This U.S.-based power list starts with Brian Armstrong, the now billionaire chief executive officer of Coinbase, and his co-founder, Fred Ehrsam, who went on to create Paradigm Operations. Fellow billionaire Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz\u2019s Chris Dixon, are among the original venture capitalists that will reap large windfalls from the direct listing of the exchange.<\/p>\n
Even though verified users of Coinbase, the largest U.S. digital-asset exchange, jumped 34% to 43 million last year as Bitcoin more than quadrupled, control of the largest cryptocurrency remains narrow. Less than 2% of the anonymous ownership accounts that can be tracked on Bitcoin\u2019s blockchain control 95% of the digital asset, according to researcher Flipside Crypto.<\/p>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/BB1e4tqN.img?h=417&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=760&y=559\")
\n<\/span>\u00a9 Bloomberg<\/span>\u00a0Key Speakers At The Bloomberg Players Technology Summit
\n<\/span><\/span>Brian Armstrong, co-founder and chief executive officer of Coinbase.<\/h5>\nIncluded in the influential group of U.S. holders is Dan Morehead, who founded Pantera Capital Management in 2003 and launched the first U.S. crypto fund in 2013. Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert has created an empire that touches every corner of the crypto world. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss bought their first Bitcoin stake in 2012 when it traded as low as $8 and then co-founded Gemini Trust Co., the first crypto firm to be regulated by New York state as a trust.<\/p>\n
Like many within this select circle, Ehrsam seemed perfectly poised to adopt the new digital world. He played video games professionally in high school, then studied computer science at Duke University before becoming a foreign-exchange trader at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in New York. Yet he grew bored at the bank and as he looked for things that interested him after work, he discovered Bitcoin through a Georgetown professor\u2019s blog. He was instantly fascinated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would literally trade Bitcoin in the bathroom on my phone at Goldman,\u201d Ehrsam said in an interview. Bitcoin was going for about $6 at the time, compared with a record $58,000 last week. Back then, the main way to buy it was on the now bankrupt exchange\u00a0Mt. Gox<\/a>\u00a0or through intermediaries, and Ehrsam realized there needed to be an easier way to buy and sell crypto.<\/p>\n![\"chart:](\"https:\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/BB1e4lQ7.img?h=351&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f\")
<\/span>\u00a9 Bloomberg<\/span>\u00a0Cryptocurrency has surged since introduction<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\nAfter meeting Armstrong on the Bitcoin subreddit forum, they started Coinbase in 2012 out of an apartment in San Francisco. Armstrong declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Morehead remembered the early days of Coinbase as he was creating the Pantera Bitcoin fund in 2013. He\u2019d been an investor for a while, taking huge macro risks on things like Russian privatization and farmland in Argentina, bets with very steep downside potential but that could also pay off enormously if successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was first attracted to Bitcoin as an investment, it was something really interesting to learn about,\u201d Morehead said. In 2013, however, amassing a large stake in the new digital currency wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sent $2 million to Coinbase, and I started trying to buy $2 million of Bitcoin,\u201d Morehead said. \u201cMy daily trading limit was $50.\u201d Pantera has grown into one of the largest holders of cryptocurrencies and has invested in over 50 startups, including Circle, Bakkt, Polychain Capital, Shapeshift and Zcash, according to its website.<\/p>\n
In the early days, though, Morehead had to contend with the drugs and criminals narrative that dogged Bitcoin. He went to every major university endowment in 2015 when Bitcoin was at $100 to tell them they should have it in their portfolio.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conversation was all\u00a0Silk Road<\/a>, drugs, whatever,\u201d he said, referencing the early black-market exchange shut down by U.S. authorities.<\/p>\nThat dark element to Bitcoin didn\u2019t deter Wilson at Union Square and DCG\u2019s Silbert, both of whom were series A investors in Coinbase. The company\u2019s shares changed hands in recent private transactions at levels that would value Coinbase at close to $100 billion, a person familiar with the matter have said.<\/p>\n
Union Square has focused its cash on about 15 firms in two main areas, infrastructure providers like Protocol Labs and Helium and in other crypto investment funds like Polychain Capital and Autonomous Partners. Wilson declined to comment.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a far cry from what Silbert has created at DCG. Among its nearly 300 investments and acquisitions it touches upon every part of the crypto market. Among them, it has stakes in Etherscan, the block explorer used for the Ethereum blockchain; Coindesk, a crypto news service; Genesis Global Trading, one of the largest over-the-counter crypto dealers and lenders; Chainalysis, a blockchain forensics firm; Decentraland, a virtual world built on Ethereum that sells plots of digital land and has its own cryptocurrency Mana.<\/p>\n
