At this moment in time, economic analysts and critics are still in doubt when it comes down to whether bitcoin can be seen as a viable digital currency for our future. Regardless of this, numerous people from all around the world have invested a significant portion of their capital in the future of the cryptocurrency, and various bitcoin-based projects.
While these investors haven’t yet come up with a killer idea, meant to take bitcoin to the next level, they’re keeping the industry hot at all times, and working towards compelling the average person to switch to the digital currency and invest as well.
With this in mind, in this article, we will talk about 5 of the most popular investors in the blockchain and digital currency environment, their achievements and plans for the future of bitcoin.
- Roger Ver
Roger Ver is one of the few bitcoin investors truly passionate about the market, and its enormous potential. Back in 2011, he was the founder of one of the world’s first companies to start accepting bitcoin as a form of payment. He later launched Bitcoinstore.com, one of the world’s first sites where people could buy hundreds of thousands of products, all via the digital currency. He has been a pillar in merchant adoption, and was also one of the first persons to start investing in bitcoin startups. Not only this, but almost single-handedly, he managed to cover the first seed round for one of the first generations of bitcoin businesses, thus quickly becoming an angel investor in the industry.
Not only this, but he has also completed some important steps in informing people about digital currencies. In fact, he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for radio ads, billboard ads, and internet marketing campaigns, meant to promote bitcoin to people throughout the world.
At this moment in time, he is involved with numerous digital currency-based companies, including BitPay, Blockchain, Kraken Digital Asset Exchange, Coinapult, LUXSTACK, CoinLab, CoinSetter, Fold, Hive, Purse, Safello, Zcash, ShapeShift.io, Bitcoin.com, BitcoinCharts.com, BitStamp.net, etc.
- Adam Draper
Adam Draper is one of the most well-known names in the digital currency industry, as he is both the founder and CEO of a firm known by the name of Boost VC. For those who do not know, Boost VC is a startup accelerator which mainly focuses on bitcoin-based company. But instead of me talking about him, go listen to a podcast Interview with Adam Draper.
Adam comes from a family of venture capitalists, and he has grown up watching both his father and grandfather work in this industry, thus offering him valuable investing knowledge. Adam founded Boost VC back in 2012, and since then, the company has managed to accelerate well over 80 different startups.
In a statement he recently made, Adam mentioned that his business is currently planning to accelerate a total of 100 bitcoin startups during the next three years.
His startup accelerator is having quite a lot of success, considering the fact that there are numerous young entrepreneurs looking for ways to join the bitcoin market, and come up with the next killer service.
3. Erik Voorhees
Erik is a Panamanian/American startup founder, who has invested a considerable amount of money in the digital currency market. With this in mind, he is the co-founder of the Bitcoin-based company known by the name of Coinapult, has worked as the Director of Marketing over at BitInstant, and was both the founder and partial owner of the popular gambling website known as Satoshi Dice, which was later sold for $11.5 million, to an undisclosed purchaser.
Not only this, but he has also worked closely with Roger Ver on the ShapeShift.io altcoin exchange, which he founded, and led as the CEO.
Erik is motivated by the idea that the actual monetary system has actual systemic problems, based on counter-party risk, fraudulent management by the Federal Reserve System and more. This has led him to store most of his assets in bitcoin, thus becoming a true leader of the digital currency community.
- Marc Andreessen
While Marc Andreessen may not be very well-known in the bitcoin industry, members of the market should be aware of the fact that he is the co-founder of a private venture capital firm, which currently has over $4 billion worth of assets. This firm has actively invested in Bitcoin-based companies, including Coinable, a bitcoin wallet business, and TradeBlock, a financial services company that supports bitcoin, and is involved with its underlying ledger as well.
Marc goes way behind, as he was one of the leading developers of Mosaic, one of the world’s first popular web browsers. Not only this, but he is also the co-founder of Netscape and works as a board member for Facebook.
- Barry Silbert
Last but not least, we have Barry Silber, the founder and CEO of one of the market’s most popular companies, the Digital Currency Group. For those who are not yet aware, the mission of the DCG is to accelerate the current and future development of the world’s financial system, by supporting and building blockchain and Bitcoin-based companies of all kinds. At this moment in time, the DCG has invested in over 75 Bitcoin-based companies, and is currently the world’s leading firm for cryptocurrency investments. Not only do they own large amounts of digital currency, but they also own substantial assets in some of the world’s most popular bitcoin and blockchain companies.
In one of DCG’s most recent transactions, they had purchased one of the world’s biggest bitcoin news sites, CoinDesk, which is also the company that runs the annual bitcoin conference. Barry also owns Genesis, a trading firm, Grayscale, a company focused on cryptocurrency investments, but also the Bitcoin Investment Trust, which has over $143 million worth of assets.
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, the bitcoin investors outlined above have managed to positively shape the bitcoin market, and promote the digital currency in areas from all around the world through their extensive, yet risky investments. There are indeed, many other digital currency investors who’ve also had a major role to play, and which continue to make the bitcoin market and community a better and safer place.
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