Forbes magazine just released its 400 Richest Americans list for 2018. And as expected, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet still lead the pack at first, second, and third ranks, respectively. While the top positions remained virtually unchanged, there are a couple of new entrants in the lower part of the list, such as Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen.
Chris Larsen Lands on 383rd Spot
Forbes 400 is a very exclusive list that not just anyone with money could barge into. Even with the massive surge of the cryptocurrency market in 2017, which created countless newly minted millionaires, only one person from the group was considered wealthy enough to be included in the roster — Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen.
Larsen is on the 383rd spot on the Forbes list after the magazine valued his net worth at $21 billion. The magazine noted in its introduction that Larsen is the first member whose fortune came from the cryptocurrency sector, which mirrored the industry’s rapid expansion last year. Ripple, in particular, posted massive gains in 2017, when the token posted a 35,159-percent increase, according to Forbes. To put it into perspective, anyone who invested $100 in Ripple at the start of 2017 would have seen his or her investment rise to $35,259 by the end of the year.
The Ripple co-founder is also among the 15 people who made it to the magazine’s rankings for the first time. The other notable newbies are Dropbox’s Drew Houston and In-N-Out’s Lynsi Snyder, who at 36 years of age also earned another distinction for being the youngest female member on the list.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Is Now $63B Richer Than Microsoft’s Bill Gates
The biggest change this year is in the top two positions. In 2017, Bill Gates was number 1 at $89 billion, followed by Jeff Bezos, who was valued at $81.5 billion, and investment guru Warren Buffet, whose net worth was valued at $78 billion, which earned him the number 3 spot last year.
This year, Bezos not only overtook Gates but also widened his gap over his rival by a wide margin. Bezos’ net worth skyrocketed to $160 billion this year, while Gates’ net worth is estimated to be at $97 billion, which means that Bezos is now $63 billion richer than Gates.
The requirement to be included in this year’s Forbes 400 list is higher compared to the previous year’s cutoff. In 2017, billionaires needed $2 billion to make it to the list, according to Forbes. This year, however, the cutoff is higher, $2.1 billion, meaning people need to have a hundred million dollars more to make it to the list.
