the net worth of Barry Silbert is estimated to be $1.6 billion.

Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong is the co-founder of the biggest crypto exchange by trading volume in North America, Coinbase with a 19% stake.

It is worth $10.4 billion in January 2022 as estimated by Forbes in their billionaire index, which is a bit higher than the $9.69 billion net worth as estimated by Bloomberg in the same time period.

The platform comes with an intuitive interface that is easy to use and with a lot of credibility.

It is one of the most favored gateways of the retail investors who want to step into the exciting crypto ecosystem.

After the company went public in April 2021, the total market capitalization of it was valued at $65.961 billion when it closed trading on January 3, 2022.

Michael Saylor

Michael Saylor is one of the most unconventional crypto investors. He is the CEO of the MicroStrategy Inc MSTR software firm that acquired Bitcoin worth $250 million in August 2020.

Initially, the objective of the firm was to make the best use of their cash holding in the balance sheet but over the years the firm as well as Saylor became strong supporters of Bitcoin.

In fact, Saylor appeared on several news and crypto conferences to evangelize the benefits of Bitcoin based on several different use cases.

He said that buying Bitcoin when the price dips proved to be a very useful strategy for him and worked quite well for his company.

According to the recent reports, the net worth of Bitcoin holdings of the company reached up to $3.5 billion By December 2021.

At the same time, the stock price of the company increased by more than 337% from the time it started acquiring Bitcoin.

As for the individual net worth of Saylor, Forbes estimated it to be about $2.2 billion.

Micree Zhan

Though less known, Micree Zhan happens to be probably the wealthiest Bitcoin billionaire known, as of now.

As of 2021, his net worth was estimated to be $3.2 billion. He is the co-founder of Bitmain, a Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer.

Chris Larsen

Chris Larsen, co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple, is another wealthy Bitcoin billionaire with assets worth $2.7 billion.

However, as of now he is being sued by the SEC or the US Securities and Exchange Commission which has put his fortune at risk.

Changpeng Zhao

Changpeng Zhao is the founder and CEO of Binance and undoubtedly has done well to own assets worth $1.9 billion, according to the estimates by Forbes.

Tim Draper

Tim Draper is a well known crypto investor and has been making well-calculated investments in crypto assets.

One of his most notable purchases is about 30000 Bitcoin in 2014 in a sale by the US Marshals Service.

As of now, the net asset worth of Tim Draper is $1.1 billion.

Matthew Roszak

Co-founder of the blockchain infrastructure provider Bloq, Matthew Roszak started buying Bitcoin in 2012 and now has assets worth $1.2 billion.

Satoshi Nakamoto

And finally, the creator of Bitcoin, though is likely to be a pseudonym, has net worth of crypto assets far outstrips others.

The owner of the address or ones who are associated with the address now owns Bitcoin about $40 billion in value.

Reasons to Have More Millennial Millionaires

Now, if you look into the list of Bitcoin millionaires, which is not exhaustive mind you, you will see that there are more millennial millionaires.

In fact, a recent CNBC Millionaire Survey report showed that there are nearly 83% of such millennial millionaires who own crypto coins.

The report also showed that more than half of these millionaires have more than 50% of cryptocurrencies in their portfolio, and they are planning to buy more of them this year.

And, more than one-third of millionaires have nearly 75% of their entire investments made in assets based on blockchain.

The most interesting fact is that the report, as well as other new research reports, showed that nearly a quarter of the Gen X investors and about 4% of baby boomer millionaires have already invested in crypto assets as of now.

Most of the young millionaires who were surveyed said that they feel very comfortable investing in crypto assets in spite of its inherent risks and price volatility and they want to invest more in it in 2022.

They say it is their solid bet. In fact, the CNBC Millionaire Survey report showed that:

• 48% of millennial millionaires surveyed wanted to increase their crypto asset ownership this year
• 39% plan to retain their holdings at this point and
• Only 6% of them said that they plan to cut down their blockchain investments.

If you follow the report you may wonder why the older millionaires show lower rates of investment in crypto assets, and the answer is not at all surprising.

