According to Forbes Magazine’s 2024 list of world billionaires, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), owns a net worth of 33 billion USD, ranks 50th in the world and tops the list of billionaires related to cryptocurrency.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ).

Billionaire Changpeng Zhao was born in 1977 and is a Canadian of Chinese origin.

In July 2017, CZ founded the Binance cryptocurrency exchange.

However, in 2023, turbulence continued to hit Binance as the exchange was continuously investigated by authorities across Europe and the US with various accusations such as market manipulation, lack of compliance with the law, and abetting

At the end of 2023, the founder of Binance, pleaded guilty in a Seattle court to violating anti-money laundering regulations, and left his position as CEO of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

However, according to Forbes, leaving Binance `has virtually no impact on CZ’s assets`.

His stake in Binance, estimated at about 90% based on company documents and conversations with former employees, is now worth about $32.5 billion.

According to Forbes analysis, Binance remains the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, generating about $9 billion in revenue last year.

To estimate Binance’s market value, Forbes applied a valuation based on the P/S ratio – the ratio of a business’s stock market price to the revenue generated – of Coinbase, a similar exchange.

In addition to CZ, Forbes’ list also lists 16 other billionaires from the cryptocurrency market.

Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong is second with a fortune of 11.2 billion USD, Giancarlo Devasini – CFO and largest shareholder of Tether (the market’s largest stable coin issuer) owns a net worth of 9.2 billion USD.

Thanks to the rapid growth of the cryptocurrency market, the assets of billionaires from the cryptocurrency market increased many times last year.