Wealth of Tycoons Plummets Amid Cryptocurrency Crash... Binance Founder Faces 108 Trillion KRW Loss

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] Recently, due to the sharp decline in cryptocurrencies, the wealth of tycoons who heavily invested in cryptocurrencies or made large profits by establishing exchanges has also significantly decreased.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on the 11th (local time), the net worth of Zhao Changpeng, founder of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, stood at $11.6 billion (approximately 14.9 trillion KRW) as of that day, down $84.4 billion from $96 billion in January, a decrease of more than 108.4 trillion KRW. Due to the sharp drop in major cryptocurrency prices, his assets have decreased by 87.9% in just over five months.

The personal assets of Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, also sharply declined from $13.7 billion in November last year to $2.2 billion currently. His assets have dropped to about one-sixth in just over half a year. Bloomberg reported that Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase, has also seen his assets decrease by more than 60% this year, currently estimated at around $1.1 billion.

Cryptocurrencies have been experiencing a rapid decline due to the simultaneous impact of tightening policies by the U.S. and major countries, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, inflation threats, and supply chain disruptions. Bitcoin, which holds the largest share in the cryptocurrency market, plunged to the $34,000 range on the 8th, halving from its all-time high of $69,000 in November last year, and is retreating toward the $20,000 level.

Tax collection efforts by financial authorities worldwide against cryptocurrency investors are also putting pressure on the cryptocurrency downturn. Joseph Abate, an executive at investment bank Barclays, recently released a report estimating that cryptocurrency investors are not paying at least half of the taxes owed to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on cryptocurrency transactions.

In the absence of the latest official IRS announcement, the report cited the IRS report from 2017 and estimated the unpaid amount to reach $50 billion annually (approximately 64.2 trillion KRW). This accounts for about 10% of the total tax delinquency in the United States. However, the report pointed out that although transactions can be observed on the blockchain, it is difficult for the IRS to identify defaulters since all market participants remain anonymous.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.