Crypto World Rich List: How 10 Encryption Pros Made Their First Bucket of Gold?

Whenever the market fluctuates, there are always people sighing: "Why are others already financially free?" Today, let's take a look at how the 10 richest pros in the crypto world made their fortunes. Where did their first pot of gold come from? What unique strategies do they have? Let's learn from the experiences and lessons of these pros.

A Look at Well-Known Rich People in the Crypto World

Note: The following are estimated values of public wealth, and actual assets may vary due to market fluctuations.

Next, let's learn about the wealth stories of these crypto world tycoons one by one, as well as the ways they earned their first pot of gold.

1. Satoshi Nakamoto

As the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto is undoubtedly a legendary figure in the crypto world. He published the Bitcoin white paper in 2008 and launched the Bitcoin network in 2009, earning the title of "Father of Cryptocurrency." Although his true identity remains a mystery to this day, the approximately 1.1 million Bitcoins he mined early on became his first pot of gold. These Bitcoins have almost never been moved or sold, yet have rapidly appreciated in value with the soaring price of Bitcoin, now worth about $125 billion. Satoshi Nakamoto has been out of the spotlight since 2010, and some speculate that he may have lost his private key or is no longer alive. Regardless of the truth, the wealth myth created by Satoshi Nakamoto's first-mover advantage is undoubtedly a pinnacle achievement in the crypto world.

2. Zhao Changpeng

The experience of Binance founder Zhao Changpeng can be regarded as a textbook example of entrepreneurship in the crypto world. His first pot of gold dates back to 2014, when he sold his house in Shanghai for approximately 1,500 bitcoins. The subsequent surge in bitcoin prices over the years allowed CZ to achieve significant asset appreciation, laying the foundation for his later entrepreneurial ventures.

In 2017, Zhao Changpeng seized the bull market opportunity to establish Binance. With an efficient matching engine, a good user experience, and the issuance of the platform coin BNB as the core of its ecosystem, Binance quickly became one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world by trading volume. The exchange's profit model is simple and direct: matching transaction fees plus the appreciation of the platform coin. As Binance's business took off, Zhao Changpeng's personal wealth also grew exponentially, at one point becoming the richest person among the Chinese.

3. Giancarlo Devasini

Giancarlo Devasini, the founder of Tether, was originally a plastic surgeon before switching to the electronics business. His first fortune in crypto came from investing in the Bitfinex exchange in 2012, and in 2014 he co-founded the Tether stablecoin project. At that time, the stablecoin market was still a blue ocean, and Devasini keenly seized this opportunity to make USDT a dollar substitute in the crypto world. Today, USDT has become the main stablecoin used across major exchanges, and the resulting surge in valuation has led to explosive growth in his wealth in recent years.

4. Brian Armstrong

The founder of the largest exchange in the United States, Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, took an unusual path. As a software engineer, he first encountered Bitcoin around 2010 while working at Airbnb and realized that the process of purchasing Bitcoin was overly complicated. In 2012, he resigned to establish Coinbase, quickly securing seed investment from Y Combinator, and subsequently attracted venture capital, including from the New York Stock Exchange. His first bucket of gold came from startup financing.

From the very beginning, Coinbase has adhered to a compliance route, developing more slowly but more steadily. The exchange not only obtained a legal license in the United States but also successfully listed on NASDAQ in 2021, with a market value that once exceeded 100 billion USD. Later, Coinbase partnered with JPMorgan, opening up funding channels for traditional banks, allowing bank customers to purchase encryption currency directly with credit cards. This series of compliance operations not only made Armstrong very wealthy but also established him as a bridge between traditional finance and the crypto world.

5. Chris Larsen

Chris Larsen was a successful entrepreneur in the finance sector before entering the blockchain field, having founded the online lending company E-Loan and the P2P lending platform Prosper. In 2012, Larsen and his team co-founded Ripple, launching the Ripple payment protocol and XRP encryption currency, aimed at revolutionizing cross-border payments using blockchain technology. His first pot of gold in the encryption industry came from the Ripple startup and his early holdings of XRP tokens.

Ripple raised multiple rounds of financing between 2014 and 2016, and Larsen, as a co-founder, naturally holds a large amount of XRP and company equity. In 2017, the price of XRP skyrocketed hundreds of times, propelling Larsen's personal wealth to the forefront of the crypto world billionaire list. Although the price of XRP fell back afterward, Larsen still remains among the top billionaires in the crypto world due to his large holdings.

6. Paolo Ardoino

Current Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino is a tech pro. He joined Bitfinex exchange in 2014 and solved many early system problems with solid technical skills, demonstrating exceptional architectural ability. This caught the attention of Tether founder Devasini, and soon after, Paolo was invited to also serve as Tether's Chief Technology Officer. Paolo's first pot of gold came from the equity incentives he received at Tether.

Paolo helped expand USDT to a dozen mainstream public chains such as Ethereum, TRON, and Solana, significantly increasing USDT's daily trading volume and application scenarios. He exchanged his technical strength for substantial returns; when Tether made huge profits from interest income, Paolo, as a shareholder, also reaped the benefits. The combination of technical equity and the soaring stablecoin business created his wealth myth.

