The rise — and fall — of the crypto-currency millionaires

Bitcoin has created billionaires but questions remain over the sustainability of a rash of new crypto-currencies

If 2017 saw the rise and fall of the cryptocurrency, it was also the year in which a newly minted class of super-rich emerged — individuals who through impeccable foresight, sheer luck or a combination of the two happened to buy in at the right time.

While most people were struggling to understand what bitcoin was, the cryptocurrency’s value exploded during the second half of the year, followed shortly by surges in the price of Ethereum, Ripple and a host of others.

Amid talk of mania, the 1,000 per cent year-on-year returns produced a clutch of crypto-millionaires and billionaires seemingly overnight. “This has definitely changed my net worth a bit,” says Roger Ver, an early evangelist who has been promoting the cryptocurrency since it was valued at less than $1, earning him the nickname Bitcoin Jesus.

The price of bitcoin fluctuated between $6,000 and $10,000 last month, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, having reached a high of $19,343 in late 2017.

But this group of wealthy individuals extends far beyond the activist cryptographers and anti-central bank types who were instrumental in bitcoin’s development and promotion a decade ago. Newcomers of all stripes have since piled in, from clean-cut mainstream actors such as the Winklevoss twins — who reportedly boast a crypto-fortune of $1.3bn — to corporate executives and teenagers trading in their spare time............................

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