BlockBeats News, May 8th, Arkham released a new report listing the top 10 richest cryptocurrency individuals with on-chain traceability in 2026, based on publicly available on-chain data estimating their net worth. The wealthiest individuals gained their wealth mainly from early holdings of Bitcoin or Ethereum, with Satoshi Nakamoto still overwhelmingly dominating the list.

The top-ranked Satoshi Nakamoto is worth approximately $89 billion, remaining the undisputed richest on-chain holder, with all wealth coming from Bitcoin mined in 2009-2010 and scattered across about 22,000 addresses. This fortune places Satoshi Nakamoto among the top 25 richest people globally.

TRON founder Justin Sun holds around $15 billion, with a significant amount of TRX (18 billion coins, approximately $6.1 billion), stETH, BTC, and other assets in his addresses.

The "tragic figure" who lost his keys, James Howells, is worth around $650 million. As a Welsh IT worker, he mined around 8,000 bitcoins in 2010 using a laptop but accidentally threw away the hard drive containing the private keys in 2013, which is now buried in a landfill and inaccessible.

Estonian banker Rain Lohmus holds about $589 million. In 2014, he participated in an ETH ICO with $75,000 and received 250,000 ETH. Despite the visibility of these assets, they are inaccessible due to a lost private key.

Early Bitcoin developer Stefan Thomas is worth around $569 million, earning 7,002 bitcoins for creating an introductory Bitcoin video. The private keys are stored in an IronKey hardware wallet, with the paper containing the password lost. He has only two attempts left to access the wallet; otherwise, the data will be permanently erased.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is worth approximately $533 million, with wealth mainly from ETH allocated during the genesis. He also frequently receives airdrops of tokens from meme coin projects.

Irish drug dealer Clifton Collins is worth around $447 million. He acquired 6,000 bitcoins in 2011-2012 for about $5 per BTC. The private keys were lost in a fishing rod, and he was later arrested. In March 2026, one of his wallets suddenly became active, and the police recovered around $35 million worth of BTC.

Cobo co-founder and CEO DiscusFish is worth about $213 million, with the addresses mainly holding BTC.

The founder of POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol), Patricio Worthalter, holds approximately $149 million, primarily in ETH and related assets.

Renowned trader James Fickel holds around $115 million, having acquired ETH at a low price in 2016. He still holds about 49,000 ETH, experienced a $43 million loss in an ETH/BTC bet, and is currently focused on a neuroscience fund.