Forbes, known for his "List of Billionaires of the World", published for the first time a list of people the most richer in cryptocurrency.

The purpose of publishing such a list, according to Randall Lane, editor of Forbes, is

"[provide] a snapshot of a moment decisive, part of the transparency needed to remove crypto from its provenance as the preferred currency of drug traffickers and in adolescence of a legitimate asset class. "

Although compiling a list of the world's traditional billionaires is a relatively simple task. The exact amount of wealth of the richest magnates in the world is more difficult.

Cryptocurrency is by definition a decentralized and encrypted payment system that has started outside the traditional global financial system. The newly created "19459007] rich crypto ," as described by writer Jeff Forbes, " lives in a strange environment that mixes paranoid secrecy with ostentatious display . "

The Forbes List "The Richest People in Cryptocurrency" is divided into five categories: " Idealists, Builders, Opportunists, Infrastructure Players, and Institutional Investors ." To make the Forbes list, one must have accumulated more than $ 350

Instead of static numbers, the net values ​​of the persons on the list are listed in ranges, calculated on the basis of " estimates cryptocurrencies holdings (some evidence provided), after-tax profits from the crypto-asset trade and holdings in crypto-related businesses . "

Forbes admits that they could have leave some people out of the list and their estimates may be " of the mark ."

The list contains 19 persons. One can click on each member of the list on the Forbes website to see a short biography and estimate of crypto net worth

Other data was published with the list, as the Average age of the richest crypto the age of the 400 richest Americans of Forbes (42 versus 67), and the average daily price volatility in January 2018 for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP) compared to Apple, Proctor & Gamble and Gold.

When creating the list, Lane spoke with Joe Lubin, the founder of Consensys, about the potential concerns of other crypto-tycoons regarding the release of such data. Lubin, whom Lane called the "Cryptocurrency" declared that he and his peers were not trying to attract the public's attention. Lubin also questioned how Forbes could come up with specific numbers, and raised the issue of potentially targeting these people for theft. However, Lane adds that Lubin and his peers crypto elite "recognized the importance of the list.

Kauflin writes that Forbes,

" believes firmly that we made the world a better place by shining a light on the invisible rich. Just as crypto evolved from the era of the Silk Road and Mount Drug site. The digital diversion of Gox, fortunes of this magnitude should never be hidden in the shadows.

CryptoWeekly, a cryptocurrency news bulletin, has published a comparable list of the 100 most influential people in the crypto community, whose list is factored not by net worth, but by by the research and technological contributions that a person has made in the world of crypto.

Among those who were excluded from the richest Forbes crypto rankings, but included in the CryptoWeekly list of Influence, are important crypto players like the founder of Litecoin Charlie Lee, Bitcoin investor Roger Ver, and the pioneer of encryption Nick Szabo, among others.