7. Sun Yuchen

At the age of 19, Sun Yuchen became an early representative of Ripple in Greater China, and later created the social app "陪我" which also received investment. However, what really made him earn his first pot of gold was the TRON project he initiated in 2017. During the ICO frenzy, Sun Yuchen raised tens of millions of dollars by issuing TRX tokens, accumulating a huge amount of original capital for himself. Subsequently, he rode the wave of a soaring crypto market, with the TRX price soaring a hundredfold at one point, greatly increasing the value of the tokens he held.

Since then, Sun Yuchen began various bold marketing and capital operations: he gained fame by spending $4.56 million to buy a lunch with Buffett; he successively acquired the exchange Poloniex and invested in HTX, creating his own encryption landscape. His style is simple and direct: one hand grabs the technical chips, while the other hand grabs the market's attention. Although external evaluations are mixed, he indeed seized the opportunity of the times and entered the ranks of the wealthy in the crypto world.

8. Michael Saylor

The story of Michael Saylor, the founder of MicroStrategy, is unique. This traditional tech tycoon suddenly went all in on Bitcoin with fervor in 2020. At over fifty years old, Saylor recognized the potential of Bitcoin and the looming inflation risk of the dollar, making the astonishing decision to convert most of the company's cash reserves into Bitcoin. This was akin to betting billions of dollars of a Nasdaq-listed company's "nest egg" on Bitcoin.

It has been proven that Saylor's judgment is correct. MicroStrategy has been continuously purchasing Bitcoin since August 2020, accumulating over 600,000 BTC by 2025, making it one of the publicly traded companies with the most coins in the world. This series of aggressive actions has earned him substantial returns in the encryption field. As the price of Bitcoin surpassed $100,000, he had an unrealized profit of over $10 billion, and the company's stock price has also multiplied several times. Now, MicroStrategy lists Bitcoin as a primary reserve asset, and Saylor has become the spiritual leader of the "aggressive bulls" in the crypto world.

9. Stuart Hoegner

Stuart Hoegner is a relatively low-profile figure in the crypto world, but in terms of wealth, he can definitely be considered an invisible billionaire. As a lawyer, Hoegner became interested in the legal compliance of digital currencies early on. When he joined the Bitfinex and Tether teams in 2014, regulatory oversight in the encryption industry was still in a gray area. Hoegner withstood immense pressure and gradually established a legal and compliance framework for Tether, such as promoting regular audits of Tether's reserves and transparency disclosure strategies, significantly boosting market trust in USDT. His first pot of gold came from the Tether equity he held as a founding team member. Unlike other high-profile pros, Hoegner rarely accepts interviews or makes public appearances, making him a typical type of person who quietly makes a fortune.

10. Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss

The Winklevoss twins are famous for their legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg over the founding rights of Facebook. After settling the lawsuit, they received approximately $65 million in compensation, which became the starting point for their entry into the crypto world. The brothers' first pot of gold was using this money to buy a large amount of Bitcoin at a low price in 2013, making them one of the earliest large holders of Bitcoin.

Although the Gemini exchange they later created has developed rather mediocrely, this does not affect the substantial returns from their early investment in Bitcoin. It is said that the two still hold about 70,000 coins to this day. With the first pot of gold from those days and their long-term faith in Bitcoin, the Winklevoss brothers have achieved sustained wealth growth.

Summary of Wealth Accumulation Paths: Three Major Wealth Creation Models that Disrupt Traditional Logic

Through the stories of the above pro in the crypto world, we can summarize three types of "get rich quick paths" that disrupt traditional wealth-building logic:

1. King of Exchanges

The first type is "being the boss of an exchange"; CZ and Xu Mingxing are outstanding representatives in this regard. The core of making money in exchanges lies in "collecting fees + building ecosystems"; as long as there are users trading on the platform, one can continuously earn commissions. Coinbase's Armstrong chose the compliant listing route, steadily obtaining licenses and landing on NASDAQ. Nowadays, the head effect in the exchange industry is evident; in addition to easily earning fees, profits can be further amplified through the platform coin ecosystem. The charm of this path lies in the fact that as long as you stand at the entry point of industry capital flow, wealth will continuously flow towards you.

2. Hold Bitcoin long-term

The second type of strategy is to hold Bitcoin for the long term, which means making a significant bet and holding onto promising encryption assets for an extended period, relying on time to achieve exponential growth in value. Michael Saylor is one of the representatives of extreme bets on Bitcoin. Even though he only started purchasing Bitcoin in large amounts in 2020, he has now become one of the top three Bitcoin holders in the world. If you believe that Bitcoin will increase a hundredfold in ten years, then accumulating a large position early on will undoubtedly lead to astonishing compound interest effects. Of course, the prerequisite for this route is to have extraordinary vision and a strong belief in holding coins; otherwise, one can easily be washed out during the extreme ups and downs.

3. Ecological Builder

The third category is the ecosystem builders, who often possess both technical talent and capital vision, acquiring enormous wealth by building entirely new ecosystems. Vitalik Buterin, who led the development of Ethereum, wrote the white paper at the age of 19 and is still leading technical iterations today. Devasini and Paolo have made USDT the core of market liquidity.