They are typically much more skeptical than the younger millionaires which result in such a notable divide between these two age groups when it comes to crypto investments.

They do not want to take much of a risk investing in volatile crypto assets but look for other safer alternatives.

Now, how these millennial crypto investors made millions in crypto tells a different story altogether.

According to the research reports, there are actually two main categories in which these investors can be divided into. Such as:

• Those who made money by investing in crypto coins directly and
• Those who inherited them mainly and added to their wealth on hand.

In fact, the reports showed, about 45% of these millennial millionaires made their wealth through inheritance.

In comparison, those millennial investors who got into investing in crypto coins years ago started by investing small amounts into it from their income for higher returns from their investment in the recent years.

Therefore, they became millionaires through their own efforts.

For example, Bitcoin offered an annual return of more than 230% in the past decade which is much, much more in comparison to any other asset class.

Therefore, in terms of investing in crypto coins, it is a bit of both ‘fortune favors the brave’ and ‘the folly of youth’ for the millennial millionaires, half of them having at least 25% of their entire wealth in crypto assets.

The youth will therefore continue to create more wealth this year as the crypto explosion continues, according to the CNBC Millionaire Survey.

They are the ones who spot the trend earlier than the older millionaires and make a fortune to grow their existing investments from the fluctuations of prices of Bitcoin, Ether, and other different types of crypto coins.

They were more intellectually and actively engaged in crypto investments though it is a relatively new concept than the older millionaires, investors and boomers who are largely concerned about the legitimacy of crypto coins.

According to the report, about 83% of American millionaires do not own crypto as their wealth with only 1 in 10 of the rest having more than 10% of their total wealth in crypto assets.

This means that the older generations and baby boomer millionaires have only about 10% of their entire wealth invested in crypto assets.

With all these facts and figures supporting young millionaires, it shows that they are poised and are more willing to change the wealth management industry.

The brokers, private banks, and several wealth management firms are now looking to cater the needs of this crypto-heavy and new client base.

Industry experts think that in the years to come, the young generation and the wealthy class will be more attracted to, dedicated to, and engaged with crypto assets than any other traditional investments such as stocks, bonds, hedge funds, and private equity.

In fact, more and more service providers are now offering easy access to investing in crypto coins, and this could change things pretty fast.

If you take a look at the NFT or Non-Fungible Token segment of the crypto industry, you will see that this difference between the younger and older millionaires is even more significant here.

According to some survey reports, more than half of the millionaires surveyed said that they did not know anything about NFTs and even what it is all about.

On the other hand, about one-third of them said that they thought it to be a fad and a bit over hyped and two-third of them said that NFTs could be the next big thing this year.

Now, when compared to millennial millionaires surveyed, more than half of them said that they own NFTs and the others said that they have not invested in it but are seriously considering it.

And, if you consider the baby boomer millionaires, almost 98% of them said that they do not own NFTs, and do not want to own them either.

Can They Maintain Their Profile?

Now, the question is for how long these younger millionaires can maintain their profile.

This is a good question given the nature of Bitcoin and other crypto coins that are known to be extremely volatile and can cause dramatic profits in one moment and drastic losses at the next instant.

If you look at 2021 alone you will see that the price of Bitcoin has increased by 380%, Ethereum by 1500%, and Dogecoin by 19,000%!

All these figures may be very tempting for anyone to start investing in these coins but they do not realize that the scenario can change in the very next instant.

Therefore, investing in crypto coins at the right time is the key in order to be a successful crypto millionaire, which, mind you, is not as easy as it sounds.

It is required to stay connected with the crypto market and focus on the different price indicators, signals and charts to know the trend of the price changes and directions.

A word of caution: There are lots of people who have invested in crypto before but not all have become millionaires.

A lot of them have also lost their money, the entire amount of it, so to speak. And also, you will not become a millionaire overnight or over the weeks.

If patience, research, involvement, and dedication are what you lack, crypto investment is not your cup of tea.

Conclusion

So here are the few names of crypto investors who have made big in the crypto scene. If you too want to make it big, just do not follow their footsteps alone but make sure you do your own research and invest what you can afford to lose.