Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao's Net Worth Exceeds $90B, Surpassing Tencent And TikTok Founders

Changpeng Zhao (“CZ”), the founder and CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, has a personal net worth of more than $90 billion.

What Happened: Chinese reporter Colin Wu reported that a local magazine, Caijing, estimated CZ’s net worth was $90 billion, far exceeding Forbes estimate of $1.9 billion.

Wu speculated that CZ’s true net worth may even be higher than Caijing’s report. According to him, since Caijing calculated the Binance founder’s net worth based on a 30% ownership stake in the crypto exchange.

“His stake is far more than 30%, and may even exceed 90%,” claimed Wu on Twitter.

It is also likely that Caijing did not account for his Bitcoin BTC/USD and Binance Coin BNB/USD holdings — an amount that remained undisclosed at the time of publication.

Even with a net worth of $90 billion, CZ would be one of the top 10 richest people in the world, surpassing the founders of TikTok and Tencent Holdings ADR TCEHY.

“Coupled with the dividends of BNB and Binance Assets, CZ should be close to the world's richest man,” noted another Chinese insider Dovey Wan.

CZ recently got into a Twitter argument with the world’s richest man, Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk, after the latter said Binance’s treatment of DOGE customers was “shady.”

The Binance CEO reportedly plans to give away the majority of his wealth.

“I do intend to give away most of my wealth, like many wealthy entrepreneurs or founders did, from [John D.] Rockefeller until today. I do intend to give away 90, 95, or 99% of my wealth,” Zhao said in a recent interview with the Associated Press.

Price Action: At publication Wednesday afteroon, BNB was trading at $636.66, gaining 1.84% in the last 24 hours. BTC was trading at $57,614.85, down 0.46% over the same period.

Photo by Executium on Unsplash