Jordan Belfort Net Worth, Crypto and NFT Investments

Jordan Belfort was born in 1962 to a Jewish parents. His parents were reputable accountants. Their profession aided Belfort’s expertise in finance and investment which saw him work as a stockbroker and an entrepreneur. Otherwise known as the “Wolf of Wall Street,” Jordan Belfort started his journey as an entrepreneur when he and his close friend, Elliot Loewenstern made $20,000 selling Italian Ice from styrofoam coolers to sight seekers on a local beach.

He enrolled at the University of Maryland, School of Dentistry with the money he gathered from the business. This journey saw the “Wolf of Wall Street” work as a meat and seafood salesman, to becoming a stockbroker before founding Stratton Oakmont. His path to becoming a billionaire was quite difficult and controversial.

Meanwhile, it’s quite trickery to estimate Jordan Belfort’s net worth. According to credible sources, Jordan Belfort’s net worth is between $100 million to $130 million. For most of his business endeavors, Jordan Belfort endured various legal challenges, business and financial setbacks. Against all odds, he managed to earn a reputation as a renowned motivational speaker and author.

It is worth mentioning that Jordan Belfort is a staunch advocate of cryptocurrencies. A few years ago, he invested in a cryptopunk collection. According to our findings, the entrepreneur is one of the top personalities that wowed support for crypto space during the insolvency crisis of FTX. Then, he tipped BTC and ETH to bounce back and soar rapidly amid the crisis.

Jorgan Belfort’s Net Worth – Assets and Source of Income

Stratton Oakmont

Before founding Stratton Oakmont in 1989, Jordan Belfort worked as a door-to-door meat and seafood salesman in New York. His persistence saw the meat-selling business grow to an extent that he employed more people to attend to his fast-growing customer base. At the height of the success, he sold 2,300 kilograms of fish and beef weekly. Eventually, the business failed when Belfort was 25 years old. This left him with no choice than to pick up a job as a trainee stocker at L.F Rothschild through the help of a family friend. Although, he was fired following a financial crisis relating to the Black Monday stock market crash of 1987.

Two years later, edging towards 30 years old, he founded Stratton Oakmont alongside Danny Porush. While the firm was in existence, it served as an over-the-counter brokerage house. Jordan Belfort served as the CEO and Danny Porush served as the President and Chairman. At a time, the firm had about 1,378 employees. It is worthy of note they the firm was the largest over-counter firm in the U.S. during its existence.

Notably, Stratton Oakmont managed the initial public offering of about 35 companies and it issued stock worth more than $1 billion in total. However, the firm had no product control function to confirm the prices of its positions and monitor trading activity. Meanwhile, the firm was under intense scrutiny since its inception. On various occasions, the National Association of Securities Dealers (now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority)  faulted Stratton Oakmont’s Business practices.

Around April 1996, the New York District Business Conduct Committee banned Stratton Oakmont from performing principal retail transactions for a year. Consequently, Stratton Oakmont appealed to the NASD National Business Conduct Committee. In December, the firm suffered a huge blow after the NBCC expelled Stratton Oakmont from the NASD, putting the firm out of business. The occurrence was followed by a lawsuit against Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush with different charges that ranged between money laundering and securities fraud. Eventually, he was sentenced to four years in prison and ultimately served 22 months in prison.

Wolf of Wall Street and Catching the Wolf of Wall Street

Between 2007 and 2009, Jordan Belfort published two memoirs titled “The Wolf of Wall Street and Catching the Wolf of Wall Street.” The books have been published in more than 38 countries, with more than 18 language versions. Belfort gained the nickname “Wolf of Wall Street” from one of these books.

In 2013, the memoirs of the book were acted as a movie under the title, Wolf of Wall Street. The movie was directed by Martin Scorsese and it starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort, Jonah Hill, and Margot Robbie. The first book, the Wolf of Wall Street came into life shortly after he was released from prison. Jordan Belfort received a $500,000 advance from Random House. Various production houses were in queue bidding for the film rights of the book.

Mainly, the memoir and the movie focused on Jordan Belfort’s life and his journey through dangerous endeavors for survival. They portrayed how he started his entrepreneurship struggles and time at Stratton Oakmont, his arrest, trial, and life behind the bars. He earned an estimated $50 million from the movie rights.

Grossing more than $390 million globally, the movie was regarded as a major hit. The euphoria didn’t last for long. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2015 revealed the movie was funded with stolen funds from Malaysia’s government. Consequently, Belfort filed a lawsuit against Red Granite Productions in 2020,  alleging fraud, negligent misrepresentation, RICO Act violations, and breach of contract, among many others.

