One trader turned $250 into more than $1 million over four days when investing in PEPE in April 2023. The explosive gains quickly stirred dreams of instant wealth. However, making a million from meme coins and other crypto is one thing. Making a billion is another game entirely. Surprisingly, a few investors have managed to cross the billion-dollar line.
They rode different crypto rockets to achieve their growth, with some billionaires building blockchains and others investing in the right coin at the right time. Discover the main crypto billionaires in 2025, some well-known and others completely anonymous.
Contents
- 1 Anonymous Shiba Inu Whale Turned $8K Into $5.7 Billion
- 2 Exchange Builder Changpeng Zhao Cashed in Big Time
- 3 Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong Got Rich Promoting Compliance
- 4 Meme Coin Promoter and Blockchain Builder Justin Sun
- 5 Michael Saylor’s All or Nothing Entry as a Billionaire
- 6 A Reluctant Billionaire Called Vitalik Buterin
Anonymous Shiba Inu Whale Turned $8K Into $5.7 Billion
One incredibly fortunate investor made a bold move in August 2020, buying roughly $8,000 worth of Shiba Inu (SHIB), which was a meme coin inspired by Dogecoin. The tiny 11-digit-per-unit coin was already among the top tokens to buy back when the transaction came from an anonymous wallet.
Currently, Dogecoin remains one of the leading meme coin investments, with some of the best meme coins to buy today including Snorter Bot, BTC Bull, TOKEN6900, and Bitcoin Hyper showing the potential for rapid growth and positive market changes. Meme coin expert Alexander Reed says these coins might be funny by design, but investors should never underestimate their potential.
However, the anonymous wallet that purchased a small amount of Shiba Inu in 2020 saw explosive growth with a 7 million percent return by October 2021 when the owner’s Shiba Inu value reached $5.7 billion. The wallet owner who chose to remain anonymous was confirmed to have been holding onto 7 trillion SHIB, which represented 12% of its tokens. The anonymous wallet holder that never moved its SHIB made billions from $8,000.
Exchange Builder Changpeng Zhao Cashed in Big Time
Changpen Zhao is also known as CZ in the crypto world. The man doesn’t host political dinners or promote meme coins. He simply owns the largest crypto exchange known to the digital asset world: Binance. CZ established Binance in 2017, offering hundreds of coins that included minimal friction and meme coins.
Traders were allowed to buy and sell anything from Bitcoin to the latest dog-themed meme coin in just seconds. The platform’s liquidity is what made meme coins go viral, and it allowed CZ to earn billions. CZ was ranked the 24th wealthiest man in the world despite his stepping down in 2023. His net worth today sits at $64.8 billion as of May 2025.
Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong Got Rich Promoting Compliance
Coinbase is a well-known crypto exchange that isn’t known for launching meme coins. However, it simplifies how investors buy them. Coinbase listed SHIB and DOGE when they hit mainstream headlines. This move pushed the prices higher to help them reach millions of US investors. CEO Brian Armstrong was already locked in his position.
Armstrong started Coinbase in 2012, making it public in 2021. Brian Armstrong’s current net worth is valued at $15.1 billion, with a company stake sitting at 15% held directly and through trusts. His net worth also fluctuates according to the platform’s stock price.
Armstrong didn’t focus on the same path as CZ. He grew the Coinbase exchange through compliance, regulation, and Wall Street partnerships. Still, he designed a gateway like his counterpart and got richer every time a coin exchanged hands.
Meme Coin Promoter and Blockchain Builder Justin Sun
No other crypto billionaire balances internet chaos and serious business quite like Justin Sun. Sun created TRON in 2017, built one of the leading blockchain ecosystems, and bought BitTorrent during the same year. He has actively promoted DOGE and SHIB, even launching his own playful token derivatives on Asian exchanges.
Sun’s wealth isn’t easy to define. Some estimated that he was worth $1.5 billion in 2024 while his current net worth shows a value closer to $8.5 billion in 2025 when considering his company stakes and holdings. Sun’s story shows how building blockchain technology and promoting meme coins doesn’t necessarily have to be exclusive.
Michael Saylor’s All or Nothing Entry as a Billionaire
Michael Saylor isn’t known for chasing the latest crypto trend or meme coin while following social media trends. Saylor went all or nothing with Bitcoin and chose to stay there. Michael Saylor was the chief executive officer of MicroStrategy, a data analytics firm that now holds over 580,000 BTC. His net worth currently sits at $8.7 billion.
Saylor didn’t simply decide to throw all his eggs in one basket. He owns many of the BTC himself, with some reports showing that he holds 17,732 of the company’s BTC. Meme coin’s public attention and pumped trading volume may have boosted Bitcoin’s value.
A Reluctant Billionaire Called Vitalik Buterin
Finally, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, which is the epicenter of most meme coins using the ERC-20 token standard, has enabled the man to become a billionaire. Buterin didn’t invent any meme coins, but he enabled them, with SHIB’s owners once sending him half of the token’s supply which was estimated at over $1 billion.
Buterin burned most of the coin and donated much of it to charity. His wealth today still sits at an estimated $400 million to $1.025 billion according to different sources.
