{"id":38318,"date":"2021-03-04T11:21:12","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T09:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=38318"},"modified":"2025-08-30T04:04:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T01:04:21","slug":"brian-armstrong-and-sam-bankman-fried-top-the-crypto-billionaire-list-ahead-of-changpeng-zhao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/brian-armstrong-and-sam-bankman-fried-top-the-crypto-billionaire-list-ahead-of-changpeng-zhao\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Armstrong and Sam Bankman-Fried top the crypto-billionaire list, ahead of Changpeng Zhao"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong topped the crypto-billionaire list for 2020, according to the Hurun ranking compiled by the <\/span>Chinese research institute<\/span> Hurun<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The list also included founders of Bitcoin exchanges, investors and owners of mining companies. The combined wealth of the 17 participants on the list amounted to $77 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n

First place went to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong \u2014 assets valued at $11.5 billion. In second place was FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried with $10 billion. Completing the top three with $8 billion is Changpeng Zhao, head of Binance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hurun separately noted that Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto could have entered the top-25 with a fortune of $50 billion. The estimate is based on a market value of the cryptocurrency at $50,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

Researchers did not include Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin due to lack of clear information about the cryptocurrencies owned by him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/p>\n

List of blockchain billionaires. Data: Hurun Global Rich List 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In Hurun’s list this year, Chinese representation rose to 1,058, up from 799 a year earlier. The number of Chinese entrants exceeded those from the United States, India and Germany combined. Overall, the billionaire list expanded by 412 positions \u2014 to 3,228.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the top was Elon Musk ($192 billion), who displaced Jeff Bezos ($189 billion) to second place. The top-10 saw the entry of Nongfu Spring founder Zhong Shanshan ($85 billion), the largest bottled-water producer in China.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/p>\n

List of billionaires. Data: Hurun Global Rich List 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The authors of the ranking described blockchain as one of the fastest-growing industries in 2020, alongside e-commerce, electric-vehicle production and biotechnology. This was propelled by new records in the cryptocurrency market<\/span><\/a> and the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of Coinbase’s direct-listing applications, which could value the company<\/span><\/a> over $100 billion<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“We are currently at the heart of the new industrial revolution. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, big data and e-commerce are creating new opportunities and driving wealth concentration. Global billionaires now hold $14 trillion, more than China’s GDP”<\/span><\/i>, \u2014 the experts noted.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As a reminder, in Forbes’ crypto billionaire list<\/span><\/a> for 2020, Brian Armstrong again topped the ranking. The publication counted 11 entrants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year in Hurun’s list were Changpeng Zhao, Ketuan Zhang of Bitmain, Star Xu, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, Huobi’s Leon Li and Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow ForkLog news on Facebook<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong topped the crypto-billionaire list for 2020, according to Hurun ranking compiled by the Chinese research institute Hurun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[757,935,1156,1421],"class_list":["post-38318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-brian-armstrong","tag-changpeng-zhao","tag-institutional-investors-and-whales","tag-rating"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"28","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38320,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38318\/revisions\/38320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}