Real-life ‘Wolf Of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort sued filmmakers for $300 million—alleged the film’s producers hid “criminal acts and funding sources from him.” https://t.co/doBqOgZ7h9 by @lisettevoytko pic.twitter.com/3ErlZdnD76

— Forbes (@Forbes) January 24, 2020

Then, Belfort pursued to rescind the contract that sold the rights to his memoir, demanding $300 million in damages. He argued that he would not have signed the deal if he knew about the illegal source of the finance.

Motivational Speaker Career

Jordan Belfort took a different step after his life behind the bars. He began his career as a motivational speaker. Part of his public speaking seminars include one in Australia themed “The Truth Behind His Success.” Also, he runs sales seminars entitled “Jordan Belfort’s Straight Line Sales Psychology.” Belfort manages his speaking engagements through his business Global Motivation Inc.

Jordan Belfort immersed himself in the new field, using most of his time on speaking engagements. At the inception of his new career, he focused largely on motivation and ethics, before extending it to sales skills and entrepreneurship. Also, his speeches were dominated by the relevance of understanding business ethics and learning from the mistakes he made while at Stratton Oakmont. 

In one of his interviews, he spoke about the new career. Belfort admitted that his greatest regret was losing people’s money. He explained how he believed tampering with securities law was a regular thing to do without considering its consequences. More so, he blamed every of his fraudulent behavior and his addiction to drugs at that time.

According to findings, his per-engagement speaking fees are between $30,000 – $75,000 and his per-sales seminar fee can be $80,000 or more. Most of his seminars were dominated by what he referred to as the “Straight Line System” which focuses on sales advice.

However, Belfort on his new career path came under severe scrutiny. Various publications accused the repentant motivational speaker for having a link with employment company, Career Pathways Australia managed by Paul Conquest, a major stakeholder of Face to Face Training. The two firms sponsored one of Belfort’s workshops in Brisbane’s Eatons Hill Hotel, Australia.

The publication alleged that Belfort gave two workshops on Sales to the staff of Face to Face Training. Meanwhile, Face to Face Training received $3.9 million from the state government during FY-2014 and $6.34 million during FY-2015 for its training and assessment services. Consequently, these funds were expected to be spent on service training and certification which did not materialize.

Investment Portfolio

It is worth mentioning that at the height of his net worth, Jordan Belfort’s assets were worth over $400 million. This wealth declined following his trial for fraud and money laundering. According to findings, Jordan Belfort’s present net worth ranges between $100 million to $130 million.

Further, the motivational speaker’s investment portfolio is worth about $32 million including cash reserves. Part of this include eight (8) stocks that are valued at $15 million. Some of the stocks owned by Jordan Belfort are Visa, Walmart, Apple, FedEx, and General Motors. Jordan Belfort’s net worth has soared from $62 million in 2016 to around $145 this year. He acquired the majority of this worth through his public speaking endeavors.

His efforts toward putting together a legitimate wealth saw Jordan Belfort invest in startups and projects in the crypto space. Lately, the billionaire is growing his reputation as an actor in the virtual assets sphere. 

Is Jordan Belfort Pro Crypto?

Jordan Belfort has over time proven to be an admirer of cryptocurrencies, particularly BTC and Ethereum. Amid the FTX crisis that plunged crypto markets in late 2022, he encouraged investors to significantly buy the top two crypto assets by market cap. Certainly, Belfort has never hidden his hatred for other cryptocurrencies. In one of his interviews, he revealed that he won’t be investing in any other cryptocurrencies aside from BTC and ETH for now, tipping the two tokens to significantly grow in the coming years.

Although the overall crypto holdings of the Oakmont Stratton founder is not in the public domain. But, certainly, he holds a significant amount of BTC and ETH. In late 2022, he announced his plan to add more BTC and ETH to his holdings. Although, Belfort affirmed that his crypto exposure had reduced to 10% of his overall investments. Recall that the former stockholder was one of the victims of crypto hacks in 2022. He claimed to have lost $300,000 worth of crypto to the hack. Although, till today, the millionaire owner of Oakmont Stratton is yet to explain how some of his crypto assets were exploited.

Belfort is notable for offering investment insights to investors, particularly in the crypto industry. Recently, he advised crypto holders to do a thorough assessment of their tokens before deciding to sell or keep them. According to him, “this has to be based on what you bought and what you think it’s worth right now.” Belfort specifically said he would always have to do a more fundamental analysis of any tokens apart from BTC and ETH before investing his money.

Jordan Benfort’s Luxurious Home and Garage

It is worth mentioning that Benfort lives a luxurious life. After he was able to massively grow his wealth through those brokerage firms, the millionaire celebrity unveiled his 10,000-square-foot luxury home in New York. He was quoted as staying he bought the asset for $27 million.

