Trump Wants Bitcoin Monopoly | CZ's Billions Double In Jail
Soaring Binance exchange token helps elevate Zhao’s net worth as he serves four months on a felony charge.
CZ’S Net Worth Doubles While He Serves Prison Time
It was clear at the time of his sentencing in April that Changpeng Zhao’s four-month prison sentence was a slap on the wrist and that he would emerge with most of his fortune intact. But a silver lining for the founder of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange and admitted felon is that when he hits the streets in September, what looked like a $33 billion net worth is likely to be about double that amount.
Much of the added lucre is the result of research by Forbes that found Zhao’s stake in the BNBBNB 0.0% cryptocurrency owned by Binance comes to 94 million tokens, or 64% of the 147.5 million in circulation. BNB has been on a tear this year, nearly doubling to $596. The BNB credited to Zhao—widely known by his initials CZ—by dint of his 90% ownership of Binance comes in two chunks: almost 42 million that was part of 80 million granted to the founding team in 2017 and more than 52 million that was left with the exchange as a result of a 100 million-token initial coin offering that attracted purchases of fewer than 11 million tokens.
On paper, CZ’s BNB stake is worth $56 billion, but if that supply were to be dumped on the market all at once, it would almost certainly depress the price. Valuing the tokens at half the market price makes them worth $28 billion and added to the $33 billion valuation for CZ’s equity stake in the Binance exchange itself puts his estimated wealth at about $61 billion. That would jump him to 24th place on the Forbes billionaires list from 50th.
He may move higher still. In the six months since Zhao pleaded guilty to a violation of U.S. anti-money-laundering law and agreed to pay a $50 million fine, Binance has gained market share among crypto exchanges. The valuation of CZ’s 90% stake remains unchanged and would likely increase if the company’s results improve.#CZBİNANCE