Silbert also created the\u00a0Grayscale Bitcoin Trust<\/a>\u00a0in 2013, which is the largest crypto investment product with assets of about $31 billion. Silbert declined to comment.<\/p>\nA lack of a career on Wall Street helped the Winklevoss twins approach Bitcoin with an open mind, Cameron Winklevoss said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTyler and I didn\u2019t have 20 years of capital markets experience when we came to Bitcoin,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were very open to this possibility and that\u2019s how we\u2019ve always been, driven by curiosity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The brothers famously battled Mark Zuckerberg over the early fate of Facebook, an experience that left them with lessons about Bitcoin.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the early days of Facebook, in watching and being a part of that ride, we saw the power of networks, and so many people dismissing social networks as a fad,\u201d Winklevoss said. Yet he\u2019d watched as 90% of the Harvard University student body signed up for Facebook within 48 hours. When Bitcoin came around, the twins recognized the same forces at play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a money network,\u201d Winklevoss said. \u201cWhat happens when you put an economic incentive around that network? That\u2019s possibly the most effective network in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Paradigm\u2019s Ehrsam, the size of Bitcoin and crypto in general has exceeded his wildest dreams. If you\u2019d told him in 2012 that Bitcoin would top $1 trillion as it did at one point last week, \u201cpeople would think you were absolutely insane,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea of a new digital money seemed very strange to most people because a new money has never come about in our lifetimes, at least as Americans,\u201d Ehrsam said. \u201cSo you\u2019re not used to seeing a phenomenon you\u2019ve never seen before.\u201d That will eventually change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just takes time for a powerful new idea like that to permeate society and build trust in it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For more articles like this, please visit us at\u00a0bloomberg.com<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a92021 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n
![\"a](\"{"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"53","src":"\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/BB1e4tqN.img?h=533&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=760&y=559"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/BB1e4tqN.img?h=417&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=760&y=559"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/BB1e4tqN.img?h=417&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=760&y=559"}}\")
<\/span>\u00a9 Bloomberg<\/span>\u00a0Cryptocurrency has surged since introduction<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\nAfter meeting Armstrong on the Bitcoin subreddit forum, they started Coinbase in 2012 out of an apartment in San Francisco. Armstrong declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Morehead remembered the early days of Coinbase as he was creating the Pantera Bitcoin fund in 2013. He\u2019d been an investor for a while, taking huge macro risks on things like Russian privatization and farmland in Argentina, bets with very steep downside potential but that could also pay off enormously if successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was first attracted to Bitcoin as an investment, it was something really interesting to learn about,\u201d Morehead said. In 2013, however, amassing a large stake in the new digital currency wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sent $2 million to Coinbase, and I started trying to buy $2 million of Bitcoin,\u201d Morehead said. \u201cMy daily trading limit was $50.\u201d Pantera has grown into one of the largest holders of cryptocurrencies and has invested in over 50 startups, including Circle, Bakkt, Polychain Capital, Shapeshift and Zcash, according to its website.<\/p>\n
In the early days, though, Morehead had to contend with the drugs and criminals narrative that dogged Bitcoin. He went to every major university endowment in 2015 when Bitcoin was at $100 to tell them they should have it in their portfolio.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conversation was all\u00a0Silk Road<\/a>, drugs, whatever,\u201d he said, referencing the early black-market exchange shut down by U.S. authorities.<\/p>\nThat dark element to Bitcoin didn\u2019t deter Wilson at Union Square and DCG\u2019s Silbert, both of whom were series A investors in Coinbase. The company\u2019s shares changed hands in recent private transactions at levels that would value Coinbase at close to $100 billion, a person familiar with the matter have said.<\/p>\n
Union Square has focused its cash on about 15 firms in two main areas, infrastructure providers like Protocol Labs and Helium and in other crypto investment funds like Polychain Capital and Autonomous Partners. Wilson declined to comment.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a far cry from what Silbert has created at DCG. Among its nearly 300 investments and acquisitions it touches upon every part of the crypto market. Among them, it has stakes in Etherscan, the block explorer used for the Ethereum blockchain; Coindesk, a crypto news service; Genesis Global Trading, one of the largest over-the-counter crypto dealers and lenders; Chainalysis, a blockchain forensics firm; Decentraland, a virtual world built on Ethereum that sells plots of digital land and has its own cryptocurrency Mana.<\/p>\n
