The Cryptocurrency Billionaire Club
Cryptocurrency is full of get rich quick stories. There is a new class of people entering the ‘3 Comma Club’ who have earned their wealth through cryptocurrency. We’ll take a look at who they are and how they made their fortune:
Chris Larsen – Total Wealth From Crypto: $4.1 Billion+ Back when the internet was still in its infancy, Chris co-founded E-Loan in 1992 and entered the mortgage business. Mr Larsen was frustrated by the inefficient mortgage industry and saw the internet as a new tool to circumvent agent fees and commission.In 1998, Intuit and Yahoo came in with offers for for E-Loan. Chris and his business partner opted for the lower Yahoo offer of $25 million for a 23% stake in the business as this ensured they retained control of the business. By 1999, E-Loans had 25% of the online mortgage market and commanded an estimated valuation of $1 billion. In the early 2000’s, the pro consumer Chris Larsen founded the coalition ‘Californians for Privacy Now’ and funded the project with $1 million of his own money. He was instrumental in ensuring that customers had to opt in before financial services firms could sell customer data.Chris then stepped down from E-Loan in 2005 and co-founded Prosper Marketplace, the first peer to peer lending site in the US. By the time of the financial crisis, the company had processed over $120 million in loans and Chris stepped down as CEO in 2012. Many people do not know that the precursor of Ripple was OpenCoin and this was Co-Founded by Mr Larsen in 2012. The company then began work on developing the Ripple protocol, with the goal of reducing bank fees and decreasing transaction times. OpenCoin then changed its name to Ripple Labs in 2013.
