The wealth of the CEO of the Binance exchange Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, according to Bloomberg estimates, is $96 billion, which makes him the richest in the cryptocurrency industry. Zhao has already surpassed Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, and may rank next to Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg in the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
Binance CEO net worth may be even higher than $96 billion since Bloomberg did not account for Zhao’s personal holdings of Bitcoin and Binance Coin, the cryptocurrency issued by Binance.
Recall that in March, the Chinese research institute Hurun presented a ranking of crypto billionaires at the end of 2020. Zhao's wealth was estimated at $8 billion - he was second only to FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried ($10 billion) and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong ($11.5 billion).
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However, in November 2021, journalists from China Caijing estimated Zhao's fortune at $90 billion, based on the assumption that he owns a 30% stake in Binance. Also in November, Zhao said he was holding Bitcoin and Binance Coin. In the last year alone, the rate of Binance's own token has grown more than 10 times, which allowed BNB to become the third largest asset in the cryptocurrency market.
In addition, according to Bloomberg estimates, Binance's revenue last year was at least $20 billion, which is almost three times higher than analysts' forecasts for the American exchange Coinbase, quoted on the stock market with a capitalization of $50 billion.
“Coinbase may sound like an 800-pound gorilla from the American perspective, but Binance is significantly larger,” said analyst DA Davidson & Co. Chris Brandler.
Zhao and Binance declined to confirm the accuracy of Bloomberg's estimates. Zhao himself, in a November interview, in response to a question about his condition, said that he was not interested in "wealth, money, ratings."
“Cryptocurrencies are still on the rise. They are subject to high levels of volatility. Any value that is given to you today will be different from tomorrow,” the company said.
Following Zhao in the Bloomberg crypto billionaire ranking are the anonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto with $45.8 billion, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Freed with $15.4 billion and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong with $8.9 billion.
According to Bloomberg, Zhao is currently busy meeting with the royal family in Abu Dhabi, who are more than happy to provide his company with an official job opportunity. Zhao previously revealed that he acquired his first home in the UAE after Binance selected the country as one of the possible points for opening its head office.
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