⬅ # 22 David Thomson|# 24 Charles Koch ➡

# 23 Changpeng Zhao 

$65.2B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 11/21/2024
-$406 (-0.00%)

# 23 Changpeng Zhao 

$65.2B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 11/21/2024
-$406 (-0.00%)
OccupationFounder, Binance
Source of WealthCryptocurrency Exchange
Age47
ResidenceDubai, United Arab Emirates
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$157B
Changpeng Zhao
Changpeng Zhao
Canada
Net worth: $65.2B

Self-Made Score 

Breitling Superocean Heritage II Automatic Chronometer 44 mm

Wealth History

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Biography

Early Life and Education

Changpeng Zhao, born on Feb. 5, 1977, in Jiangsu province, China.
Family emigrated to Vancouver, Canada, in 1989, after the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Introduced to computers with a $7,000 286 DOS computer; enrolled in computer programming classes.
Graduated with a degree in computer science from McGill University.

Career and Founding of Binance

Worked at Tokyo Stock Exchange contractor and head of Tradebook Futures Development at Bloomberg Professional Services (2001-2005).
Co-founded an IT consulting company and moved to Singapore to launch Fusion Systems.
Started Bijie Tech, a cloud-based services provider to exchanges.
Founded Binance in July 2017, raising $15 million through an initial coin offering.
Binance grew to be one of the largest crypto exchanges globally with over $10 billion in spot trading volume and $50 billion in derivatives trading.

Binance and Regulatory Challenges

In 2022, Binance facilitated spot trades worth $5.3 trillion, over two-thirds of all volume handled by centralized crypto exchanges.
Binance faced regulatory scrutiny and investigations globally, denying all wrongdoing.
On Nov. 21, 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering-related charges in the U.S., agreeing to step down from Binance and pay a $50 million fine.

Resolution With US Government

Binance reached resolutions with the U.S. Department of Justice, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Binance agreed to pay more than $4.3 billion in fines and forfeitures.
Richard Teng took over as CEO of Binance immediately.

FTX and Liquidity Crisis

In November 2022, Zhao was in talks to acquire rival FTX during its liquidity crisis.
Binance dropped its takeover bid after due diligence revealed a shortfall of over $6 billion in FTX and raised questions about customer funds.
FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Personal Life

Zhao shares little about his personal life online.
Emigrated at 12, tasted fresh milk for the first time.
Worked odd jobs as a teenager, including a stint at McDonald's.

Changpeng Zhao's Wealth is Equivalent to:

50,192,456 Herman Miller Aeron Chairs

Herman Miller Aeron Chair

12,336,802 Gold Bars (50 gram)

24K Solid 50g Gold Ingot

666,360 Tiny Homes

Tiny House, Two Bedroom Solar Prefab Home

How long would it take you to become as rich as Changpeng Zhao?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 43.43% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Changpeng Zhao's net worth of $65.2B.

Is this realistic? It depends how closely the VIX-TA-Macro Advanced model performs to its history in the future. Since Grizzly Bulls launched on January 1, 2022, it's returned 58.67% compared to 23.91% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

Enter data in all but one field below, then calculate the missing value

Changpeng Zhao is very wealthy, but what's stopping you from reaching that same level of success? As summarized in our five fundamental rules to wealth building, becoming wealthy in a modern capitalist economy is not complicated. There's actually only three variables:

  1. Your starting capital
  2. Your earnings after expenses
  3. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of your savings

Most people start with zero or very little, so if you weren't born into wealth, don't fret! The majority of the fortunate folks listed in our Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index came from middle class or lower backgrounds. The most distinguishing characteristic of the group is their ability to consistently earn a high CAGR on their savings.

Every billionaire has a unique strategy to achieve high CAGR. For Changpeng Zhao, Cryptocurrency Exchange is the primary source. Whether you choose to invest your savings in your own businesses or the businesses of others is not as important. The salient piece of the puzzle is ensuring that your hard-earned savings are generating sufficient CAGR to reach your long term goals.

Most people simply invest their money in index funds and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it guarantees relative mediocrity. To achieve greatness, you need to invest your money to earn higher than average returns. In the long run, better investors will always finish ahead of better earners.

Source: Grizzly Bulls reporting

Methodology: Grizzly Bulls' Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires and richest people. Grizzly Bulls strives to provide the most accurate net worth calculations available. We pull data from public equity markets, SEC filings, public real estate records, and other reputable sources.

The index is dynamic and updates daily at the close of U.S. stock market trading based on changes in the markets, economy, and updates to Grizzly Bulls' proprietary algorithm of personal wealth calculation. Stakes in public companies are tracked daily based on the relevant closing prices of the underlying securities. Additionally, stakes in private companies, cash, real estate, and other less easily valued assets are updated periodically through careful analysis of insider transactions, comparable public company sales / EBITDA multiples, etc.

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Edited by: Lee Bailey