How much wealth was lost in 2022?

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This year, crypto as a whole has struggled. 2022 has undoubtedly been a bad year for various reasons. Even though the bear markets have passed, this year’s bear market has left everyone with empty pockets, including the market’s billionaires.

According to a recent study by Forbes, crypto millionaires lost a total of $116 billion. This list includes well-known people like Binance’s Changpeng Zhao, Sam Bankman-Fried, and others. Several people on the list have seen their net worth drop to zero. Not only remove them from the cryptocurrency millionaire list, but from any form of rich list.

SourceHas Binance’s CZ lost the most in 2022?

Changpeng Zhao ended up being the biggest loser in terms of net worth as seen in the image above. The Binance CEO had a net worth of $65 billion in March 2022. Sadly, in December 2022, that figure dropped to $4.5 billion.

With the decline in the value of cryptocurrencies and the problems that come with it, CZ has undoubtedly had a tough year. The demise of the FTX empire has put centralized exchanges in the public eye. Binance has had a tough time coping this year due to increased investigations from US and EU regulators as well as the complete proof of reserves report debacle with Mazars. On top of that, the Binance blockchain was hacked for $570 million in October.

Brian Armstrong, CEO of another top exchange, Coinbase’s net worth was $6 billion in March. However now his billionaire status was about to drop. His current net worth is $1.5 billion.

Similar to Armstrong, the crypto billionaire tag of the Winklevoss twins of Gemini was also on the line. Their respective net worths, which were once $4 billion, are now $1.1 billion each.

Other billionaires like Michael Saylor of Microstrategy as well as investor Tim Draper have suffered big losses this year. Saylor’s value has gone from $1.6 billion to $640 million. Saylor decided to say goodbye to his role as CEO of Microstrategy this year and decided to focus on BTC. Draper, on the other hand, was valued at $1.2 billion and his current net worth is $550 billion.

Few others like Alchemy’s Nikil Viswanathan and Joseph Lau, OpenSea’s Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah, and Coinbase’s Fred Ehrsam saw their billionaire status disappear as their net worth fell into the millions category.

Crypto billionaires who went from riches to misery

As seen in the list, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang have gone from being one of the richest people in the crypto ecosystem to nothing. SBF, who is currently out on bail, has several charges against him. The man behind the FTX empire and its downfall was valued at $24 billion in March. But now Forbes has highlighted his net worth as $0.

Gary Wang, co-founder and CTO of FTX, fell out with SBF. Wang recently pleaded guilty to four counts in the United States. His net worth dropped from $5.9 billion to $0.

Last but not least, Barry Silbert of the Digital Currency Group [DCG] which was immensely exposed to the FTX debacle was previously valued at $3.2 billion. This list emphasizes the strength of bears while emphasizing that wrongdoers never avoid justice.

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