If there is wealth, often there is fame. The notoriety that comes with the possession of significant amounts of money is a given factor in today’s celebrity-obsessed world, and it comes as no surprise in 2018 that many very wealthy public and private figures are breaking into the cryptocurrency space.
From rappers to football superstars, and from angel investors to the banking elite, Bitcoin News and TotalCrypto present the Top 20 Richest Celebrities Supporting Cryptocurrency.
Celebrity early birds
In the cryptocurrency space, Bitcoin is the superstar and it has many influential advocates, though that’s not to say that other cryptocurrencies don’t have their fair share of support from other notable figures.
One of the earliest advocates was US rapper 50 Cent who, in 2014, during a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), confirmed that he would be accepting cryptocurrency as a payment for his latest album. In 2015, another early bird was boxing legend Mike Tyson who announced that he would be getting his own Tyson-branded Bitcoin ATM on the Las Vegas strip.
Fast forward a couple of years and scandal struck as another boxing legend Floyd Mayweather found himself in hot water after becoming a promoter/ambassador for the Centra ICO, which was found to be “engaged in an illegal unregistered securities offering and, in connection with the offering, engaged in fraudulent conduct”.
2018’s most Influential
Though Mayweather came away unscathed, the two men behind the USD 32 million initial coin offering did not. In the featured infographic, he stacks up seventh in terms of celebrity net worth (USD 700 million).
The net worth gap between the sports star and the Winklevoss entrepreneur duo is a staggering USD 1.3 billion. These crypto-superstars claim to own almost 1% of all Bitcoin in circulation in late 2017, which made them the first “Bitcoin Billionaires”. At the time, the price of Bitcoin sat at approximately USD 11,000 USD.
One of the friendliest faces in the corporate giant world is Richard Branson who, with a net worth of USD 5.1 billion, invested USD 30 million into BitPay. This grew the Bitcoin payment processor startup into the largest of its kind in the world. In recent news, the Virgin founder has been bullish on blockchain, especially regarding its philanthropic capacity.
Some slightly more controversial figures such as George Soros (USD 8 billion net worth) and the Rothschilds (USD 2 trillion net worth) are at the top of the list. Since 2018, these extremely wealthy players have been announcing intentions or investing in cryptocurrencies, provoking responses from prominent industry leaders such as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Other more palatable celebrities on the crypto-wealthy list include pop star Katy Perry (USD 280 million net worth), who famously posted a Tweet with herself and Bitcoin sceptic Warren Buffet discussing cryptocurrency. A little later in 2018, she posted to her Instagram a picture of her “crypto-claws” which took the mainstream by storm.
In more recent news, Peter Gabriel, singer from 1970s band Genesis, has reportedly invested in a blockchain startup called Provenance, which takes aim at creating better transparency in the supply chain industry.
The trend of celebrities in the crypto-space is growing. Just by taking a look at the names on the featured infographic, one gets a hint of just how impactful cryptocurrency has been and will continue to be on the mainstream and vice versa.
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Image Courtesy: TotalCrypto
