Elon Musk during a visit to Paris in June 2023
Elon Musk is No. 1 in a new list that ranks billionaires worldwide who own Bitcoin. AFP

KEY POINTS

  • Elon Musk leads the pack with 208 Bitcoins worth over $13M based on current prices
  • Meta's Mark Zuckerberg is second, and Oracle's Larry Ellison is third
  • Saylor is down the line on the 25th spot, way behind Binance's CZ and Interactive Brokers' Thomas Peterffy

There are more than three dozen billionaires who own Bitcoin, a recent ranking revealed, and it doesn't come as a surprise that Elon Musk, a huge fan of memecoin Dogecoin (DOGE), holds the top spot.

Data compiled by prominent pseudonymous trader HODL15Capital showed that Musk, the founder of some of the biggest companies in the world such as Tesla and SpaceX, owns 208 Bitcoin worth some $13.6 million based on current prices.

Second in the ranks is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who holds 181 BTC worth nearly $12 million as per the list. HODL15Capital is widely followed in the cryptocurrency space and his charts and data have been used multiple times by various outlets. The trader said the list of at least 40 billionaires has been "verified."

Larry Ellison, co-founder of cloud applications and infrastructure leader Oracle comes in third, with 170 Bitcoins worth around $11.1 million. Fourth in the ranking is founder and chairman of leading online trading solutions for traders Interactive Brokers, Thomas Peterffy, who has 37 BTC worth around $2.4 million.

In fifth place is Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of crypto exchange giant Binance who is now serving time in prison for failing to establish an effective anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework for the digital assets behemoth.

Being a titan in the crypto space, his life after being investigated was followed by the industry and on the day of his sentencing, Bitcoin plunged from near $64,000 to $60,000. He holds 33 BTC worth some $2.1 million.

Also in the top 10 are former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, co-founder of global investment firm 3G Capital Jorge Paulo Lemann, hedge fund manager David Tepper, former owner of the Brooklyn Nets Mikhail Prokhorov, and Ray Dalio, the former co-chief investment officer of the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates.

The list may be a surprise to some Bitcoiners since well-known BTC maximalist Michael Saylor couldn't make it in the top 10. According to the ranking, he is way down the 25th spot, and owns only four BTC. On the other hand, his company, MicroStrategy, is known as the world's largest corporate holder of the digital asset, with over 214,000 in total holdings.

Except Zhao, most of the billionaires on the Top 10 aren't very vocal about their views of the crypto industry. Still, the rankings' emergence may have affected the price of BTC in a way as the world's first decentralized cryptocurrency bounced to $65,800 early Thursday after a slump to $64,000 on Wednesday as per CoinGecko data.

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