Bitmain, Binance, Ebang, Huobi, and OKEx Founders Listed On China’s Richest People List

Hurun Research team released the richest people in China list titled, “2019 LEXUS Hurun Report”, compiling a total of 1891 wealthy individuals in its report. The list includes 12 cryptocurrency moguls ranging from exchange owners, hardware producers and miners in the industry.

The number of Chinese billionaires stands at 476 individuals according to a report by Forbes released in 2019, placing the country second only behind the U.S. Despite the magnanimous number of billionaires in the country, only 12 hail from the blockchain and cryptocurrency space including crypto mining hardware moguls and exchange owners.

Hurun China Rich List 2019

According to a Hurun Research report, 12 cryptocurrency magnates are listed in the “2019 Rich list” including Binance crypto exchange CEO, Changpeng Zhao, the founders of Bitmain crypto mining pool, Micree Zhan and Jihan Wu and OKCoin founder, Star Xu. While the industry is producing a new class of wealthy investors, the ratio of crypto billionaires contributes to a partly 2% of the total number in China.

Micree Zhan ranks as the richest figure in crypto currently with a total net worth of over 30 billion Chinese yuan (~$4.2 billion USD) securing the 100^th position on the rich list. This represents a $500 million increase in his wealth since 2018 despite dropping 23 places below in the rankings. Further back is ASIC producer, Ebang CEO, Hu Dong, with a total net valuation of $840 million USD (6 billion CHY).

Exchange’s top executives including Binance’s, CZ Binance – with a net worth of 18 billion CHY (~$2.5 billion) – and Star Lu, a major competitor to CZ and OKCoin founder, whose $1.4 billion USD (10 billion CHY) net worth ranks him 398^th on the list. Huobi founder, Leon Li, closed out the top billionaires in the cryptosphere with a total net worth of $1 billion USD (7.5 billion CHY) ranking him 530^th on Hurun’s Rich List.

Other wealthy crypto personalities include Li Xiaolai, the English teacher-turned crypto investor who made a billion dollar fortune investing in crypto.

Former Ripple CEO still on Forbes 400

Of the top 400 wealthiest Americans, Chris Larsen, former Ripple CEO, is the only cryptocurrency figure on the list with a total net worth of $2.1 billion USD. Larsen holds close to 6 billion XRP tokens and with the value remaining relatively the same since last year, he lost 5 places from his 388^th ranking in 2018.