Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who runs crypto exchange Binance, has joined the ranks of the world’s top billionaires, with an estimated net worth of at least $96 billion, according to new calculations from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index released Monday.
Zhao’s expected fortune now rivals that of Oracle (ORCL) founder Larry Ellison and surpasses that of Mukesh Ambani, the Indian tycoon whose fortune has also skyrocketed in the past two years.
The rise of the Sino-Canadian entrepreneur is symbolic of the rapid wealth creation in the rapidly changing world of digital currencies.
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, another cryptocurrency exchange backed by Binance, pointed on Tuesday to an “unprecedented amount of wealth creation that has taken place in the industry in recent years”.
“I think there are a lot of people trying to figure out what to do with it.” [that]Friedman, who is himself a young billionaire, said during a virtual discussion onstage at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong.
In a
after on Twitter Monday, Zhao also seemed to recognize the distinction.
“Don’t worry about rankings. Focus on how many people you can help,” he wrote.
Zhao followed in another
tweet Tuesday, saying, “Unpopular opinion: Instead of wealth rankings, there should be a ranking of charitable and philanthropic efforts.”
A Binance spokesperson told DailyExpertNews Business that “CZ plans to give away most of its assets, even 99% of its assets, along with other entrepreneurs and founders.”
In recent years, other famous business leaders such as: facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg has signed the Giving Pledge, an initiative by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates to encourage the world’s richest to donate most of their fortunes to charity.
Zhao launched Binance in 2017 and gradually built it into one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges.
According to a company blog post, the CEO grew up in an immigrant family in Canada and previously worked at McDonald’s to help support his household.
After studying computer science at McGill University, he worked on trading software for the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Bloomberg.
“He then learned about bitcoin in 2013 during a game of poker, after which he decided to go all-in on crypto by dedicating his life to it,” Binance said. “He even sold his apartment to buy bitcoin.”
Like other exchanges, Binance has faced significant regulatory hurdles around the world in recent months, including a ban in the UK and other restrictions in countries including Canada.
Zhao has publicly addressed the setbacks, writing in an open letter last year that “clear regulation is critical to continued growth.”
“More regulation is basically positive signals that an industry is maturing,” he added. “Because this lays the foundation for a wider population to feel safe participating in crypto.”