# The richest people in crypto are the ones selling the shovels.

**Published by:** [Durwin](https://paragraph.com/@durwin/)
**Published on:** 2022-09-21
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@durwin/the-richest-people-in-crypto-are-the-ones-selling-the-shovels

## Content

Who are the richest people in crypto?Let me tell you a story about shovels. But I think you already know what it is. The 1800s, California Gold Rush. Everyone wanted to go dig gold out of the ground and make easy money. Turns out, the ones who sought gold didn’t make much. The ones who sold the equipment to dig struck the real gold. “Back during the 1849 California Gold Rush, few prospectors struck it rich. Most of the people who made money back then were those who “sold shovels” (and jeans, tents, pickaxes and other supplies and services) to the prospectors who lived hard lives panning for gold.”Shovels were more of a sure thing, the Gold, not so much.Back to reality. Crypto bubble, NFT bubble, Tulip Mania 2.0. Call it what you want. But history rhymes. When the bull market was upon us, everyone got introduced to the concept of cryptocurrencies, thinking they could make fast money by trading, timing the markets and basically attain wealth the quickest way possible. Everywhere you go, you see people telling you how much you could have made if you invested in that token or that coin when it first released. NFTs were minting and selling for millions. Crypto became the wild west for fast money and easy wealth creation. Or so it seems. Turns out, like the Gold Rush, the ones who really made bank were the ones who provided the “tools” to trade and not the ones who traded. 10 of the top 12 richest crypto personalities in the world are founders of exchanges. #1 Sam Bankman-Fried — Co-Founder, FTX — $20.3B. #2 Changpeng Zhao — Founder, Binance — $17.4B. #3 Gary Wang — Co-Founder, FTX — $5.8B. #4 Song Chi-hyung — Founder, Dunamu — $3.4B. #5 & 6 Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss — Co-Founders, Gemini — $3.3B each. The list goes on.The top 5 richest people in crypto are collectively worth more than $50B, and they all founded crypto exchange/marketplaces.There is a really interesting pattern. See when there is a bull market, more people enter the space and the hype sells itself, leading to more trading activities. During a bear market, there will still be people trying to time the bottom, buying cheap coins, dumping assets, trying to make some money. Either way, exchanges always make bank. They say the best thing to do in a bear market is build. What they didn’t really tell you is what to build. I say, build a better, faster, cheaper, nicer, cooler, easier-to-use exchange. That is one thing that will never fade however far you look into the future. Customers will never want a slower, more expensive, harder to use, bulkier and painful exchange. Sell better shovels. - Have you used a crypto exchange recently? - #startups #business #startupx #growth #success #socialmedia #culture #entrepreneurship #strategy #eth #coin #btc #exchanges #ftx #binance #tools #shovels #goldrush #crypto #bearmarket #cryptocurrency

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