Yes, Crypto Millionaires Exist: Here’s How They Did It

It’s fair to think that this could only be a myth, but it's actually not. There have been people who have become millionaires with Bitcoin and crypto investments. Does this mean you will do it, too? Who knows. The reality is more complex than just a little investment, and without a doubt, the crypto market is much more complex now than it was before.

What we do know, though, is that the stories of these people are real. The stats are real, and their luck or conscious decisions were real. At this point, when we say “crypto millionaire,” we mean someone who holds (or held in the past) at least one million US dollars in cryptocurrencies, measured by market value. Probably, this amount was initially just a few cents or dollars that grew with time and patience.

Let’s explore this idea of crypto millionaires and what they did to become one.

Some Global Numbers

Most cryptocurrencies have public chains, so we have public stats. We know which addresses are richer, and how many. The Henley and Partners Crypto Wealth Report 2025 estimated that over 241,700 users worldwide held at least one million dollars in crypto assets at some point during the previous year. That count included around 145,100 Bitcoin millionaires alone, reflecting Bitcoin’s dominant share of total market value. We can even see that list in real time with percentages and USD equivalents.

To include some names, we have some reports of the top Bitcoin holders in 2026. Besides Satoshi Nakamoto and institutions like Binance, Robinhood, Bitfinex, Tether, and the US government, we also have unknown whales around, with millions and up to billions in BTC holdings.

Market capitalization and historical prices aren’t a myth, either. We can travel back to 2013, for instance, when the total crypto market cap was around $1.6 billion, and the Bitcoin price was about $135 per coin [CoinGecko]. By January 2026, the total market cap surpassed $3 trillion, and the Bitcoin price was at $86k (not to mention previous records of over $126k). That represents increases of 187,400% and up to 93,233%, respectively.

In other words, if you had bought $1,200 in BTC in 2013 and held on for dear life (HODL) all these years, you would have over one million dollars today.

Real Crypto Millionaires

Besides stats and anonymous addresses, we have some well-documented cases with names and stories. Likely the younger millionaire here is Erik Finman, who invested in Bitcoin when he was barely 12 years-old. His grandma gave him $1,000, and he bought BTC at $12 per unit in 2011. He founded an educational startup with his earnings in 2014 and sold it for 300 BTC in 2015. So, thanks to Bitcoin, he was a millionaire before turning 18.

https://youtu.be/MESDxMFmJ_I?si=1hVSVZDoX1rvDLZE&embedable=true

Dadvan Yousuf is another young investor: he sold some of his toys to invest in Bitcoin when he was just 11 years-old, in 2012. He also bought Ether in 2016 and made himself a millionaire with his crypto trades. Now, also speaking about Ether, Dan Conway is worth mentioning. He bet his life savings and family house on buying ETH in 2016, when the currency was barely known. The result was $13 million by 2017. He did his research, but of course, doesn’t recommend trying this extremely risky move at home (or with your house).

The Pineapple Fund isn’t exactly a non-anonymous case, but we know that the person behind it’s an early Bitcoin miner. This charity fund appeared in 2017, revealing plans to donate more than 5,000 BTC to ONGs and some individuals in need. That was between $55 and $86 million at the time. The organizer, “Pine,” explained that the coins had been acquired quietly years earlier and left untouched while Bitcoin climbed. They had more money than they could ever spend.

More recently, we can mention the case of two middle-aged brothers from New York. Tommy, James, and several of their family members bought about $8,000 in Shiba Inu (SHIB), a memecoin, before the price exploded in 2021. They ended up making up to $9 million.

Other Wealthy Faces

Well, not every crypto millionaire around just bought and sat to wait. Some of them are familiar faces who became wealthy by building infrastructure or companies related to digital assets. Among them, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), founder of Binance, is also known for having sold his apartment to buy Bitcoin in 2013. He launched the exchange in 2017 after a successful Initial Coin Offering (ICO), and now, according to Forbes, he’s the 23rd richest person in the world, with a net worth of around $78.8 billion.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rINtJN1v6f8

Jihan Wu is another good example. He co-founded Bitmain in 2013, one of the largest manufacturers of ASIC machines for Bitcoin mining. In 2021, he also launched Bitdeer, which is among the largest Bitcoin miners by computing power. Wu’s net worth has been estimated at around $2.3 billion.

Around 2013 as well, when Bitcoin was young and Ethereum didn’t exist yet, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss turned a famous $65 million legal settlement over Facebook into a huge cryptocurrency presence. They used about $11 million to buy Bitcoin when it was roughly $100-120 per coin, giving them 1% of all Bitcoin in existence at the time. Some years later, in 2014, they founded the regulated crypto exchange Gemini. This platform became one of the biggest U.S. exchanges for buying, selling, and storing digital assets. Forbes lists each twin with a net worth of around $3.7 billion as of early 2026, largely from crypto holdings and Gemini’s growth.

So, Can You Become a Crypto Millionaire?

At this point, there are plenty of predictions. The dream of every crypto investor is to see Bitcoin reach one million per coin. If that’s even possible, we don’t know yet. If you can buy a memecoin for a few cents today and see a price explosion of 100,000%+ tomorrow, only luck can tell. All investors mentioned above went in before mainstream awareness, when prices were low, and uncertainty was high. Holding through sharp drops mattered just as much. This is really a mix of research and faith, but we need to remember that cryptocurrencies aren’t just speculation.

They were created as a way to get rid of middlemen like banks and governments. It’s free money (as in freedom) available for everyone, everywhere, anytime. If you have your keys, no one else can have your coins. In Obyte, we have our own Top 100 Richest List of addresses (for GBYTE holdings), but what really matters is that no middleman can take your coins away.

Without miners or “validators,” Obyte offers a multipurpose platform where you can trade and invest your crypto holdings without censorship concerns. At the end of the day, the first real step to becoming a millionaire is having complete control over your assets.