- Changpeng Zhao resigned as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Binance.
- Binance, his company, will pay $4 billion to end the lawsuit.
- Bloomberg places his net worth at $23 billion while Coinbase places it at $10.5 billion.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder and majority owner of Binance, has been in the spotlight this week after his settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The settlement saw it resign as the CEO of the company and pay a big fine.
CZ will pay a $50 million fine while Binance will pay $4 billion. He also pleaded guilty to the crimes, meaning that he could spend time in prison. Based on the last precedent, CZ will likely face between 2 to 5 years in prison. As a result of the settlement, he could receive a suspended sentence.
This settlement marks the end of a long challenge that has been going on for a few months. The SEC sued Binance for a few crimes, including commingling funds, facilitating illegal transactions, and offering securities.
Changpeng Zhao is still an extremely wealthy person despite his legal woes. First, Binance can comfortably afford the $4 billion fine because of its scale in the industry. While the company is not public, we can compare it with Coinbase, which gives it a market cap of over $25 billion.
This means that Binance is much bigger than that, meaning that the company could use its balance sheet or sell a stake to raise this cash. Bloomberg estimates that Binance had over $7.9 billion in revenues in 2022, higher than Coinbase’s $3.1 billion.
According to Bloomberg, Changpeng Zhao has a total net worth of over $23 billion, making him the 69th richest person in the world. His net worth has jumped by over $10.5 billion this year as cryptocurrency prices soared.
Forbes, on the other hand, places his net worth at much lower than Bloomberg. It estimates that Changpeng Zhao has a net worth of over $10 billion, down from a peak of $65 billion in 2022.
Changpeng Zhao’s net worth comes from his huge stake in Binance and his crypto holdings. He holds about 90% of the company, making him the richest people in the crypto industry. He also holds Bitcoin, BNB, and other cryptocurrencies.
