Crypto CEO becomes one of world’s wealthiest men
Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, has been confirmed as one of the world’s wealthiest people, with the most recent Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index placing his net worth at US$133 billion, at least.
He’s not the only crypto billionaire, with ethereum creator, Vitalik Buterin, and Coinbase founder, Brian Armstrong, also in the group, but Zhao is by some significant margin the wealthiest of all crypto entrepreneurs. Given that Binance was only launched in 2017, the amount of wealth that it has generated for people like Zhao has been staggering.
This is despite Binance running into regulatory hurdles around the world, including in the UK where it was banned. Binance is also restricted in use in Zhao’s own home nation, Canada.
For his part, Zhao believes that the regulations is a positive for crypto, saying that “clear regulations are critical for continued growth” and that the interest of regulators is a sign that the industry is maturing.
Zhao has also publicly stated that he plans on contributing the vast bulk of his wealth to charitable causes and philanthropy. What form that will take is unknown at this stage, but Zhao has been an outspoken supporter of the idea that billionaires should give away their wealth, going as far as to tweet: “Unpopular opinion: instead of wealth rankings, there should be a ranking of charity and philanthropy efforts.”
Zhao’s net worth places him in the top five billionaires in the world, ahead of Larry Page, and roughly equivalent to Bill Gates. He’s still got a way to go to catch Jeff Bezos ($187 billion) and Elon Musk ($271 billion), however.