Meanwhile, Benfort is an admirer of luxurious rides. Certainly, the collection of cars in his garage is worthy to behold. They include Bugatti Chiron, $3 Million Ferrari Portofino, $700,000, Lexus ES, $135,000, Jaguar XE, $125,000 and Alfa Romeo Giulia, $90,000.

Jordan Belfort’s Crypto and NFT Investments

Although the overall crypto holdings of the Oakmont Stratton founder is not in the public domain. But, certainly, he holds a significant amount of BTC and ETH. In late 2022, he announced his plan to add more BTC and ETH to his holdings. Although, Belfort affirmed that his crypto exposure had reduced to 10% of his overall investments. Recall that the former stockholder was one of the victims of crypto hacks in 2022. He claimed to have lost $300,000 worth of crypto to the hack. Although, till today, the millionaire owner of Oakmont Stratton is yet to explain how some of his crypto assets were exploited.

Beyond cryptocurrencies, Belfort is an influential figure in the NFT industry. His first public show of love for NFT was in 2021. In a Twitter post, he said “Wow! I love NFT Twitter! And now that I’m here, I’m not f***ing leaving!” Ever since the Oakmont Stratton owner has shown a remarkable commitment to the sector. He once raised more than $422,000 for a charity course through an NFT auction.

While his overall NFT holdings is not in the public domain, Belfort once announced his purchase of CryptoPunk collection on OpenSea. Then, he bought the collection at 102 ETH, equivalent to about $204, 000 as at the time of writing. We rely on this information to believe cryptopunks is one of those assets in Belfort’s portfolio.

Arrest, Trial and Prosecution of Jordan Belfort

The arrest, trial and prosecution of Belfort happened in the late 1990s. Then, his firm, Stratton Oakmont reportedly embraced a “pump and dump” trading scheme. By virtue of this, brokers in the firm, spiked the value of its stocks by making inaccurate and exaggerated statements. This thus enabled them to re-sell the stocks they bought at lower prices at higher prices. After selling the stocks, Belfort and his brokers usually “dump” their shares, thereby leaving investors in dilemma. This is because whenever they dumped the shares, the stock prices drop, and those investors lose their funds. Notably, he was able to significantly grow his wealth through this scheme.

According to our findings, he founded two additional brokerage firms, Monroe Parker Securities and Biltmore Securities through the profit he amassed from Oakmont Stratton’s illegal dealing. He continued the scheme with the two firms again, thereby strengthening his influence in the stock market. The millionaire earned so much that he began to consider how to hide the wealth. Then, he considered opening a Swiss bank account to prevent US regulator from investigating his source of wealth.

At that time, it was reported that Belfort’s friend helped him smuggled illicit money to Switzerland from U.S. However, around 1994, his efforts towards keeping the funds in Switzerland was dealt a huge blow. In a detailed investigation by the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission, the illegal trading activity of Oakmont Stratton was exposed.

Following this development, the U.S regulator commenced a lawsuit against the brokerage firm. Then, SEC accused Oakmont Stratton and its founder, Belfort of civil fraud. In the end, the Court slammed a $2.5 million fine against the firm. Also, Belfort was banned from operating any firm within the country. It is worth mentioning that the ban forced him to sell his shares in the firm.

Barely a few weeks after, Belfort found himself on the trail of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a law enforcement agency in the United States. The FBI, after its investigations, also indicted him of money laundering. Although, Belfort initially saw the incident as a coincidence, but later woke up to the reality that some of his intimates had been working with the FBI to expose him. As a well-known drug addict, he began to take more drugs owing to his travails with the enforcement agency. The implication of his excessive drug intake made him angrily kick his wife. This thus caused his first arrest. Although, he was not detained in police custody but placed in rehabilitation for months before returning home.

After spending a few months at home, he was arrested by the FBI for money laundering and securities scams. At the end of the trial, the judge sentenced the millionaire to 4-year imprisonment. The judge also instructed Belfort to compensate victims of its fraudulent brokerage firm with $110 million.

After showing sincere commitment to helping the FBI in its investigation and compensating the victims, his jail term was reduced to two years. However, as of the time of writing, he only paid $11.6 million from the $110 million to the victims. He was released from prison in 2006 after spending at least 22 months. It was during his time in prison that he started his memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street which was released two years after.

Jordan Belfort’s Net Worth – Our Verdict

It is not in doubt that Jordan Belfort’s net worth will drop if he is forced to complete the $110 million restitution for victims of his “pump and dump” trading scheme. Recall that following his first trial by SEC, the ex convict was asked to compensate his victims after pleading guilty. Since then, he only paid $11.6 million in 2021, leaving him with a debt of over $98 million. There are indications that the victims might soon institute a lawsuit against the former stockholder to force the payment of the remaining restitution. If this happens, Jordan Belfort’s net worth will be significantly impacted.

See our complete list of famous Bitcoin investors here.

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