Top 50 Wealthiest Individuals' Assets Decrease by 712 Trillion Won This Year

The Decline in the Stock Market Is the Main Cause... Greater Decrease When Cryptocurrency Investment Proportion Is High

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Woo-seok] The total assets of the 50 wealthiest individuals in the world have decreased by $563 billion (approximately 712 trillion KRW) since the beginning of this year.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 23rd (local time), citing the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, that concerns over the recent economic downturn have rapidly frozen investor sentiment, leading to a significant decline in the assets of the world's top 50 billionaires. The decline in the stock market, with the Nasdaq index falling 28% and the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index dropping 18% this year, is cited as the main cause of the asset reduction.

In particular, billionaires with a high investment ratio in cryptocurrencies, which have recently shown a noticeable downward trend, experienced a steeper decline in their assets.

Changpeng Zhao, the Chinese-Canadian founder of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, saw his assets decrease by $80.9 billion (approximately 102.3 trillion KRW) this year. This is the largest asset reduction among the top 50 billionaires. As a result, Changpeng Zhao's holdings dropped to $14.9 billion (approximately 18.8 trillion KRW), pushing him down to 113th place in the billionaire rankings.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and ranked first among the world's billionaires, also experienced a significant asset decrease. Holding assets worth $201 billion (approximately 254 trillion KRW), he lost $69.1 billion (approximately 87 trillion KRW) this year.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's assets decreased by $61.1 billion (approximately 77 trillion KRW), Bernard Arnault, chairman of the famous French fashion group Louis Vuitton Mo?t Hennessy (LVMH), lost $55.2 billion (approximately 70 trillion KRW), and Microsoft (MS) founder Bill Gates saw a loss of $21.7 billion (approximately 27.4 trillion KRW) in assets.

On the other hand, some billionaires saw their assets increase. Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, earned $1.2 billion (approximately 1.5 trillion KRW) this year, bringing his total assets to $110 billion (approximately 139 trillion KRW).