Woes of the crypto bros – These 5 billionaires lost the most money in 2022 – At #2 is FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who lost $23 billion, so who tops the list?

It’s been a tough year financially for crypto billionaires after the market suffered a trillion-dollar crypto crash. The wipeout has resulted in thousands of lawsuits as investors try to recoup their lost billions. The top crypto leaders in the space have lost US$112.7 billion this year alone.

But which of cryptocurrency big names lost the most?

1. Changpeng Zhao – $82 billion
He is known as the king of Chinese cryptography, but 2022 was not Changpeng Zhao’s year. According to Crypto Presales, it lost around US$82 billion. Binance CEO Lost Money as Crypto Prices Fall. But Zhao is still the richest figure in the crypto world, with a current net worth of $14.6 billion. That’s a massive drop from his estimated net worth of $96.5 billion last year.

Known as CZ to his friends, Zhao was born in Jiangsu, China but moved to Canada with his parents when he was 12 years old. He launched Binance in Singapore and had to move the company’s headquarters several times due to regulators. Eventually, Binance became a non-headquartered company.

2. Sam Bankman-Fried – $23 billion
The collapse of crypto exchange FTX saw its founder and leader Sam Bankman-Fried kicked out of the Forbes billionaires club. Before the crash, the CEO of FTX was worth around US$26 billion. His holdings in FTX and crypto trading firm Alameda were his most valuable assets. He lost a staggering US$23 billion in just three weeks as the stock market struggled with cash, and the philanthropist is currently under investigation in the US and other countries for ‘possible securities violations,’ reports Forbes Advisor.

3. Gary Wang – $1.7 billion
As another co-founder of FTX, Gary Wang lost an estimated US$1.7 billion after the crypto exchange crashed. He was the youngest person to appear on Forbes’ Top 400 list in 2022. His net worth now stands at around US$4.2 billion, according to the publication.

Ironically, Wang has often made headlines for being more elusive than his business partner, Bankman-Fried. According to CoinDesk, the two are childhood friends and met at math camp, later becoming college roommates at MIT. Wang worked at Google and reportedly built systems that aggregated prices of public flight data for the company.

4. Brian Armstrong – $4.7 billion
He is the CEO and co-founder of Coinbase and suffered the third largest loss among the top five crypto titans. According to Crypto Presales, Armstrong’s wealth recently dropped by US$4.7 billion. A year ago, his net worth was estimated at US$6.6 billion, but now it sits at US$1.9 billion.

Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States and Armstrong is a former Airbnb software engineer. According to Forbes, Armstrong said he wants the world to have an “open global financial system that drives innovation and freedom.”

5. Chris Larsen – $1.3 billion
Although he remained in the top six richest people in the crypto space, per Crypto Vantage, 2022 saw Larsen’s wealth shrink by US$1.3 billion. The Ripple co-founder was valued at $4.3 billion just a few months ago. Now, his net worth is valued at around US$3 billion, according to calculations by Crypto Presales.

According to Forbes, Ripple was founded to facilitate international payments for banks using blockchain technology. Larsen stepped down as CEO in 2016, but remains executive chairman. In 2019, Larsen’s foundation gave US$25 million to San Francisco State University.

To note: This story originally appeared on SCMP and has been republished on this site.