There’s no shortage of stories about people investing in cryptocurrencies and amassing enormous amounts of wealth. Recently, some of these investors and entrepreneurs have crossed the line into the billionaire club. Let’s take a look at who these people are, what their net worth is, why they’re important to cryptocurrency, and how they made it big in the world of digital currencies.
Chris Larsen Net Worth
$2.6bn
One of the biggest fish in the pond of cryptocurrency is Chris Larsen. With a current net worth from crypto exceeding $4 billion, Larsen is one of the most recognizable names in cryptocurrency.
In 1992, Larsen co-founded the online mortgage business company, E-Loan. He cited the internet as a great new tool which would make the real estate sector more efficient. Therefore, he established a company which would allow users to get around commissions and fees commonly associated with agents.
Larsen and his E-Loan partner sold part of their company to Yahoo in 1998 for a cool $25 million. The pair gave Yahoo a 23% stake, which meant they retained majority control of E-Loan. The following year, E-Loan was worth an estimated $1 billion.
In 2005 Larsen stepped away from E-Loan and established the first peer-to-peer lending website. Prosper Marketplace was an immediate success and processed well over $120 million worth of loan by the time Larsen moved on in 2012.
Impact on Cryptocurrency
What a lot of people don’t know is that before developing Ripple, Larsen co-founded a company called OpenCoin in 2012. It was at this time that OpenCoin began to develop Ripple. In 2013, OpenCoin rebranded itself as Ripple Labs.
Larsen helped co-found the Ripply cryptocurrency, which was meant to provide a cheaper and faster transfer network for financial institutions. The vast majority of Larsen’s cryptocurrency wealth resides in the 5.2 billion Ripple (XRP) tokens that he owns.
Joseph Lubin Net Worth
$1 – $5 bn
The second cryptocurrency on our list, Joseph Lubin, has earned over $1 billion from digital currencies. Lubin graduated from Princeton in 1987 but remained at the University to work in robotics. Half a decade later, Lubin moved on to Vision Applications and TomandDandy. While at these companies, he worked as both a software engineer and a research scientist.
