Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek Biography: Education, Career, and Net Worth

Kris Marszalek Biography

Educational Background of Kris Marszalek

The polish entrepreneur Kris Marszalek, one of the youngest pioneers of the crypto world, was born in 1955. The visionary CEO and Co-founder of Crypto.com graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland, after which he co-founded many well-known tech giants.

After his graduation, Kris kickstarted his career in the industry as the founder of a Groupon-like marketplace known as Ensogo in 2002. The serial entrepreneur then served as the co-founder and senior vice president of Starline Polska for about five consecutive years. During the first three years of his tenure, the revenue of this consumer-based electronics design studio skyrocketed from $0 to $81 million.

Later, in 2013, Kris Marszalek co-founded a deals website named BEECRAZY, based in Hong Kong. The website earned fame as the most successful e-commerce platform in the city within no time. However, iBuy Group Limited, the Chinese E Commerce giant, later acquired the website for $21 million in 2013.

Kris co-founded the crypto payment company, named Monaco, in 2016, which offered blockchain-based debit cards. Since then, he and his publications advocating cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) have gained popularity in the crypto industry.

Later, in 2018, Monaco was relaunched and rebranded as Crypto.com, which is amongst the fastest-growing and popular crypto exchange platforms in the crypto industry. Today, Crypto.com has about 80 million users and 70 million merchants worldwide.

Kris Marszalek’s Journey of Founding Crypto.com

In 2016, Gary Or, Rafael Melo, Bobby Bao, and Kris Marszalek founded Crypto.com in Hong Kong. The company was initially named Monaco until it received its current name in 2018. Back then, after the company got its domain from cryptography researcher Matt Blaze, sellers valued the domain at 5-10 million US dollars. 

Crypto.com is a subsidiary of Foris DAX MT (Malta) Limited and is operated by Foris DAX Asia. Marszalek and team launched the company with a plan to let people buy, sell, or store cryptocurrency. 

In 2020, Crypto.com got access to the Australian Financial Service License by acquiring the Card Group Pty Ltd. Further, in 2021, the founders were also successful in forging a sales agreement with Nadex, CFTC, and The Small Exchange. In the meantime, Marszalek managed to raise the number of active users on the website from 10 million in 2021 to 80 million by the end of June 2023. 

Unfortunately, back in 2022, the company faced a loss of 35 million US dollars being a victim of hacking. However, by immediately stopping withdrawals and taking necessary actions, the company saved the funds of all the investors.

Marszalek further signed an 8-year carbon removal agreement with Climeworks in June 2023, taking a necessary step towards a sustainable approach for Crypto.com. The next goal of Marszalek is to bring in a total of 150 million active users by 2025. 

Kris Marszalek Net Worth

Kris Marszalek has an estimated net worth of around $700 million as of 2023. However, there is no information available about his net worth in 2024. A large amount of his wealth comes from the huge success of his brainchild, Crypto.com.

Moreover, as the CEO of one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, he’s believed to own an impressive investment portfolio. He started investing in crypto in 2013, and his investments are worth millions of dollars today.

His portfolio features key crypto assets such as Bitcoin, CRO, and Ethereum, which make up about 20% of his entire investments. Thus, the boom of Bitcoin has also skyrocketed his net worth. He’s also popularly referred to as “Bitcoin Bull”.