Binance CEO Chaingpeng Zhao. Source: Medium
Binance CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is rich; well, mega-rich. But he’s just not as rich as Bloomberg thinks, at least, he said so.
But even though he is one of the richest men in the world, he is far from reaching the wealth of other tech industry billionaires, contrary to Bloomberg’s inaccurate assertions.
On April 27, the CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, stated that his fortune is nowhere near the $28.2 billion claimed by Bloomberg in its report on the wealthiest entrepreneurs of 2023.
According to CZ, the statistics published by Bloomberg on April 25 in a report titled “25 financial titans who’ve ascended to the top of the list within the past decade” greatly differ from his actual fortune.
Changpeng Zhao explained that Bloomberg’s claim is far from the truth. Although Binance is the largest exchange in the world and controls over 50% of crypto market transactions, its annual earnings do not come close to the $12 billion reported by Bloomberg.
“Zhao worked on trading systems before founding Binance, which Bloomberg estimated on April 5 has annual revenue exceeding $12 billion.”
Although CZ is far from appearing in the top 10 of the world’s richest men, his humility when discussing his wealth sparked the attention of some social media users who pointed out that “humility is the key to growth.”
Other users suggested his fortune could “eclipse” that of Elon Musk or Vladimir Putin, to which CZ replied it was impossible since, even though the crypto industry is booming, the wealth of those individuals is 100 times greater than his, if not more.
It’s worth mentioning that, according to real-time tracking by Forbes, Zhao’s fortune is $10.5 billion, which is much less than half of what Bloomberg reported.
In addition to debunking the inflated figures reported by Bloomberg about his fortune, CZ pointed out that he never saw FTX as a rival, as Bloomberg claimed. CZ argues that he has always welcomed all exchanges that operate properly in the crypto space.
As stated by Anthony Scaramucci today at Consensus 2023, CZ was not the one who caused the downfall of FTX; it was its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, who engaged in improper practices that he himself considered a betrayal of their friendship and the way they conducted business.
The controversy between Binance and FTX intensified after the announcement that Binance would liquidate 100% of its FTT holdings. Shortly after, a bank run plummeted the price to a point where the company could not process withdrawals. Binance then announced talks to acquire FTX, only to backtrack a few days later – a move that many, including SBF, considered the final signature on FTX’s death sentence.