According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a selloff in digital currencies from Bitcoin to Ether triggered a decline in the market value of Coinbase.
Coinbase is the largest US cryptocurrency exchange and its founder Brian Armstrong’s personal fortune of US$13.7 billion is now just US$2.2 billion.
Brian Armstrong tweeted that there is “no risk of bankruptcy” and “your finds are safe.”
Armstrong is not the only billionaire who has seen his share plummet.
Michael Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy Digital, has also seen his fortune go down to $US2.5 billion from $US8.5 billion.
According to the Age, the market capitalisation of all crypto assets has fallen by $US1.5 trillion ($2.2 trillion) since peaking last November at about $US2.9 trillion.
So, crypto billionaire fortunes that increased over the last two years are fast disappearing.
In fact, the value of world famous Bitcoin has fallen from almost $US70,000 to about $US30,000 that is a sharp decline of 57 per cent approx.
Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, has lost larger fortune – from a net worth of $US96 billion to just $US11.6 billion. He tweeted:
Further, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of Gemini, have each lost about $US2.2 billion and Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, now has only $US11.3 billion.
Cameron Winklevoss asked investors to “be patient and HODL.”
Experts believe that as the US dollar has strengthened, investors are once again looking at cash.
Although, there are some heavily-indebted countries such as the El Salvador that has made Bitcoin an official currency.
Given the volatile nature of crypto is it fair to say that these are merely collectible assets for speculation rather than investment?