As individuals in Ireland begin to invest in Bitcoin and realize earnings, it’s challenging to find many Irishmen or Irishwomen who possess as much of the well-known cryptocurrency as the individuals discussed here. This piece explores the wealthiest Bitcoin owners.
Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong tops the list with an estimated net worth of $6.5 billion. He founded the widely-used trading platform and owns about 20 percent of Coinbase. Armstrong shared with Forbes, “I envisioned a global, open financial system that fosters innovation and freedom.”
In second place is Sam Bankman-Fried, with a net worth of around $4.5 billion. Before establishing FTX, a crypto derivatives exchange, he was a trader in exchange-traded funds on Wall Street. A significant portion of his wealth is tied up in FTX’s equity and FTT tokens.
Chris Larsen, another successful entrepreneur, boasts a net worth of approximately $6.5 billion. He played a crucial role in founding the online lending platform Eloan in the late 1990s, and by the dawn of the 2000s, he had also launched the peer-to-peer lending platform Prosper. His most notable venture, however, has been with Ripple, a cryptocurrency that aims to compete with Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Additionally, a report from the reputable Plum Assessment in 2021 highlighted that Irish individuals are investing more in Bitcoin than their counterparts in England, Spain, and other European nations. Perhaps, in the near future, we’ll see an Irishman or woman making this list of the richest Bitcoin owners. The growth of Bitcoin ATMs across Ireland certainly facilitates this process.
Ranked fourth is Barry Silbert, the founder of Digital Currency Group, who has a net worth of $1.5 billion. Silbert is also involved with digital asset manager Grayscale, which generates approximately $590 million in annual revenue. This impressive figure is comparable to, and if tripled over three years, would be close to the record high of $1.586 billion won in the US Powerball in 2016. None of the largest jackpots and lottery prizes globally have reached that magnitude.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, former Olympic athletes, settled a legal dispute with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2012 for $65 million. They invested a substantial portion of that settlement into Bitcoin. They currently own around 70,000 Bitcoins, and their combined net worth is estimated at $1.4 billion.
Following closely is Jed McCaleb, who previously collaborated with Larsen and now ranks sixth. McCaleb was instrumental in founding three cryptocurrency ventures – Mt Gox, Ripple, and most recently, Stellar. His estimated net worth stands at $1.3 billion. Interestingly, he initially gained recognition by creating the file-sharing platform eDonkey2000 before making his mark in the digital assets industry.
Finally, Matthew Roszak rounds out the list in seventh place with a net worth of approximately $1 billion. Prior to diving into cryptocurrency, he worked as a venture capitalist. His entrepreneurial ambition was evident when he co-developed an initiative to distribute $50 in digital currency to every member of the United States congress, with some accepting the offer.
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