Amazon CEO Now Has More Wealth Than Bitcoin's Market Cap

Jeff Bezos, CEO of online shopping giant Amazon, recently set a wealth record, becoming personally richer than all the speculative capital currently invested in Bitcoin (BTC).

“Amazon shares rose 4.4% to a record $2,878.70 on Wednesday, boosting the founder’s world-leading fortune to $171.6 billion,” Bloomberg said in a July 1 article. That beat his previous high of $167.7 billion set on Sept. 4, 2018, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Bezos has deep pockets compared to Bitcoin

At press time, Bitcoin’s market capitalization is around $166.4 billion, according to Coin360, which shows the value of all Bitcoins in circulation at Bitcoin’s current price level.

Bezos’ total net worth exceeds this figure, which shows how small Bitcoin is relative to other markets, and even people. For further comparison, as of May 2020, the total market capitalization of gold was around $8 trillion, according to a Cointelegraph report.

Bezos buys all Bitcoin in circulation

Even at his current net worth, the billionaire CEO of Amazon probably can’t buy all the Bitcoin in circulation.

Philip Salter, head of mining operations at Genesis Mining, speculated that Bezos might buy Bitcoin on the exchange order book. However, this action could push up the price of Bitcoin and remove liquidity from the market. In addition, some people may be reluctant to sell their Bitcoin, while others have lost their Bitcoin for years and cannot use it.

Derivatives trader and YouTuber Tone Vays expressed a similar sentiment in a separate post. Vays said of Bezos in April: “He’s going to drive the price of Bitcoin up to the point where he can’t afford it anymore.”