Changpeng Zhao remains the world’s richest cryptocurrency billionaire, with FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried coming in second place
According to Forbes, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is the richest person in crypto, accumulating a net worth of $65 billion.
Last year, for comparison, CZ’s wealth was valued at $1.9 billion. Forbes arrived at the eye-popping $65 million by taking into account the revenue generated by the Binance exchange last year. In 2021, the Wall Street Journal estimated that Binance could be worth $300 billion if it were to follow rival Coinbase in going public.
It is worth noting that it remains unclear how much crypto the Binance boss holds. He reportedly owns a relatively small amount of Bitcoin and Binance Coin, the native token of the exchange.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who was crowned as the richest crypto billionaire last year, is worth $24 billion. As reported by U.Today, FTX, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, secured a $32 billion valuation after raking in $400 million from such investors as SoftBank and Tiger Global. Gary Wang, chief technology officer at FTX, has also appeared on the list after accumulating a $5.9 billion fortune.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong comes in third place with a net worth of $6.6 billion.
Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, who was the only cryptocurrency billionaire on the Forbes 400 list in 2019, is now only in fifth place despite more than doubling his wealth to $4.2 billion. Stellar’s Jed Caleb, who co-founded Ripple alongside Larsen, has also made the cut.
The Winklevoss twins, Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor and venture capitalist Tim Draper are also among the remaining crypto moguls.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the world’s richest person with an estimated net worth of $292.8 billion.