Bitcoin price increases, number of cryptocurrency millionaires increases by 95%

Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Photo: Getty Images/TTXVN

According to a report by New World Wealth and Henley & Partners, there are now 172,300 individuals worldwide holding more than $1 million in crypto assets, up from 88,200 in 2023. The number of millionaires holding only bitcoin has doubled to 85,400.

There are now 325 crypto millionaires, those with $100 million or more in digital assets, and 28 crypto billionaires, according to the report. The increase reflects the rapid growth of bitcoin ETFs, which have accumulated more than $50 billion in assets since their launch in January 2024 and have triggered a wave of institutional participation.

Bitcoin has surged 45% this year to around $64,000. As other cryptocurrencies have rallied, the market capitalization of digital assets has grown to $2.3 trillion, up from $1.2 trillion in the summer of 2023, according to Henley.

According to Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth, of the people who became digital currency billionaires in the past year, five got rich by investing in bitcoin. This shows that bitcoin is especially attractive to long-term investors who are willing to invest large sums of money in this asset.

Changpeng Zhao, founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, is the world’s richest cryptocurrency billionaire for the third year in a row, according to Forbes. He is worth an estimated $33 billion. Despite pleading guilty to money laundering in the U.S. and having to pay a $50 million fine, his fortune has increased by more than $10.5 billion over the past year.

Coming in second is Brian Armstrong, co-founder of Coinbase, with an estimated net worth of $11 billion; followed by Giancarlo Devasini, chief financial officer of Tether, and Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy.

While many crypto assets are still below their 2021 highs, and bitcoin’s recent rally is only a temporary bounce, the growing acceptance of crypto assets among major asset managers like BlackRock and Fidelity, coupled with the support of Morgan Stanley’s 15,000 brokers, could fuel further price appreciation and create wealth for large crypto holders. Crypto assets reached a market capitalization of $3 trillion in November 2021.

Cryptocurrencies will not only create more millionaires and billionaires, but will also change where the wealthy live and work. Many of the newly wealthy are looking to move to tax- and crypto-friendly jurisdictions, according to Henley.