Crypto moguls of 2021 and everything they lost thanks to events that rocked 2022

• The crypto industry lost $116 billion because of everything that went south in 2022
• The demise of FTX has caused a liquidity crisis in the industry, with investors unwilling to invest funds

The string of bankruptcies amid the bearish market trend in the cryptocurrency industry drained funds worth $116 billion in 2022. This was stated by Forbes in its latest report. Crypto founders and investors lost the aforementioned funds in the last nine months.

The fall signifies the combined personal equity of 17 people in the crypto sector. Furthermore, more than half of these investors lost more than half of their fortunes since March 2022. As a result, ten names were removed from the list of crypto billionaires.

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was leading the list of crypto billionaires who suffered losses worth billions. CZ’s 70% stake in the cryptocurrency exchange was valued at $65 billion in March. However, as of 26 December, his stake was worth $4.5 billion.

Prominent billionaires lose out on…

Other prominent names in the crypto industry also lost fortunes worth billions in 2022 thanks to debacles, such as Terra and FTX.

The worth of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong was valued at $6 billion in March but as of 26 December stood at $1.5 billion. Similarly, the worth of Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen halved from $4.3 billion to $2.1 billion. The worth of Gemini’s Winklevoss twins was valued at $4 billion in March but was worth $1.1 billion at press time.

In March, the worth of FTX co-founders Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang was valued at $24 billion and $5.9 billion respectively. As of December 2022, both stood bankrupted. Digital Currency Group founder and CEO Barry Silbert lost around $3.2 billion as a result of exposure of funds to FTX.

Crypto software firm Alchemy’s Nickel Viswanathan and Joseph Lay, OpenSea’s Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah, Coinbase’s Fred Ehrsam, MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor and Bitcoin venture capitalist Tim Draper could no longer be considered as billionaires.

Bears for 2023?

The bearish market trend in the cryptocurrency industry wasn’t leaving anytime soon. The demise of FTX caused a liquidity crisis in the industry, with investors unwilling to invest funds. Experts believe that a downtrend  could continue in the crypto industry until the end of 2023.