Page 78 - Forbes - USA (February 2018)

F I N T E C H
CR YPT O BILLIONAIRES

Market, an exchange for tough- cure and global, while fi at is
to-trade assets—mostly stakes subject to the whims of polit-
in private tech companies— ical forces,” says Draper, who
that became popular in the age disputes Forbes estimate of his
of unicorns. By the time he sold crypto wealth. “I believe that
SecondMarket to Nasdaq in Bitcoin and crypto will drive
2015, Silbert himself was already most of the commerce of the
working on his second act, Digi- world.”
tal Currency Group.
Silbert’s company is made up
of three components: a venture
capital arm that has invested in
prominent crypto-related busi-
nesses like Coinbase and Ripple; Song Chi-
speculation on digital currencies
and operating businesses like Hyung
asset management fi rm Gray-
scale, which runs the publicly CEO, DUNAMU; FOUNDER, UPBIT
38
traded Bitcoin Investment Trust; INFRASTRUCTURE
and CoinDesk, a digital curren-
cy media company. Crypto Net Worth:
$350 million–$500 million
In just four months since its
launch, Song Chi-Hyung’s Upbit
has become the largest cryp-
tocurrency exchange in South
Vitalik Buterin Korea, a market that ranks
among the top in Bitcoin trad-
CREATOR OF ETHEREUM, 24 ing. By December it boasted an
BUILDER IDEALIST
average daily trading volume of
Crypto Net Worth: VITALIK BUTERIN $4.7 billion.
$400 million–$500 million A computer science and eco-
nomics graduate from the pres-
Gaunt and boyish, with close-
cropped blond hair and pierc- it’s old money that’s being dis- coin enthusiast before it was tigious Seoul National Univer-
ing blue eyes, Ethereum creator empowered and fl ashy new tech cool. He says he started thinking sity, Song founded Dunamu,
Buterin might be the most rec- which means “two trees,” in 2012.
money that’s being empowered,” about digital currencies 15 years He started as a news aggrega-
ognizable person in crypto. As
says Buterin, whose invention ago when he met a guy in South tor but quickly pivoted to fi ntech.
a teenager, he launched Bitcoin
now collaborates with the likes Korea who had bought a virtu- The following year, internet giant

Magazine, dropped out of college

of Microsoft, BP and JPMorgan al sword for his son with regular Kakao Corp. started a series of in-
to accept a Thiel Fellowship, then

Chase. “But I’m skeptical that cash. As currencies proliferated vestments in the company, which
began traveling on his Bitcoin—
people involved in cryptocurren- in videogames, Draper started eventually led to the creation of
and ruminated on its limitations.
cy are better people than people looking for ways to convert one KakaoStock, a mobile stock trad-

Those travels inspired him
involved in the banking system.” game currency to another. ing app which now has more than
to write the Ethereum white
He adds, “If crypto succeeds, The moment Draper heard 300,000 users and leverages Ka-

paper, which proposed an open
it’s not because it empowers bet- about Bitcoin, he was in. Draper kao’s instant-messaging base of 50
source platform for more com-
ter people. It’s because it empow- invested $250,000 when the price million, according to Statista.

plex financial instruments aimed
ers better institutions.” was at $6. He lost it all in the col-
at the economically marginal-
lapse of the Mt. Gox exchange
ized rather than just a curren-
in 2014, but Draper was not de-
cy like Bitcoin. Some $100 bil-
terred. In the same year, he is re-
lion of market cap later, Ethere- Turn the page
ported to have paid less than $20
um is believed to have a greater
million for nearly 32,000 Bit-
number of developers building coin auctioned by the U.S. Mar- and open the
on it than any other blockchain Tim Draper
shalls Service—coins that had fold to see the
community.

FOUNDER, DRAPER ASSOCIATES, been confiscated from Ross Ul-
Utopian visions come with 59 bricht and his online black mar- top wealth
a cost: Buterin says he has less ESTABLISHMENT IDEALIST
ketplace, Silk Road. Since then
than 0.4% of the circulating
Crypto Net Worth: Draper says he has made 40 advisors in
supply of Ether. “A lot of peo- $350 million–$500 million more crypto investments.
ple cheer the wealth redistribu- “I don’t know why anyone each state ETHAN PINES FOR FORBES

tion that’s coming from crypto- The formidable Silicon Valley would want to go back to fi at
currency because they think, oh, venture capitalist became a Bit-
when crypto is distributed, se-
76 | FORBES FEBRUARY 28, 2018