Revealing the wealth myth of the currency circle, how did they earn their first 10 million in life?

Author: Biteye  

Whenever the market fluctuates, some friends exclaim: "Why have others achieved financial freedom?"  

Today, let’s take a look at how the 10 richest tycoons in the crypto world made their fortunes. Where did their first bucket of gold come from? Do they have any exclusive tricks? After reading this, remember to "copy their homework" well—after all, these are the paths they’ve taken and the pitfalls they’ve stepped on!  

### 01 Overview of Well-Known Crypto Billionaires  

*Note: The above are estimated values of publicly disclosed wealth. Actual market fluctuations may affect asset values.*  

Next, let’s take a look at each of these crypto billionaires’ rags-to-riches stories and how they earned their first bucket of gold.  

#### 1. Satoshi Nakamoto  

When it comes to the richest person in the crypto world, we can’t avoid the mysterious figure of Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. He published the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008 and officially launched the Bitcoin network in 2009, earning him the title "Father of Cryptocurrency." His true identity remains unknown to this day—he has never appeared publicly and remains one of the biggest mysteries in the crypto world.  

While no one knows who he is, the approximately 1.1 million Bitcoins he mined in the early days are his first bucket of gold. These Bitcoins have barely been moved or sold, yet their value skyrocketed as Bitcoin’s price surged, now worth around $125 billion! It’s fair to say: the more successful Bitcoin becomes, the more valuable his holdings grow. However, Satoshi vanished after 2010; some even speculate he may have lost his private keys or passed away. Regardless of the truth, his wealth myth, built on first-mover advantage, is undoubtedly the pinnacle of the crypto world.  

#### 2. Changpeng Zhao (CZ)  

As the founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao’s story is practically a textbook on crypto entrepreneurship. CZ started as a tech-savvy coder and once helped build OKCoin but left shortly after. His first bucket of gold dates to 2014, when he sold his Shanghai apartment to buy roughly 1,500 Bitcoins (when Bitcoin was around $600 each). Bitcoin’s subsequent surge over the years boosted his assets significantly, laying the capital foundation for his later ventures.  

In 2017, he敏锐ly seized the crypto bull market to launch Binance. With its efficient matching engine, user-friendly experience, and the issuance of its platform token BNB as the core of its ecosystem, Binance became one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges by trading volume in just a few months. Binance’s early profit model was straightforward: trading fees + platform token appreciation. Think about it—exchanges collect "tolls"; the more frenzied the market and the higher the trading volume, the more they profit. Later, as Binance’s business took off, CZ’s personal wealth snowballed, even briefly making him the richest Chinese person. In short, building a trading platform put CZ on the fast track to wealth, and his decisive "all-in" on Bitcoin was a key step in his success.  

#### 3. Giancarlo Devasini  

Many may not recognize Giancarlo Devasini by name, but everyone in crypto knows USDT, issued by Tether, the company he co-founded. He initially trained as a plastic surgeon but grew bored and switched to trading electronics. Devasini’s first crypto windfall came from investing in Bitfinex in 2012, then co-founding Tether in 2014. At the time, the stablecoin market was untapped, and Devasini shrewdly seized the opportunity, turning USDT into crypto’s de facto "dollar substitute." Today, USDT is the dominant stablecoin across exchanges, and its soaring valuation has led to explosive growth in his wealth in recent years. Simply put, he identified a market gap and stuck with it.  

#### 4. Brian Armstrong  

Brian Armstrong, founder of Coinbase—the largest U.S. exchange—took a very different path. A software engineer, he first encountered Bitcoin while working at Airbnb around 2010 and noticed how cumbersome and unfriendly the process of buying Bitcoin was. In 2012, he quit to launch Coinbase, quickly securing seed funding from Y Combinator and later attracting investments from heavyweights like the New York Stock Exchange, giving him ample capital early on. His first bucket of gold came from venture financing. Coinbase insisted on compliance from the start—a slower path but a steady one. It not only obtained legal licenses in the U.S. but also went public on Nasdaq in 2021, with a market cap briefly exceeding $100 billion.  

Notably, Coinbase later partnered with legacy investment bank JPMorgan to connect with traditional banking channels, allowing bank customers to buy crypto directly with credit cards. These compliance efforts not only made Armstrong wealthy but also established him as a bridge between traditional finance and the crypto world.  

#### 5. Chris Larsen  

Chris Larsen was a fintech entrepreneur before entering blockchain. In the 1990s, he founded online lending company E-Loan and later co-founded P2P lending platform Prosper, thriving in traditional finance. This gave him deep insights into the pain points of payment systems.  

In 2012, Larsen co-founded Ripple to launch the Ripple payment protocol and XRP cryptocurrency, aiming to revolutionize cross-border payments with blockchain. His first crypto earnings came from Ripple’s founding and early holdings of XRP. Ripple raised multiple rounds of funding between 2014 and 2016, and as a co-founder, Larsen held significant XRP and company equity. XRP’s price surged hundreds of times in 2017, catapulting his wealth to the top of crypto rich lists. Though XRP has since declined, his large holdings keep him among crypto’s elite.  

