Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the co-founder and CEO of Binance, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency trading platforms, has experienced a dramatic decrease in his net worth.
According to the most recent estimates from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zhao’s net worth has plummeted to $17.3 billion, representing a stunning 82% decrease from its peak of $96.9 billion in January 2022. At that time, Zhao was ranked as the 11th richest person globally, but he has now slipped to the 95th position on the Index.
This staggering decline in Zhao’s wealth has been attributed to the persistent drop in Binance’s trading activity over the past few months.
Source: Bloomberg
In January 2023, Binance dominated over 55% of the global cryptocurrency trading volume, but by September, its market share had dwindled to just 34.3%. This diminishing trading activity prompted Bloomberg to revise its revenue forecasts for Binance by 38%, directly impacting Zhao’s net worth.
Compared to the massive increase in Zhao’s wealth over the past few years, the recent drop has been very steep.
Several factors may have contributed to this downturn, but one of the most significant is the increased regulatory scrutiny of Binance worldwide. Notably, the exchange and Zhao face multiple lawsuits filed by U.S. regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
In June, the SEC filed its lawsuit alleging that both Binance and Binance.US were engaged in unlawful activities, such as selling unregistered securities and mishandling customer assets. The CFTC filed its lawsuit a month earlier, claiming that Binance had failed to register properly with the regulatory agency.
Nevertheless, Zhao and Binance have denied all allegations and are actively working to have both lawsuits dismissed.
Some have speculated that Binance’s recent challenges may have been partially triggered by a tweet from Zhao in November 2022, in which he announced the sale of Binance’s FTX (FTT) holdings.
Liquidating our FTT is just post-exit risk management, learning from LUNA. We gave support before, but we won’t pretend to make love after divorce. We are not against anyone. But we won’t support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs. Onwards.
— CZ ???? Binance (@cz_binance) November 6, 2022
This announcement triggered a wave of withdrawals from FTX and set in motion a series of events that culminated in the exchange’s collapse.The repercussions of this implosion have reverberated across the cryptocurrency industry, affecting numerous other crypto companies directly or indirectly linked to it.
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