Bitcoin

How Crypto’s Richest Billionaire Doubled His Net Worth Behind Bars

Published

10 months ago

15 June, 2024

SatoshiTimes Staff

How Crypto's Richest Billionaire Doubled His Net Worth Behind Bars

The founder of Binance, known to crypto followers as CZ, is spending the summer at the minimum-security Lompoc prison in Santa Barbara. As crypto markets soar, Forbes reveals the secret source of its growing billions.

Per Javier PazForbes team and Steven ErlichForbes Team

Prison has been good for Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. Already the richest person to go behind bars and often the richest person in crypto, Zhao’s net worth has skyrocketed since he became a criminal.

Forbes now estimates he’s worth $61 billion, making him 24thh richest person in the world, right after Julia Koch and family. The next richest person in crypto is Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong with $11 billion.

CZ’s upward review has two components. First, his 90% equity stake in Binance, the major cryptocurrency exchange, is valued at $33 billion, despite CZ stepping down as CEO in November 2023 as part of a settlement with the US Department of Justice. in which he pleaded guilty to combating money laundering. and sanctions violations. His company also paid a $4.3 billion fine to the government. However, the impact on Zhao’s personal wealth was less severe, as he only had to pay a $50 million fine. In the six months since its appeal, Binance has actually increased its dominance among cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide in terms of trading volume (although it has been excluded from the Forbes List of Most Trusted Cryptocurrency Exchanges.) According to data compiled from The Block, his share of the total spot market on exchanges has increased to 42% in the six months since he left the company, from an average of 38% in the two months before its liquidation.

BNB VERSUS BITCOIN AND ETHEREUM

Accumulated performance in the year 2024

The big change in CZ’s net worth comes from Forbes’ discovery of his personal holdings in his exchange-issued BNB token, which we estimate to be 94 million tokens or 64% of the total 147.5 million BNB tokens in circulation. Forbes estimates that Binance holds 71% of the BNB supply.

Despite the exchange’s legal troubles, BNB is on the rise in 2024, rising 100%, far outpacing other major cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (up 54%), ether (up 53%), and solana (up 49%) . BNB recently reached an all-time high of $714, giving it a market capitalization of $110 billion.

What is BNB? Binance coin or BNB was initially launched in 2017 as a fundraising tool for CZ to launch its new exchange. Tokens like BNB are created by the developers running the crypto projects and are similar to airline mile loyalty points than actual shares in a company, although they are traded on crypto exchanges like stocks and are sought after by investors. Tokens like BNB do not offer ownership, but rather reward holders, who are often customers, with discounts for trading or as an incentive to recruit new account holders. They are often used, in the words of a former FTX insider whose company’s FTT exchange token led to its dramatic fall, as a “form of equity because there is no public capital.” The Securities and Exchange Commission appears to agree, as it is currently suing Binance for selling BNB to US customers as an unregistered security.

Changpeng Zhao, 47, accumulated his BNB stash in two ways. Binance was created in 2017, and he and the founding team received 80 million tokens out of a total supply of 200 million BNB. Forbes’ forensic analysis of the wallets that received these tokens, carried out in conjunction with Gray Wolf Analytics, indicates that the company holds 46.2 million of the original 80 million tokens. CZ is credited with 41.6 million BNB of this value due to his 90% ownership in Binance.

The second component of CZ’s wealth is more obscure. The results of an investigation published by Forbes and conducted with Gray Wolf in October 2023 revealed that the Binance ICO was initially undersubscribed, which led CZ and his company to funnel unsold shares into wallets he controlled. In 2017, Binance said it sold 100 million BNB for $0.15 each, raising a total of $15 million. Our analysis last fall showed that no more than 10.8 million BNB were sold, netting less than $5 million.

OWNERSHIP OF BNB BY BINANCE

Current BNB supply: 147.5 million

In its official white paper, which functions in the cryptocurrency world as a pseudo prospectus for ICO investors, Binance did not disclose what would happen to any unsold tokens. Ultimately, forensics shows that they were placed in wallets owned by Binance. Today, we estimate that these wallets hold 58 million BNB, worth $35 billion at the current price of $602. CZ’s 90% ownership of Binance would give him just over 52 million additional BNB. In total, we believe he holds almost 94 million BNB tokens. Lawyers for Binance and CZ did not respond to our requests for comment on CZ’s holdings.

The value of the Binance founder’s holdings would be $56.6 billion today, but given that there is little chance Zhao would get anywhere near that value if he tried to sell, Forbes applied a 50% liquidity discount to his holding. Currently, BNB trading volume is around $1.6 billion worth of tokens per day.

