He may be headed to prison next year after pleading guilty to U.S. criminal charges in November, yet 2023 held a silver lining for former Binance Holdings Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao: His estimated wealth ballooned by almost $25 billion this year, Bloomberg News reported. Toward the end of a year when Bitcoin rebounded more than 160% following a market collapse in 2022, Zhao tops a list of crypto entrepreneurs who saw their estimated net worth surge in 2023, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Coinbase Global Inc. CEO Brian Armstrong and twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss also had billions of dollars restored to their fortunes. The growth in wealth for Zhao, who goes by his initials CZ, is more than five times the size of the $4.3 billion in fines that Binance agreed to pay to US authorities. His fortune, currently estimated at more than $37 billion, is derived from his controlling stake in Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, which he founded. Even though Binance has lost some market share this year, the exchange has benefited from increases in trading volumes that accompanied the rebound in crypto markets. Zhao, who did not respond to a request for comment for this story, also owns some Bitcoin and Binance’s own coin, BNB, though those holdings aren’t included in the Billionaires Index.
