“All of the fears that have been holding this industry back for a decade have now gone away,” said Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at crypto investor Arca. “It’s not going to be banned, it’s going to be used for a big part of finance, and you’re not going to jail for participating in crypto anymore.”
“Other than the price,” he said, “this was probably the most positive year in crypto history.”
About those prices: Bitcoin was down roughly 6% for the year through mid-December, with most other tokens sliding even more, leaving some of the industry’s most prominent figures poorer than where they started. Several have also watched their publicly traded companies falter amid rising competition and scepticism over their business models.
Here’s a look at who managed to hold on and who didn’t in crypto’s uneven 2025, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. No more than one billionaire is included at a single company, except for the Winklevoss twins. All figures are as of Dec 16. Except where noted, those listed either declined to comment for the story or didn’t respond to requests for comment.
See also: The coming crypto apocalypse
The winners
Jeremy Allaire, Circle Internet Group Inc
Net worth: US$1.7 billion ($2.2 billion)
See also: Bitcoin plunges to near US$60,000 before paring losses in Asia
Change since net worth first calculated (June 4, 2025): 149%
Change since high-water mark (June 23, 2025): -68%
New York-based Circle’s USDC is the world’s second-largest stablecoin with a circulation of more than US$77 billion, according to data service CoinMarketCap. While that’s dwarfed by competitor Tether’s USDT (US$186 billion), it created enough investor enthusiasm for the company to go public at a valuation of US$6.9 billion after an upsized initial public offering. While well off their highs from June, shares remain up 168%, and the company booked net income of US$214 million in the third quarter, up more than 200% year-over-year. Allaire founded Circle in 2013.
Giancarlo Devasini, Tether
Net worth: US$13.2 billion
Change since Jan 1: 60%
To stay ahead of Singapore and the region’s corporate and economic trends, click here for Latest Section
Change since high-water mark (Sept 17, 2025): -4%
Another stablecoin issuer, Tether has increased the circulation of its USDT coin this year by more than 15% and paid out more than US$10 billion in dividends to its owners, including Devasini, who is chairman. The Italian’s fortune could still rise dramatically. In September, Bloomberg reported that the company is in discussions to raise roughly US$20 billion at a valuation that could be as high as US$500 billion. That would make Devasini the richest person in crypto, with a net worth of about US$225 billion.
Mike Cagney, Figure Technology Solutions Inc
Net worth: US$2.1 billion
Change since net worth first calculated (Sept 10, 2025): 46%
Change since high-water mark (Oct 8, 2025): -19%
Cagney is the founder of Figure Technology, a blockchain-based lender that went public in September at a valuation of US$6.6 billion. Cagney is a seasoned fintech entrepreneur, having also co-founded SoFi Technologies Inc.
Mike Novogratz, Galaxy Digital Inc
Net worth: US$6.7 billion
Change since Jan 1: 32%
Change since high-water mark (Oct 21, 2025): -35%
Novogratz is the founder of Galaxy Digital, a digital-asset financial services firm. The former Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker was early in calling the peak in corporate crypto treasury firms, saying on his company’s second-quarter earnings call that newer entrants would likely “have a harder time getting oxygen.” But Galaxy has benefitted from their proliferation, earning management fees for overseeing the crypto holdings of at least 20 such firms. Its third-quarter gross revenue of US$28.4 billion was up more than 200% from a year earlier.
Treading water
Barry Silbert, Digital Currency Group
Net worth: US$3.1 billion
Change since Jan 1: 27%
Change since high-water mark (Oct 15, 2025): -28%
This year marked Silbert’s return to the leadership at Grayscale, a DCG subsidiary and the world’s largest digital-asset manager, after he stepped down in late 2023 amid regulatory scrutiny tied to the failure of crypto lender Genesis. That controversy hasn’t disappeared, with DCG and Silbert still facing lawsuits over Genesis’s collapse. Grayscale is now pursuing an IPO, though filings show the revenue has declined as competition in the crypto ETF market intensifies. In October, he launched Yuma Asset Management to invest in AI infrastructure projects through the Bittensor blockchain network.
Brendan Blumer, Bullish
Net worth: US$1.8 billion
Change since net worth first calculated (Aug 12, 2025): 17%
Change since high-water mark (Aug 14, 2025): -42%
Blumer is a co-founder at Bullish, a crypto exchange and market-maker focused on institutional clients that went public in October at a valuation of US$5.4 billion. He also co-founded Block.one, a crypto business backed by Peter Thiel and Mike Novogratz that raised US$4.2 billion selling a token, EOS, that has since lost most of its value. Cayman Islands-headquartered Bullish received a licence to operate in New York in September and began offering services in the US the following month. Blumer grew up in Iowa, but moved to Hong Kong in 2005 and relinquished his US citizenship in 2020. Earlier this year he bought a Sardinian villa for about US$200 million, one of Italy’s largest-ever residential real estate transactions.
