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Globally, Zhao is the 11th richest person behind household names like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos

Publication date:

13 Jan. 2022 • January 13, 2022 • 3 minute read • 11 Responses Zhao Changpeng, Binance chief executive officer, in Tokyo, Japan, on January 11, 2018. Zhao Changpeng, chief executive officer of Binance, in Tokyo, Japan, on January 11, 2018. Photo by Akio Kon/Bloomberg files

The chief executive officer of cryptocurrency exchange Binance has a net worth of nearly $100 billion, making him the richest crypto entrepreneur in the world and by far the richest Canadian, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

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Changpeng Zhao, born in China but raised and educated in Canada and with Canadian citizenship, started Binance in 2017. The Bloomberg Index, which this week calculated the value of his stake in the company for the first time, linked his net worth of US$96 billion, but added that his fortune was likely much greater than that figure, as the rankings did not take into account his personal crypto holdings.

Globally, Zhao is the 11th richest person behind household names such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The ranking puts him tens of billions ahead of the second richest Canadians, Woodbridge stakeholder Sherry Brydson (with a net worth of US$14 billion) and Shopify founder Tobias Lütke (US$10 billion).

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Zhao also heads the crypto pack, with his net worth nearly double that of bitcoin’s mysterious founder, Satoshi Nakamoto (who has a net worth of US$46 billion), crypto exchange FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried (US$15 billion), Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (US$9 billion), as well as the two Winklevoss twins (around US$10 billion combined).

A blog post on the Binance website touts 44-year-old Zhao’s rise in the crypto space as a “citizens to bitcoin billions” tale, pointing to an early job at McDonald’s as a Chinese-born immigrant to Canada who works to support his family. to maintain. He also studied computer science at McGill University in Montreal.

Around 2013, as bitcoin got into the zeitgeist, Zhao learned more about it and sold his apartment to dive into bitcoin.

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Zhao, known simply as “CZ” by those in the crypto world, launched Binance in 2017. Shortly after, it became the largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume. Last November, according to data provider CryptoCompare, it was processing about $76 billion worth of bitcoin and Ethereum on its platform every day. In a recent 24-hour period, Bloomberg reported that Binance was able to complete $170 billion in trades, adding that the exchange regularly covers as much trade as the next four largest exchanges combined.

Analysts see wealth accumulation by companies like Binance continuing as cryptocurrency adoption grows.

Mike McGlone, senior commodities strategist at Bloomberg, told the Financial Post that while he sees some of the wannabes purged in the coming years, he thinks the industry’s stalwarts like bitcoin and Ethereum and the established exchanges will benefit.

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“That’s going to be subject to the whole rising, rising tide of space,” McGlone said.

For Binance’s next act, the company says it is looking for a global headquarters. Binance has reportedly looked to places like France, Dubai and Abu Dhabi as potential destinations.

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That’s a big change from his early, nomadic mentality. Zhao told podcast host Laura Shin at ConsenSys’ Ethereal Summit in May 2020 that bitcoin had no office, and neither did Binance.

“Wherever I sit, it will be the Binance office. Where I need someone will be the Binance office,” he said.

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Despite Zhao’s ties to Canada, Binance has clashed with regulators here.

Last June, the exchange announced it would no longer serve customers in Ontario amid a crackdown on unregulated platforms. But when the late 2021 deadline came, Binance told users in Ontario it was able to partner with regulators and no longer have to close their accounts on December 31. The OSC fired back, saying they had not been informed and that the move was “unacceptable”.

More recently, the company pushed to locate in Alberta, registered three corporate entities in Calgary and hired two senior employees to help comply with Canadian regulations, according to reporting by The Logic.

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This post Binance’s Changpeng Zhao Richest Canadian on Bloomberg List with $96 Billion Crypto Fortune

was original published at “https://financialpost.com/fp-finance/cryptocurrency/binances-changpeng-zhao-richest-canadian-on-bloomberg-list-with-us96-billion-crypto-fortune”