Onchain analytics platform Arkham has published its comprehensive study ranking the richest individuals in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
The list reveals a picture where Satoshi Nakamoto is at the top by far, and where billions of dollars in wealth are sometimes not portable.
According to the study, Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious founder of Bitcoin, has a fortune of approximately $115 billion, based on his total assets in 22,000 BTC addresses, which he acquired through mining between 2009 and 2010. This amount puts Nakamoto among the world’s 20 richest people, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
TRON founder Justin Sun comes second on the list, with approximately $1.9 billion in on-chain assets. Sun reportedly holds hundreds of millions of dollars in positions in stETH, TRX, BTC, and various stablecoins. The recent controversy surrounding the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) project is another noteworthy addition to Sun’s on-chain history.
In third place is Estonian banker Rain Lohmus, the subject of one of the crypto world’s most dramatic stories. After losing the keys to the 250,000 ETH he purchased during the Ethereum ICO, Lohmus’s approximately $886 million fortune remains visible on-chain but inaccessible.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is ranked fourth on the list with an on-chain fortune of approximately $867 million, the majority of which is ETH.
James Howells, in fifth place, is another victim of lost keys, just like Lohmus. The 8,000 BTC hidden on the hard drive he accidentally threw away in 2013 is now worth $838 million, and despite repeated requests, he is not allowed to search the dump where it was found.
Similar stories of “unreachable wealth” are also prominent throughout the list. Stefan Thomas can’t access the 7,002 BTC he earned in 2011 because he lost the password to his IronKey device and has only two more attempts left. Clifton Collins, who lost the fishing tackle box containing the keys to his 6,000 BTC fortune, is seventh on the list with $629 million.
Owen Gunden, ranked eighth, has amassed a substantial Bitcoin holdings since his Mt. Gox days. Gunden, who recently lost ground after moving 1,800 BTC to Kraken, has an on-chain fortune of $561 million. F2Pool founder and Cobo CEO Shixing Mao (DiscusFish) comes in ninth, while POAP founder Patricio Worthalter rounds out the list with a net worth of $226 million.
*This is not investment advice.