#### 6. Paolo Ardoino  

Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s current CEO, is also a tech whiz. In 2014, the skilled programmer joined Bitfinex and quickly solved its early system issues with his strong architectural skills, catching the attention of Tether founder Devasini. He was soon appointed Tether’s CTO. Ardoino’s first bucket of gold came from equity incentives at Tether. When he joined, USDT’s circulation was only tens of millions of dollars, but he helped expand the stablecoin to over a dozen major blockchains like Ethereum, TRON, and Solana, boosting its daily trading volume and use cases.  

In short, he traded technical expertise for tangible rewards. As Tether raked in billions from interest income, Ardoino, as a shareholder, reaped massive dividends. His technical equity stake, combined with Tether’s rise, created his wealth myth.  

#### 7. Justin Sun  

Justin Sun is a familiar name. At 19, he became Ripple’s early representative in Greater China, later launching a social app called "Peiwo" (Accompany Me) that secured funding. But his real first bucket of gold came from TRON, the project he launched in 2017. During the ICO boom, Sun raised tens of millions of dollars by issuing TRX tokens,积累了巨额原始资本. The subsequent crypto surge sent TRX’s price soaring over 100 times, instantly boosting the value of his holdings. As TRON’s founder, he held large initial token allocations, achieving wealth leap during that bull run.  

Later, Sun made bold marketing moves and capital plays: paying $4.56 million for a lunch with Warren Buffett to gain fame; acquiring exchange Poloniex and investing in Huobi (now rebranded as HTX) to build his crypto empire. Sun’s style is straightforward—grabbing technical leverage while capturing market attention. Despite mixed public opinion, he seized opportunities for young people, securing a spot on crypto rich lists.  

#### 8. Michael Saylor  

Michael Saylor’s story differs from others. The founder of business intelligence firm MicroStrategy was already a traditional tech millionaire. However, in 2020, in his 50s, he suddenly embraced Bitcoin with fervor. Noticing Bitcoin’s potential and the risks of dollar inflation, Saylor made a bold decision: convert most of MicroStrategy’s cash reserves into Bitcoin. This meant betting billions of dollars—his company’s "life savings"—on Bitcoin, a move many deemed reckless for a Nasdaq-listed firm!  

But Saylor proved his judgment right. Starting in August 2020, MicroStrategy kept buying Bitcoin, accumulating over 600,000 BTC by 2025, making it one of the largest corporate holders globally. These aggressive moves rewarded him handsomely in crypto: as Bitcoin surpassed $100,000, his paper profits exceeded $10 billion, and the company’s stock price multiplied. Today, MicroStrategy lists Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset, and Saylor has become the spiritual leader of crypto’s "radical bulls."  

#### 9. Stuart Hoegner  

Stuart Hoegner is a relatively low-key figure in crypto but a hidden billionaire. A lawyer, he took an early interest in crypto legal compliance. In 2014, when crypto was still obscure, he joined Bitfinex and Tether. With the industry in a regulatory gray area, survival was uncertain, but Hoegner endured immense pressure to build Tether’s legal and compliance framework—推动 USDT 储备金定期审计 and transparency disclosures, greatly boosting market trust in USDT. His first bucket of gold came from Tether equity as a founding team member. Unlike high-profile tycoons, Hoegner rarely gives interviews or appears publicly; he’s a classic example of "getting rich quietly" in crypto.  

#### 10. Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss  

The Winklevoss twins, who famously sued Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook’s founding and settled for ~$65 million, used this payout to enter crypto. Their first bucket of gold came from buying large amounts of Bitcoin at low prices in 2013—foresight that made them among the earliest large Bitcoin holders.  

While their later exchange, Gemini, has grown modestly, it hasn’t diminished the gains from their early Bitcoin investment. They’re said to still hold ~70,000 BTC. With their initial windfall and long-term belief in Bitcoin, the Winklevoss twins have sustained wealth growth.  

#### 11. Jeremy Allaire  

Jeremy Allaire created USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin. A veteran of the internet era, he founded video platform Brightcove, among other companies. In 2013, he spotted crypto’s potential and launched Circle, initially aiming to make crypto user-friendly. After several pivots, Circle partnered with Coinbase in 2018 to launch the USD stablecoin USDC, leveraging Coinbase’s地位 and user network to quickly expand its market share. Allaire’s first digital wealth came from Circle’s success and USDC’s rise.  

As USDC’s circulation exceeded tens of billions, Allaire’s personal wealth surged between 2021 and 2023. Though USDC’s market cap now trails USDT, Allaire secured his place among crypto billionaires.  

#### 12. Star Xu  

Star Xu was among China’s earliest crypto entrepreneurs and founder of OKCoin/OKX—one of the "Big Three" exchanges. In 2013, at 28, he launched OKCoin, which, alongside Huobi and BTC China, dominated China’s Bitcoin exchange market. With strong products and marketing, OKCoin quickly captured half of China’s trading volume. His first bucket of gold came from exchange profits and platform tokens. OKCoin later upgraded to OKEx and issued OKB; daily trading fees plus OKB’s appreciation made Xu extremely wealthy.  

Notably, he once recruited He Yi and Changpeng Zhao, though the trio later parted ways due to differing visions.  

#### 13. Vitalik Buterin ("V God")  

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