10 Richest Bitcoin Millionaires

For a currency less than ten years old, Bitcoin has made remarkable strides in the world's economy. It's value has been volatile, but always high. At the time of writing this, the price of Bitcoin is in excess of $7,000, meaning that someone with just 150 Bitcoins is the equivalent of a millionaire. Several people and organizations investing in Bitcoin have, of course, more than surpassed 150 Bitcoins, with some parties in possession of the equivalent of more than a billion dollars. These parties include current and former criminals, as well as powerful business magnates and some people who just got lucky by investing in Bitcoin before its price skyrocketed. This list discusses some of the richest Bitcoin millionaires in the world, how they came about their wealth, and what they're doing with it.

Satoshi Nakamoto

Satoshi Nakamoto is the enigmatic creator of Bitcoin. Nakamoto claims to be a man living in Japan, but curious investigators believe it's more likely he lives in the United States or in western Europe, especially since some of his communications have contained British English. Some theorists believe the moniker may even be shared by a team of programmers. Regardless of who Satoshi Nakamoto really is, he is undoubtedly one of the richest Bitcoin millionaires in the world. This is a deserved honor, considering he ignited the modern cryptocurrency boom and implemented the first successful blockchain technology database. Nakamoto has over a million Bitcoins, which today is worth over seven billion US dollars. Ironically, Satoshi Nakamoto is unable to take advantage of this apparent wealth: If he were to sell off his wealth, the price of Bitcoin would plummet drastically.

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are two of the most prominent Bitcoin millionaires in the world. These two brothers have a history as athletes, competing on the rowing team at Harvard, as well as on the United States National Rowing Team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Most people know the Winklevoss twins for their 2004 legal dispute with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The twins claimed Zuckerberg had stolen their idea for a social media website (theirs was called "ConnectU") leading to a lawsuit that ultimately netted the twins a $65 million settlement. Tyler and Cameron would eventually set aside a healthy percentage of these earnings for investments in Bitcoin. The Winklevoss twins purchased 1.5 million Bitcoins in 2013 when the cryptocurrency's value was around $120. In the years since, the price of Bitcoin has gone up more than 20,000%, making Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss two of the richest Bitcoin millionaires in the world.

Gavin Andresen

While the person or persons behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym are credited with inventing Bitcoin, thus igniting the modern cryptocurrency craze, they had little to do with building Bitcoin up to the incredible value it has today. For that, we have to thank Gavin Andresen. Andresen was an early adopter and proponent of the currency upon its introduction to the world, and was soon named by Nakamoto as the lead developer of client software for Bitcoin. Gavin Andresen is behind many Bitcoin mainstays, such as Bitcoin Core, ClearCoin, and the Bitcoin Foundation. Unlike Satoshi Nakamoto, he has "cashed in" on his Bitcoin riches on several occasions.

Roger Ver

One of the most prominent and controversial Bitcoin millionaires in the world is Roger Ver who, like Gavin Andresen, was an early investor in the cryptocurrency. An outspoken libertarian and individualist, Ver sees Bitcoin as the answer to his anarcho-capitalist prayers. He developed Bitcoin Cash, a hard fork designed to accommodate Bitcoin users fed up with high transactional fees. While his current or former Bitcoin holdings are not officially known, it is believed that his Bitcoin earnings equate to over half a billion US dollars. Besides donating much of his riches, Roger Ver used his wealth to relocate to a small island in the West Indies called Saint Kitts and Nevis. Ver renounced his US citizenship in 2014.

Barry Silbert

Barry Silbert is best known as the founder of Digital Currency Group, a venture capital company which, obviously, focuses on digital currencies. He first entered the cryptocurrency game when he bought 48,000 Bitcoins at a US government auction in 2014. Some of these coins are rumored to have been confiscated from Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht when he was arrested for drug trafficking on the dark web. Those 48,000 Bitcoins, worth nearly $17 million in 2014, are now worth a staggering $288 million.

Charlie Shrem

Charlie Shrem has worn a lot of hats in the world of Bitcoin. One of the original five founding members of the Bitcoin Foundation, he served as Vice Chairman of the foundation for a time. In 2011, at the age of 22, he founded a Bitcoin exchange start-up called BitInstant. In addition to these ventures, however, he is also a convicted felon. In 2014, Shrem was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business with ties to the online black market website known as Silk Road. Upon his recent release from prison, Charlie Shrem has taken a position within Blockchain-based company Jaxx and has started his own cryptocurrency advisory, CryptoIQ.

Tony Gallippi

We've seen so far how some of the richest Bitcoin millionaires made their fortunes by using Bitcoin to accommodate illegal online transactions. The decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin invite many ill-intentioned people hoping to use digital currency to circumvent the law. Tony Gallippi is one of the less prominent Bitcoin investors on this list because he doesn't have a crazy story attached to his name. Instead, Gallippi is simply a successful business magnate who saw the value of Bitcoin and has continued to support it. Gallippi is perhaps best known for cofounding BitPay, one of the most popular Bitcoin payment processors in the world.

The FBI

Some of the largest Bitcoin holdings in the world are actually held by organizations rather than individuals. The FBI is one such organization. I've already mentioned how cryptocurrencies—especially Bitcoin—are frequently used for illegal online transactions. Several illegal operations have been uncovered by organizations like the FBI, which has confiscated enough Bitcoin to be one of the largest Bitcoin repositories in the world. Most notably, the FBI confiscated millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin from Ross Ulbricht, creator of the Silk Road website. It is unlikely the FBI still has significant Bitcoin holdings, however, as most of them have been auctioned off to Bitcoin investors like Barry Silbert.

BitFinex

BitFinex was founded in 2012 as a Bitcoin exchange and peer-to-peer margin lending platform for cryptocurrencies. The company has a history of issues with governments and with hackers. BitFinex has had trouble securing wire transfers with banks in several countries, including the United States. BitFinex has also been hacked on several occasions, and the company has lost nearly $75 million as a result of these hacks. Despite these setbacks, the company is estimated to control $1.1 billion worth of Bitcoin, which it houses in a cold wallet to protect against future hackers.

Bulgaria

You do not necessarily consider this among the facts about Bulgaria to start with, but another surprising entry on this list of richest Bitcoin millionaires is the government of this Eastern European country. Just like with other government organizations like the FBI in the United States, Bulgaria came into its Bitcoin wealth through seizure of criminal possessions. Organized crime syndicates in Bulgaria evidently latched on to Bitcoin as their currency of choice due to how difficult it is to track compared to fiat currencies. However, a 2017 crackdown by Bulgarian law enforcement has led to the seizure of $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. The Bulgarian government has declined to comment on the status of its Bitcoins, so it remains to be seen if and how they will be used.