The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) crackdown on major exchanges Coinbase and Binance dealt a major blow to the cryptocurrency market this week.
The heads of these exchanges, Brian Armstrong and Changpeng Zhao, suffered heavy financial losses as bitcoin collapsed to its lowest level since mid-March.
In two days, Binance’s CEO’s fortune dropped $1.4 billion to $26 billion, Bloomberg reported.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong lost $361 million in turbulence, and his fortune dropped to $2.2 billion.
The SEC accuses major cryptocurrencies of violating securities laws.
Blockchain industry leaders were hit hard in 2022 amid a dominant bearish trend. Already this year, however, their fortunes had increased by a combined $15.4 billion by May 31. The assets of Changpeng Zhao, 46, who founded the Binance exchange in 2017, were estimated at $96.9 billion in January 2022. In the months that followed, his fortune began to shrink.