- Chris Larsen founded cryptocurrency Ripple, which peaked at £2.80 last week
- The American is said to own 5.2b Ripple tokens and a wealth estimated at £44b
- Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Amancio Ortega ranked ahead of him
You are unlikely to have heard of him, but Chris Larsen last week briefly overtook Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg to become the world’s fifth richest man.
Larsen co-founded the cryptocurrency Ripple, which peaked at £2.80 last week – up from 15p early last month.
The American is said to own 5.2 billion Ripple tokens and a 17 per cent stake in Ripple Labs, the firm behind them, pushing his estimated wealth close to $60 billion (£44 billion) – at the time making him fifth in Forbes’ ranking.
Chris Larsen, pictured, is the chief executive of Ripple Labs that makes a math-based currency
Only Microsoft’s Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffett, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Zara’s Amancio Ortega were ahead of him in the global wealth stakes.
However, Michael Hewson of trader CMC Markets said: ‘It’s only worth that amount if he can sell for a cash equivalent. That’s the big risk at the moment.’
Figures obtained by The Mail on Sunday show crime involving Ripple’s rival Bitcoin has trebled in the City.
Some 1,000 crimes relating to Bitcoin were reported to the City of London Police last year, including 500 in the past four months alone, up from 320 in the whole of 2016.