Silbert also created the\u00a0Grayscale Bitcoin Trust<\/a>\u00a0in 2013, which is the largest crypto investment product with assets of about $31 billion. Silbert declined to comment.<\/p>\nA lack of a career on Wall Street helped the Winklevoss twins approach Bitcoin with an open mind, Cameron Winklevoss said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTyler and I didn\u2019t have 20 years of capital markets experience when we came to Bitcoin,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were very open to this possibility and that\u2019s how we\u2019ve always been, driven by curiosity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The brothers famously battled Mark Zuckerberg over the early fate of Facebook, an experience that left them with lessons about Bitcoin.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the early days of Facebook, in watching and being a part of that ride, we saw the power of networks, and so many people dismissing social networks as a fad,\u201d Winklevoss said. Yet he\u2019d watched as 90% of the Harvard University student body signed up for Facebook within 48 hours. When Bitcoin came around, the twins recognized the same forces at play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a money network,\u201d Winklevoss said. \u201cWhat happens when you put an economic incentive around that network? That\u2019s possibly the most effective network in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Paradigm\u2019s Ehrsam, the size of Bitcoin and crypto in general has exceeded his wildest dreams. If you\u2019d told him in 2012 that Bitcoin would top $1 trillion as it did at one point last week, \u201cpeople would think you were absolutely insane,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea of a new digital money seemed very strange to most people because a new money has never come about in our lifetimes, at least as Americans,\u201d Ehrsam said. \u201cSo you\u2019re not used to seeing a phenomenon you\u2019ve never seen before.\u201d That will eventually change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just takes time for a powerful new idea like that to permeate society and build trust in it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For more articles like this, please visit us at\u00a0bloomberg.com<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a92021 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n
![\"chart:](\"{"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"45","src":"\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/BB1e4lQ7.img?h=450&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"35","src":"\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/BB1e4lQ7.img?h=351&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"35","src":"\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/BB1e4lQ7.img?h=351&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"}}\")
<\/span>That dark element to Bitcoin didn\u2019t deter Wilson at Union Square and DCG\u2019s Silbert, both of whom were series A investors in Coinbase. The company\u2019s shares changed hands in recent private transactions at levels that would value Coinbase at close to $100 billion, a person familiar with the matter have said.<\/p>\n
Union Square has focused its cash on about 15 firms in two main areas, infrastructure providers like Protocol Labs and Helium and in other crypto investment funds like Polychain Capital and Autonomous Partners. Wilson declined to comment.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a far cry from what Silbert has created at DCG. Among its nearly 300 investments and acquisitions it touches upon every part of the crypto market. Among them, it has stakes in Etherscan, the block explorer used for the Ethereum blockchain; Coindesk, a crypto news service; Genesis Global Trading, one of the largest over-the-counter crypto dealers and lenders; Chainalysis, a blockchain forensics firm; Decentraland, a virtual world built on Ethereum that sells plots of digital land and has its own cryptocurrency Mana.<\/p>\n
Silbert also created the\u00a0Grayscale Bitcoin Trust<\/a>\u00a0in 2013, which is the largest crypto investment product with assets of about $31 billion. Silbert declined to comment.<\/p>\n A lack of a career on Wall Street helped the Winklevoss twins approach Bitcoin with an open mind, Cameron Winklevoss said.<\/p>\n \u201cTyler and I didn\u2019t have 20 years of capital markets experience when we came to Bitcoin,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were very open to this possibility and that\u2019s how we\u2019ve always been, driven by curiosity.\u201d<\/p>\n The brothers famously battled Mark Zuckerberg over the early fate of Facebook, an experience that left them with lessons about Bitcoin.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the early days of Facebook, in watching and being a part of that ride, we saw the power of networks, and so many people dismissing social networks as a fad,\u201d Winklevoss said. Yet he\u2019d watched as 90% of the Harvard University student body signed up for Facebook within 48 hours. When Bitcoin came around, the twins recognized the same forces at play.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a money network,\u201d Winklevoss said. \u201cWhat happens when you put an economic incentive around that network? That\u2019s possibly the most effective network in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n For Paradigm\u2019s Ehrsam, the size of Bitcoin and crypto in general has exceeded his wildest dreams. If you\u2019d told him in 2012 that Bitcoin would top $1 trillion as it did at one point last week, \u201cpeople would think you were absolutely insane,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea of a new digital money seemed very strange to most people because a new money has never come about in our lifetimes, at least as Americans,\u201d Ehrsam said. \u201cSo you\u2019re not used to seeing a phenomenon you\u2019ve never seen before.\u201d That will eventually change.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just takes time for a powerful new idea like that to permeate society and build trust in it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For more articles like this, please visit us at\u00a0bloomberg.com<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a92021 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n