Brian Armstrong, Coinbase Global Inc
Net worth: US$11 billion
Change since Jan 1: 2%
Change since high-water mark (July 18, 2025): -38%
Coinbase made several strategic moves this year into markets including stock trading, prediction markets and tokenised assets, and was added to the S&P 500 Index. Despite that, the New York-headquartered crypto platform’s shares are trading near where they started the year and co-founder Armstrong’s net worth has barely budged.
Donald Trump & family, World Liberty Financial
Net worth: US$6.5 billion
Change since Jan 1: 1%
Change since high-water mark (Sept 9, 2025): -17%
While the president’s fortune is ending the year close to where it started, that belies the big moves that happened in his crypto interests. At the beginning of the year, not a single crypto asset was included in Trump’s fortune by Bloomberg’s wealth index. But the family has embraced crypto enthusiastically and now has a range of financial interests in projects including World Liberty Financial, publicly traded American Bitcoin Corp and the Trump memecoin. A crypto token issued by World Liberty is down about 50% from its high, American Bitcoin has slid 82%, and the Trump memecoin has tumbled roughly 90%, burning those who invested as well as the family. Those losses for the Trumps, while in the billions on paper, largely aren’t part of the calculation of their fortunes because of limits on their ability to liquidate their holdings. Still, the ventures ultimately have added hundreds of millions to their net worth this year, mitigating losses from other interests including Trump Media & Technology Group Corp.
Changpeng Zhao, Binance
Net worth: US$50.9 billion
Change since Jan 1: -5%
Change since high-water mark (Feb 3, 2025): -17%
While Zhao’s net worth has remained relatively flat, it has otherwise been a triumphant year. In October he was pardoned by President Trump for his earlier conviction for money laundering violations, for which he’d pleaded guilty and served four months in prison. Binance has built business connections with Trump, including getting a US$2 billion investment from an Abu Dhabi government-linked firm denominated in a stablecoin issued by Trump’s crypto firm World Liberty Financial, and helping that company with technology. When asked about the pardon, Trump said he didn’t know who Zhao was but “heard it was a Biden witch hunt.” The company is now plotting a reboot of its US business.
Chris Larsen, Ripple Labs
Net worth: US$14.6 billion
Change since net worth first calculated (Nov 5, 2025): -5%
Change since high-water mark (Nov 10, 2025): -11%
This year bought the conclusion of a long-running legal battle between Ripple and the Securities & Exchange Commission over allegations it conducted unregistered securities sales, with Ripple paying a civil penalty without admitting wrongdoing. Larsen, the co-founder of the crypto-payments firm, holds more than US$5 billion worth of Ripple-linked XRP tokens, according to the wealth index. Although XRP now trades close to where it began the year, Larsen was added to the rich list in November after Ripple raised US$500 million at a US$40 billion valuation. “Ripple is closing out its strongest year on record,” Larsen said in an emailed statement. “With the SEC firmly behind us and global regulatory tailwinds accelerating, we’re playing offense.”
Justin Sun, Tron
Net worth: US$10.3 billion
Change since net worth first calculated (Aug 11, 2025): -16%
Change since high-water mark (Oct 6, 2025): -29%
Since the SEC paused a fraud lawsuit against him, Sun has become one of crypto’s most visible proponents, appearing at conferences, dining with President Trump and taking a brief trip to space on a Blue Origin rocket. His Tron network has become an important part of the infrastructure behind stablecoins, moving more than US$20 billion worth a day, and its token now has a publicly traded crypto treasury company, Tron Inc. But there was also conflict. In September, Trump memecoins he’d purchased that won him the presidential dinner were frozen after speculation that he’d been selling off his position. The drop in Sun’s net worth mainly reflects declines in the value of other tokens that the Bloomberg Billionaires Index credits him with. (Sun is suing Bloomberg LP over previous coverage of him; the case is pending).
Bruised and bloodied
Michael Saylor, Strategy
Net worth: US$4 billion
Change since Jan 1: -37%
Change since high-water mark (July 16, 2025): -59%
Saylor’s Strategy Inc is the OG crypto treasury company, pioneering a playbook of raising money through equity and debt — often at a premium to net asset value — and using the proceeds to buy Bitcoin in what some observers dubbed an “infinite money glitch.” But its success drew imitators, eroding Strategy’s premium and leaving the stock lagging bitcoin’s own performance this year. Saylor has stuck to his guns, with Strategy buying about US$2 billion worth of bitcoin through mid-December.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Gemini Space Station Inc
Net worth: US$4.8 billion
Change since Jan 1: -59%
Change since high-water mark (Oct 6, 2025): -70%
The Winklevoss twins appeared set for success this year. The pair became favourites of President Trump after donating millions to help him retake the Oval Office, and their crypto exchange Gemini was poised to go public. But filings showed that the business was much smaller than competitor Coinbase, and had depended on loans it received from the brothers. The company’s shares are down roughly 60% since its September IPO, while bitcoin’s decline hit the value of their personal holdings.
Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja
