Bitcoin was set to stick around into 2025, but some of the crypto industry’s title characters still ended the year on the wrong note. Strategic Chairman Michael Saylor and Gemini Founders Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss.
Bitcoin was down about 6% by mid-December, and most other tokens were down even more, making the gap between crypto winners and losers even bigger and uglier.
Saylor’s Strategy raised capital through equity and debt to buy Bitcoin at scale, but as a slew of imitators crowded into DAT trading this year, Strategy’s premium has understandably shrunk.
Although MSTR stock lagged Bitcoin’s own performance, the strategy still bought about $2 billion worth of Bitcoin around mid-December. As a result, Mr. Saylor’s net worth has plummeted to $4 billion from just over $6 billion just a year ago.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss had access, but were unable to scale. Gemini prepared for an IPO after supporting President Trump’s return to the White House with millions of dollars in donations.
But sadly, their U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini was much smaller than Coinbase and relied on financing from its siblings, causing its stock to plummet 60% after going public in September. Their personal holdings also declined due to the fall in Bitcoin prices, reducing their total net worth from $5.5 billion to $4.8 billion.
IPOs, fees and dividends piled up, and early winners locked in profits.
But Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stayed ahead of the curve, and USDC still ended the year as the world’s second-largest stablecoin with over $77 billion in circulation.
Of course, Tether is even bigger at $186 billion, but Circle still pushed for an even bigger IPO at a valuation of $6.9 billion. The company’s stock price, CRCL, is still up 168%, even though it has cooled since June after a stunning rally that both shocked and bewildered Wall Street.
Cryptopolitan previously reported that Circle’s third-quarter net income was $214 million, an increase of more than 200% year over year.
Tether founder Giancarlo Debasini also won, as Tether expanded USDT supply by more than 15% and paid out more than $10 billion in dividends to holders. Giancarlo’s net worth is $13.2 billion, and he is currently in talks to raise $20 billion, which could take his valuation to $500 billion, which would put him at the top of the crypto wealth rankings with around $225 billion.
Figure Technology founder Mike Cagney also became an active participant after the company went public at a $6.6 billion valuation in September. Mike’s shares bring his fortune to $2.1 billion, up from $1 billion a year ago.
Galaxy’s Mike Novogratz, on the other hand, used volume rather than price to increase his net worth. Galaxy Digital oversaw the holdings of at least 20 financial companies, which were converted into fees.
Galaxy’s third-quarter total revenue reached $28.4 billion, an increase of more than 200% year-over-year, and Mike’s net worth reached $6.7 billion.
Crypto industry executives hold their ground amid lawsuits, ETFs and rapid industry expansion
Grayscale CEO Barry Silbert returned to management after stepping down amid scrutiny following Genesis’ bankruptcy in late 2023, and related litigation is still ongoing at the time of writing.
Still, Grayscale pushed toward an IPO, and in October Barry launched Yuma Asset Management to target AI infrastructure through the Bittensor network, boosting his net worth to $3.1 billion.
Bullish CEO Brendan Bloomer also took his company public in October at a valuation of $5.4 billion, with a focus primarily on institutional clients. Blish then received its New York license in September and launched its U.S. service the following month.
But Brendan was also the co-founder of Block.one, which raised $4.2 billion through EOS, a token that later lost most of its value.
Brendan bought a $200 million vacation home in Sardinia this year, shortly after relinquishing his U.S. citizenship in 2020 and raising his net worth from $990 billion to $1.8 billion.
Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s founder and CEO, took his company into the S&P 500 this year by moving into stock trading, prediction markets, and tokenized assets. However, COIN stock ended near the beginning of the year, leaving Brian’s assets at around $11 billion.
Meanwhile, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was flat at $50.9 billion. In October, Cryptopolitan reported that Trump granted clemency for previous money laundering violations after serving four months in prison.
Binance secured $2 billion in investment from Abu Dhabi-related companies using stablecoins issued by the Trump administration’s World Liberty Financial and provided technical assistance. When asked about the pardon, President Trump said he didn’t know about CZ and said, “I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.”
Binance has officially launched its reboot plan in the US.
Ripple’s Chris Larsen has ended a long-running lawsuit without admitting wrongdoing and paid a civil penalty to end an SEC dispute. Chris holds more than $5 billion in XRP, and Ripple raised $500 million at a $40 billion valuation in November, adding him to the $14.6 billion ultra-rich list.
Justin Sun continued to be visible. The SEC has suspended the fraud case, and Justin has attended conferences around the world, had private meals with President Trump, and briefly flew on a Blue Origin rocket.
His Tron blockchain processes more than $20 billion per day tied to stablecoins and has become a public finance company.
But in September, the Trump meme coin Justin had purchased for the presidential dinner was frozen amid speculation it would be sold. As such, his net worth decreased to $10.3 billion due to the token decline that the crypto community blamed on him.
