How many Bitcoin billionaires are there?

Many of Bitcoin's early adopters are now billionaires, among the wealthiest people in the world. But Satoshi Nakamoto's wealth could eclipse them all.

BITCOIN IS THE FIRST CRYPTOCURRENCY, AND THE BIGGEST BY MARKET CAPITALIZATION

In brief

• The meteoric growth of Bitcoin and the crypto industry as a whole has seen several early adopters attain billionaire status.
• Half of these individuals are behind popular cryptocurrency exchange platforms, while the others co-founded prominent crypto firms.
• By some estimates, Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto may eclipse them all, with a whopping $10 billion fortune.

Since Bitcoin kickstarted the cryptocurrency revolution in 2009, the crypto space has grown dramatically; Bitcoin alone has reached a market capitalization of over $170 billion, while more than a dozen other digital assets have achieved a market value of more than $1 billion.As a result of this staggering growth, a number of early adopters, pioneers and builders have become billionaires, joining the ranks of the world's wealthiest individuals. However, due to the volatility of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, any wealth held in crypto assets can fluctuate wildly—making it difficult to pin down exactly who is a billionaire at any one time.

Despite strong growth in the crypto market since the start of the year, Forbes recognizes just four cryptocurrency billionaires as of April 2020—less than half that listed in its 2018 Richest People In Cryptocurrency list. 

There are also likely a handful of anonymous Bitcoin billionaires out there, since there are three addresses that contain more than $800 million of Bitcoin each, while just a single address—managed by a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange—contains more than $1 billion in BTC.