Early buyers ofBitcoin are likely to have ended up as the wealthiest people in the market for cryptocurrencies. Many people have promoted a strategy of holding on for future profits and hodling in the vocabulary of criptocurrency advocates.
One anonymous bitcoin account that began purchasing the token in March 2011 - and has never sold any - sits on a fortune of $4.8 billion, according to BitInfoCharts.
A paper by the US National Bureau of Economic Research said that the top 1,000 Bitcoins investors control about 3 mBitcoin, or roughly one-seventh of the total potential supply. Only a handful of those holders have revealed their identities.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twin brothers who lost a legal battle against Mark Zuckerberg over the social network idea behind Facebook, purchased a reported 120,000 bitcoins in 2012, a haul that would be worth $7.2 billion as of mid-November.
In a 2014 auction, venture capitalist Tim Draper pictured above beat other bidders to buy 29,655 bitcoin that US Marshals had seized from the dark web emporium Silk Road. The token would be worth $1.8 billion at today s prices. Draper didn't say how much he had paid in the auction, but the Marshals put the lot's value at about $18 m.
Michael Saylor, chief executive of MicroStrategy, said last year he had bought 17,732bitcoin at an average price of less than $10,000 and that holding would be worth $1.1 billion at current prices.
What are the different types of criptocurrencies?
The founders of newerBlockchains such asEthereum have reaped large fortunes. Vitalik Buterin pictured above, bottom right, received a reported 553,000 ether from an initial endowment set up by the co-founders, a holding that would be worth $2.3 billion at today s prices.
The teams behind several projects that aim to rivalEthereum adopted a similar approach, rewarding themselves with large chunks of their own token supplies.
The Binance Smart Chain token has a market value of almost $100 billion in four years, which has increased the market value of the coin. The founding team, which includes the outspoken founder of the Binance exchange, Changpeng Zhao pictured above, gave itself 40 per cent of the token's total supply.
Solana sold just over 13 per cent of the token's total supply to the founding team for 20 cents per token, which has gained popularity as an alternative toEthereum for decentralised finance apps. The token would be worth $13.5 billion at current prices.
Some analysts have questioned the fairness of these initial token distributions, arguing that they contradict the supposedly decentralised nature of cryptocurrencies networks.
Ryan Watkins, a senior research analyst at Messari, said that the allocations would be fine if these were companies - it's not crazy to see that much ownership. When you build systems that are supposed to be more democratic, it just isn't democratic. Who is making the most money from cryptocurrencies-related companies?
Brian Armstrong, co-founder of Coinbase, is the wealthiest founder of a public company.
Armstrong owns more than 36 m shares in the company, worth more than $12 billion. He also sold shares worth more than $290 million on the day of Coinbase's direct listing, an alternative to the traditional initial public offering that has no restrictions on stock sales. Fred Ehrsam, Armstrong's co-founder, owns shares worth $3.8 billion.
Other cryptocurrencies start-ups hold large stakes in their companies that could be worth billions of dollars on paper. According to Forbes, Sam Bankman- Fried, founder of FTX, is worth $22.5 billion this year, much of it coming from his half stake in the $25 billion start-up.
Barry Silbert, founder and chief executive of Digital Currency Group, told the Financial Times he owns just over 40 per cent of the company, which investors recently valued at $10 billion during a private secondary share sale. Silbert said he hasn't sold any shares in the business.
Why is it so hard to determine the largest criptocurrency holders?
Big cryptocurrencies holders are reluctant to discuss their buying and selling decisions because of fears about hacking, tax authorities, and other risks.
I think anyone involved with cryptocurrencies is reluctant and, in my case, unwilling to share anything, according to Silbert. He jokes that he lost all my bitcoins in a boat accident, referring to a meme by some bitcoin investors about a putative excuse given to tax authorities about losing a wallet.
They can make it easier to see the flow of cryptocurrencies, but they also mask the identities of their owners. Some applications, such as Nansen, try to match blockchain addresses to investment funds and other big holders, but they can be unreliable.
How can these stakes be turned into cash?
Large purchases and sales can have a big impact on the market because of the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies. Some start-ups have tried to solve the problem by acting as intermediaries that route orders to multiple venues that provide the best prices.
Larger transactions can cause a backlash from other traders. Earlier this year, a lot of criptocurrency watchers began talking about an anonymous investor who turned early purchases of shiba inu tokens into a $5.7 billion stockpile little more than a year later, following a big rise in the token's value.
The price of the token fell without making any sales, as the trader moved $2.3 billion of the stake to four different wallets.