There was a time when no one wore tracksuits to video calls to customers, dreamed of buying a used BMW from Carvana.com, or had to remember which vaccine they received for their first or second dose. In less than three years, the coronavirus pandemic has revolutionized the way we live, work and teach our children, according to Bloomberg. And it turns out how much it helped to create huge fortunes and quickly lose them. For example, thanks to the launch of the Moderna vaccine, researcher Stefan Bansel’s fortune reached $15 billion because the former’s share price jumped 2,400% during the pandemic. Entrepreneur Eric Yuan was denied a US visa eight times when he immigrated from China, but it was he who invented video conferencing via the Zoom platform. His fortune reached $29 billion when this platform became the world’s top choice for video conferencing. Behind used car platform Carvana are a father and son who amassed $32 billion during their heyday. The aforementioned belong to a closed club of 58 billionaires who have multiplied their wealth at a frantic pace thanks to the rapid change of the coronavirus and cheap money in two years of the pandemic.

Their rise and subsequent fall was sharper and more sudden than any of the other 131 members of Bloomberg’s billionaire list, whose fortunes more than doubled but were not as closely linked to the changes brought about by the coronavirus. Kim Forrest, founder of Pittsburgh-based investment firm Bokeh Capital Partners, notes that the hype around companies that have benefited from take-home orders is reminiscent of the hype around internet companies from 20 years ago. “They filled a gap in a very small part of the market, but there was no prospect – investors are counting on business growth and productivity, but this can no longer be achieved through remote work, which has reached its limit,” Ms Forrest said. When compared to other billionaires, we find that they have benefited from fiscal support packages and the lowest interest rates during the pandemic, such as Tesla founder Elon Musk, who became the richest in the world, and 30-year-old Sam Bankman-Freud, a cryptocurrency mogul investing in a full range of these products. Of course, no one was immune from the collective efforts of central banks to raise borrowing costs as a hedge against rampant inflation. However, the fortunes created by the coronavirus were evaporating at an incredibly fast pace, something similar happened in 2008 and 1929.

Eric Yuan, head of Zoom, was worth $26.8 billion at its peak before dropping to $4.6 billion at the end of September.

It is characteristic that one can name Stefan Bunsel, the head of Moderna, whose fortune during the pandemic reached $15 billion and $3.7 billion at the end of September (a decrease of 75%). Eric Yuan, head of Zoom, had $26.8 billion at its peak and $4.6 billion in the aforementioned period (down 84%). Finally, for Forrest Lee, creator of the toy and shopping platform Sea, he was worth $21.9 billion at the height of his operations and only $3.8 billion at the end of September (down 83%).