By Adinah Brown
For the last few years, as bitcoin has been ebbing and flowing, there have been two camps. On one side are the naysayers, the bitcoin bears let’s call them, who have been jumping up and down on the spot saying that they don’t believe in the profit potential of bitcoin. That it is just a bunch of data like the kind you store on your computer. That it has no fundamentals. That it can be duplicated by another cryptocurrency.
Ant then there is the bitcoin camp, the bitcoin bulls. They talk about the blockchain like it is a spiritual entity. The world will be saved by bitcoin. It’s going to take over finance and get rid of the banks. The corrupt fools running the federal reserves will be forced to bend its will. Each bitcoin will be worth thousands, maybe millions.
After the recent highs, you would expect the bears to be quiet, but this only fuelled talk of a drop. With all the excitement of the huge profit gripping Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the rags to riches stories have abounded. And in some cases, the riches lost or squandered. For every story of instant wealth, there are just as many of those that remind you of James Monaghan, who traded his half of Dominos pizza for a used VW Beetle. The stories of the 10,000 BTC Pizza. The story of the guy whose girlfriend made him give away all his mined bitcoin in 2013… the list goes on.
With Bitcoin being anonymous, there could be someone out there who has millions of bitcoin that has not come forward. It could be your nerdy computer freak neighbour. Or your weird, tech-bsessed cousin.
However the richest bitcoin owners are not hard to find.
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Fans of the Aaron Sorkin penned “The Social Network” will know them as “The Winkelvii”. Tyler and Cameron Winkelvoss, who famously sued Mark Zukerberg for stealing Facebook, invested $11 million dollars in Bitcoin in 2013. At the height of the value that puts their stake at over $1 billion. They are also reputed to own more than 1% of all bitcoins. Other estimates put the value lower, but no one doubts that the amount of Bitcoin they own puts them near the top of the list.
Another of the richest has come to be known as Bitcoin Jesus, Roger Ver, whose stake in Bitcoin was estimated at $52 million in 2016. He was one of the early investors in Bit Instant, BitPay and Ripple. His public support of bitcoin and his run for California State Assembly, made him one of the highest profile Bitcoin millionaires, and also one of the wealthiest.
Jered Kenna is a former marine that bought his first Bitcoin at just $0.28 per Bitcoin, later selling them for $258. In time he traded more and more batches of Bitcoin. The net worth from this Bitcoin trading is said to be about $30 Million.
With all the known Bitcoin millionaires there are two that are rumoured to stand above them all, but it has not actually been verified. The first of these is actually not a person, but rather the US government, or in actual fact the FBI. After the seizure of Silk Road, the FBI came into control of the largest known wallet of bitcoin known at the time, containing 144,000 bitcoin. Other seizures from Silk Road affiliated sites, added reputedly another 30,000 Bitcoin. This puts them above the value of the Winkelvoss stake in Bitcoin.
At the reputed number one spot is the illusive and legendary Satoshi Nakamoto. The inventor of Bitcoin. Although even the identity of Satoshi is still a mystery, it is understood that in the early days of Bitcoin he mined 1 million tokens, which he then distributed amongst various wallets. Whilst there is no way to verify his holdings, it adds a layer to the elusive mystique surrounding Bitcoin’s legendary inventor.
About the Author:
Adinah Brown is a professional writer who has worked in a wide range of industry settings, including corporate industry, government and non-government organizations. Within many of these positions, Adinah has provided skilled marketing and advertising services and is currently the Content Manager at Leverate.