From Business Insider, January 10:
- Binance's Changpeng Zhao is worth $96 billion, according to a new estimate from Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.
- That would put "CZ" in the ranks of the world's wealthiest and not far off Mark Zuckerberg, who's worth $124 billion.
- Yet crypto fortunes are hard to estimate and swing wildly along with the prices of digital assets.
Binance founder and boss Changpeng Zhao - better known as CZ - is worth $96 billion, according to a new estimate by Bloomberg and its Billionaires Index.
Such a net worth would put CZ in the ranks of the world's wealthiest people. The $96 billion figure isn't far off Mark Zuckerberg's estimated $124 billion or Warren Buffett's $116 billion, according to the Index.
Yet Bloomberg's estimate doesn't factor in CZ's personal holdings of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Binance's own token. Binance coin is the world's fourth-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to Coinmarketcap.
Bloomberg reached its estimate based on what little is known about the finances of Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange according to most estimates.
It estimated that Binance made $20 billion in revenues last year, using spot and derivative exchange volumes and its advertised trading fees. Bloomberg reckons Zhao owns 90% of the company.
A net worth of $96 billion would make CZ by far and away the richest person in crypto. Satoshi, the anonymous creator of bitcoin, is estimated to be second on the list with $45.8 billion, thanks to their holdings of the world's biggest cryptocurrency.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the 29-year-old creator of the FTX crypto exchange is second on the list with $15.4 billion. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is third, with a net worth of $8.9 billion.[*]Estimating wealth in the notoriously volatile cryptocurrency market is a tricky task. Forbes, for example, has CZ's net worth at $1.9 billion, far below Bloomberg's estimate....
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*But what about Craig Wright? He says he has the 1.1 million Satoshi bitcoins which are worth around $46 billion and will soon begin his philanthropic endeavors.
