By Adinah Brown

While resisting the urge to jump on all the hype, surrounding cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin in particular, it seems that the big question that everyone want to know is who are the celebrities of the industry? To be more precise, who are those people that have become the almost mythical legends behind the sky-rocketing value of Bitcoin? These millionaires didn’t find their success by being a hedge fund manager or by selling the latest fad, they did it purely by mining, buying and selling the now famed cryptocurrency.

Here is our list of those Bitcoin millionaires with big stories, but steel yourself as they are just as likely to run off with your fascination.

1. Arianna Simpson – After working at Facebook, Arianna went onto become the third employee at BitGo, a company that produces Bitcoin wallets and seeks to make digital currencies more useable for businesses. Simpson than become an early investor of Bitcoin in her own right that also includes a portfolio of 40 other investment instruments.

2. Jered Kenna – An ex-marine who re-built a cryptocurrency exchange from the ashes, not just once, but twice, he is considered to be one of Bitcoin’s most persevering profiteers. He initially bought Bitcoin for $0.20 per coin and then traded this first batch for $258 per coin. In 2010 when he reformatted his drive he supposedly lost $200,000 of Bitcoin value. An always prevalent threat, he says he didn’t let the loss get to him.

3. Yifu Guo – Still a student at New York University, Guo developed his Bitcoin wealth by mining it. After amassing a fair few dollars, he then went on to start a company called Avalon that is focused on building the necessary hardware that enables people to mine Bitcoins themselves. His Goal: To continue to put more Bitcoins on the market and make sure it’s around for quite a while longer.

4. Winklevoss Twins – Remember those early litigants of Facebook, who weren’t too chummed about their social network idea getting nicked? Well, we think they might have come to terms with it now, as Bitcoin has turned them into millionaires – to the tune of $11 million.  According to the New York Times they invested in the market very early on, well before Bitcoin became the celebrity currency that it is today.

5. Topy Gallippi – With more than just a small vested interest, Gallippi started buying Bitcoin because his company handled the payment system for processing Bitcoins, more widely known as BitPay. So, alongside his financial portfolio that includes bonds, stocks and real estate, it also holds a fair number of Bitcoins.

Despite this list, it is actually impossible to say how many bitcoin wallet owners out there are actual millionaires because while the number of wallets and the amounts they hold are public knowledge, the people who own these wallets are anonymous.   This millionaire listing is a deduction of the amount of money each of these people would earn if they were to sell their Bitcoin holdings.

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.