Barry Silbert Net Worth: How Rich Is Digital Currency Group's Founder And CEO?

Crypto lender and Digital Currency Group (DCG) affiliate Genesis Global Trading Inc. filed for bankruptcy late Thursday night after incurring significant losses due to bad business decisions that included loaning money to failed crypto firms like Three Arrows Capital, Alameda Research and its sister company FTX.

Apart from all the scrutiny that the latest move will attract, DCG's CEO Barry Silbert could face additional legal trouble.

In a tweet that was shared minutes after Genesis filed for Chapter 11, Gemini CEO Cameron Winklevoss threatened a lawsuit against its parent company, DCG and Silbert unless the latter makes a "fair offer" to creditors.

Winklevoss had called for Silbert's ouster from the company earlier this month as tensions flared between the two in the wake of FTX's collapse. Gemini is battling to retrieve $900 million of their customers' money which the company lent to Genesis.

Silbert issued a letter to DCG's shareholders after Winklevoss waged a public war against him.

"It has been challenging to have my integrity and good intentions questioned after spending a decade pouring everything into this company and the space with an unrelenting focus on doing things the right way," an excerpt from the letter read.

With a possible lawsuit, an expensive one that might be looming large, here's a look at the crypto mogul's financial assets.

Barry Silbert's net worth

Barry Silbert was featured in the eighth position in Forbes' Crypto Rich List in 2021. The New Yorker has amassed the majority of his wealth by dealing in cryptocurrency. His first bitcoin investment was in 2012.

Prior to founding and becoming the head honcho at DCG which also owns Grayscale Investments — which oversaw $28 billion worth of crypto assets as of April 2022 — Silbert was an investment banker and financial entrepreneur.

Before the crisis-run DCG, Silbert founded Restricted Stock Partners in 2004, a digital trading platform for employees of companies with restricted stock in public companies. He expanded the company four years later and rebranded it as SecondMarket. That company had over 75,000 registered users and had facilitated billions of dollars in private market transactions within three years of rebranding.

Silbert became a force to be reckoned with in the finance circuit. With various titles to his name including Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009 and other honorary invites extended to him, Silbert continued to soar.

As of April 2022, his net worth was valued at $3.2 billion, a huge jump from 2021 when his wealth was estimated at $1.6 billion. With him, DCG's portfolio too registered big numbers. By November 2021, some DCG investors had sold $700 million worth of shares at a $10 billion valuation.