Tim Draper

FOUNDER, DRAPER ASSOCIATES, 59 ESTABLISHMENT IDEALIST Crypto net Worth: $350 million–$500 million The formidable Silicon Valley venture capitalist became a Bit- coin enthusiast before it was cool. He says he started thinking about digital currencies 15 years ago when he met a guy in South Korea who had bought a virtual sword for his son with regular cash. As currencies proliferated in videogames, Draper started looking for ways to convert one game currency to another.

The moment Draper heard about Bitcoin, he was in. Draper invested $250,000 when the price was at $6. He lost it all in the collapse of the Mt. Gox exchange in 2014, but Draper was not deterred. In the same year, he is reported to have paid less than $20 million for nearly 32,000 Bitcoin auctioned by the U.S. Marshalls Service—coins that had been confiscated from Ross Ulbricht and his online black marketplace, Silk Road. Since then Draper says he has made 40 more crypto investments.

“I don’t know why anyone would want to go back to fiat when crypto is distributed, seMarket, cure and global, while fiat is subject to the whims of political forces,” says Draper, who disputes Forbes estimate of his crypto wealth. “I believe that Bitcoin and crypto will drive most of the commerce of the world.”