Binance founder CZ’s fortune drops by $12B, SBF is still at $0.
Binance co-founder and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao saw the exchange's declining trading volume cut its net worth by $11.9 billion.
On October 26, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index lowered Binance's revenue estimate by 38% due to a drop in exchange rates, dropping Zhao to 95th place on the richest list.
Zhao's net worth is now a paltry $17.3 billion. It was down 82% from the January 2022 peak of $96.9 billion.
The Bloomberg index calculates Binance's earnings from spot and trader trade data from crypto data aggregators CoinGecko and Coinpaprika.
Through September, the exchange's market share had fallen to 34.3 percent for seven consecutive months. In January, Binance's spot market share was over 55%.
Binance.US, its US-based arm saw volumes hit new lows last month.
Zhao's declining net worth and Binance's trading volume follow twin charges from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The SEC indicted Zhao, Binance and Binance.US in June, alleging the exchanges operated illegally, selling unregistered securities and misappropriating client assets, naming Zhao a “control person.”
The CFTC's lawsuit alleges in March that Binance was not properly registered with the regulator. Zhao and Binance deny both regulators' allegations and seek to dismiss both charges.
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The recent decline is clear compared to CZ's one-time rival Sam Bankman-Fried, who saw his $16 billion fortune effectively fall by November 2022 after FTX disclosed its liquidity crisis just days before filing for bankruptcy.
Some believe the crisis started with a tweet from CZ, with Binance selling FTX Token (FTT) holdings, sparking a wave of exits from FTX. Zhao first moved to buy the distorted exchange but pulled out in less than 48 hours.
Bankman-Fried took the witness stand in his own criminal trial on October 26, previously pleading not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy.
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