Crypto millionaires represent the peak income for the youngest – E24

In the top 15 of those with the highest comparable earnings in the 2021 tax rolls, several made their money in cryptocurrency.

• In fourth place we find Alexander Leonard Larsen (now 36), co-founder of Sky Mavis. The company makes the crypto game Axie.
• In twelfth place we find David Sønstebø (33), who is one of the founders of the Iota cryptocurrency.
• In the fifteenth place we find the crypto investor Sebastian Samuel Samuelson (29).

– There have been difficult years, both last year and this year, says Sky Mavis’ Alexander Leonhard Larsen to E24.

He says that the company’s turnover reached $ 1.3 billion in 2021. The value increased, and in an investment round, the company obtained $ 150 million.

– Then I sold some of my possessions, it was good timing. So the company’s vision was to continue to build on it. Larsen says we have great growth potential.

This year, the company was hit by a computer attack, during which around NOK 50 million was stolen from users. They’ve now paid all users, Larsen says, and they’re through the crisis.

But it is not certain if he will end up at the top of the tax lists for 2022.

The market is down 50-60 percent, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it affected the equation. It is a year when it is appropriate to make some profit and focus on the long term.

He thinks it’s an interesting experience to get a lot of attention when the tax rolls arrive.

– It is unique in the world that people get so many insights into how individuals generate huge amounts of money. It’s weird to pay so much attention to that, but to me it doesn’t change much. We keep working, says Larsen.

– beating

Cryptocurrency developer and co-founder Torkel Rogstad of the Bitcoin Bare Bitcoin service finds it interesting that so many people in the top list have wealth and income from the crypto market.

Interestingly, they are at the top of the list. They’re young, they’re completely unknown — and in any case, they’re much less known than those who have built their careers on things other than cryptocurrency, says Rogstad.

He notes that the history of cryptocurrency fortunes at the top of the charts shows how volatile the market can be — they can appear for a year, disappear again, and then come back.

Rogstad points out that many of the people on the list made their money on so-called “shitcoins,” a pun on the most famous cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

– It’s a tabloid term, but it means a currency that’s far from risky and has questionable real value. There’s usually a lot of “noise” and probably not a lot of substance — then you can quickly get very high paper values, without it being obvious whether the values ​​can be traded, says Rogstad.

– Here, there are probably many investors who scratched their heads when they filled out the tax return.

Less popular currencies can fluctuate wildly in value in a short time. But in 2022, the big companies also fell back a lot. Rogstad also believes that many crypto-wealthy will fall into the tax rolls this year.

Many people’s income and wealth will drop dramatically. But some clowns appear on these lists, so maybe that will happen next year, too, he says.

The crypto guru has a warning to those who might see dollar signs in their eyes from seeing top tax lists full of crypto millionaires.

– It’s a game of chance. I prefer to recommend long-term investments, where you can get a good return without burning yourself out.

Rich in different cryptocurrencies

The other two positions on the top list from the cryptocurrency world belong to David Sønstebø at 12th and Sebastian Samuelsen at 15th.

Sønstebø is the man behind Iota’s “Norwegian” crypto success.

– Sønstebø is one of the most controversial players on the list, says senior analyst Vetle Lunde at Arcane Research.

– It is no longer relevant, you don’t see much of it today, but in 2017 there was a lot of noise around Iota, which also received a lot of criticism. Sønstebø had a harsh tone in public and received a lot of criticism on Twitter.

Eventually it became Sønstebø Frozen by the IOTA FoundationLunde says.

E24 was unsuccessful in getting Sønstebø to speak.

Sebastian Samuelsen, for his part, made money on the Ethereum-based token called HEX, says Lunde.

– It’s among the least honest crypto projects, with a pyramid-like structure for the entire project, which had an open back-end, says Lunde.

Samuelsen himself never mentioned that it was HEX that made him rich. But in an interview with glamdalen It was reported last year that “the first thing he does when he wakes up and the last thing he does before bed is check the progress on his HEX”.

In an interview with Fædrelandsvennen, Samuelsen said his portfolio is now down 80-90 percent.

– My fortune has declined since the new year. I don’t want to think about that now, we’ll see that in next year’s tax assessment. But I did some good deals, so where the income was last year, it will be very similar to this year’s income, he says in the interview, not wanting to reveal the cryptocurrencies he bought.

The second place is unknown

Salmon heir Gustave Magnar and Witzwe lead the top of income and the peak of wealth in general, and therefore also among those under 35 years of age.

In second place, and seventh place overall, appeared Christopher Daniel Norambuena. It’s no newcomer at the top of the tax list, but it’s made a huge jump — from 33rd in 2020.

He does not know where his income or wealth comes from.