Bloomberg estimates the net worth of Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is currently $96 billion, making him officially the richest person known in the cryptocurrency industry.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Zhao is currently worth more than Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani, who has a net worth of $92.9 billion. CZ is also close to giants like Berkshire Hathway CEO Warren Buffett and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Zhao’s fortune could be even greater as very little is known about his cryptocurrency holdings.
As previously reported, The Wall Street Journal claimed that if the stock market goes public, the value could reach up to $300 billion. The exchange’s revenue was reported to exceed $20 billion in 2021.
On the other hand, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong are worth $15.4 billion and $8.93 billion, respectively.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk remains the richest person in the world by a long shot with an estimated net worth of $263 billion. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and French fashion giant Bernard Arnault are second and third respectively ($188 billion and $171 billion).
Binance Questioning Its Authenticity
However, Binance stated that it is difficult to make any concrete predictions due to the volatility of the crypto money industry and questioned the accuracy of Bloomberg’s calculations. Aside from volatile cryptocurrency prices, the exchange faced an attack from regulatory scrutiny earlier this year.