Despite claiming to have 200 million customers worldwide, very little is known about the inner workings of Binance – it has never been audited – and over 53% of all BNB trades take place on the Binance exchange itself. Over the last month, BNB has gained about 5%, which on paper equates to about $3 billion in gains for the Binance founder. So as Zhao serves his four-month sentence, soaking up the California sunshine in the courtyard of the Lompoc II federal correctional center, he watches his billions of BNB grow.

MORE FROM FORBES

ForbesThe World’s Most Trusted Crypto Exchanges and MarketsBy Javier Paz ForbesThis crypto-billion dollar fund could raise more than $1 billion from FTX’s bankruptcyBy Nina Bambysheva Forbes’Elon doesn’t care about Tesla anymore’: Musk’s biggest fans are turning against himBy Alan Ohnsman ForbesDesperate for Energy, AI Companies Seek the Nuclear OptionBy Alan Ohnsman

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Bitcoin

What to watch for in the markets

Published

9 months ago

21 July, 2024

SatoshiTimes Staff

Photo: Andrew Harnik (Getty Images)

After witnessing one of the largest global IT outages on record, affecting the travel, finance and healthcare sectors worldwideThis week is set to see more political drama, events, and earnings reports from tech giants.

Donald Trump’s ‘Lovefest’ Sets Jamie Dimon Up for Consideration for Treasury Secretary Job

Let’s take a look at what awaits us:

Major companies will release their earnings reports

Major tech companies and others will release their earnings reports this week, paving the way for what the second half of 2024 will look like.

Monday

Verizon will report earnings before the start of operations.

Tuesday

Coca-Cola, Comcast and UPS are all set to report earnings before the market opens.
Tesla will report earnings in the morning, while General Motors will report earnings in the evening.
Alphabet and Visa will report results after the market closes.

Wednesday

AT&T will release its report before the market opens.
Ford and Chipotle will report earnings after the market closes.

Thursday

Earnings reports from AstraZeneca, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines will be released before the market opens.

Trump to speak at Bitcoin conference

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will speak at the next Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennesseewhich is scheduled for July 25-27. While this is the first time a presidential candidate will attend the conference, it has sparked a debate over whether the crypto-friendly Trump will receive support from the crypto community in the upcoming election.

In addition to Trump, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will also discuss crypto during the conference. Crypto advocates such as ARK Investment’s Cathie Wood, MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, and whistleblower Edward Snowden are among some prominent names who will be participating in the conference.

Ether ETFs are on the way

New Ether Spot ETFs are set to begin trading on Tuesday, July 23. Much like the spot Bitcoin ETFs, these ETFs will allow investors to buy the second most popular cryptocurrency like stocks. BlackRock, Ark Invest/21Shares, VanEck, Grayscale, Fidelity, Bitwise, Franklin Templeton, and Invesco/Galaxy Digital are all set to offer Ether ETFs. Crypto asset manager Bitwise predict that trading in the Ether ETF will drive the price of Ether higher, potentially surpassing $5,000.

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Bitcoin

Cryptocurrency’s Biggest Winners and Losers in a Second Trump Presidency

Published

9 months ago

21 July, 2024

SatoshiTimes Staff

Cryptocurrency’s Biggest Winners and Losers in a Second Trump Presidency

Bitcoin miners and cryptocurrency companies that have been blocked from going public in the U.S. could ultimately be the biggest winners in the digital asset world under a second Donald Trump presidency. Foreign companies at risk of losing market share could end up being the biggest losers.

That’s the view that’s taking hold among market participants and observers in the wake of the former president’s growing embrace of cryptocurrency as his chances of election grow. survey released Thursday by CBS News showed Trump with the majority — 52 percent — of likely voters in his likely November rematch with President Joe Biden.

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Cryptocurrency Markets Look Ready to ‘Send’ as Stars Align, According to Investor Chris Burniske

Published

9 months ago

21 July, 2024

SatoshiTimes Staff

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Cryptocurrency Markets Look Ready to ‘Send’ as Stars Align, According to Investor Chris Burniske

Cryptocurrency investor Chris Burniske says Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SUN) and the cryptocurrency market in general seem poised for a run.

Former Head of Cryptocurrency at ARK Invest account his 292,200 followers on social media platform X that several catalysts are aligning, suggesting that digital asset markets are on the verge of a bull run.

According to Burniske, a partner at venture capital firm Placeholder, the highly anticipated launch of Ethereum-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking at an upcoming Bitcoin event, and the current state of the BTC, ETH, and SOL charts all suggest significant optimism for the cryptocurrency markets.

“With ETH ETFs set to go live, Trump speaking at The Bitcoin Conference, and BTC, ETH, and SOL charts looking [they do] (while stocks are weak), it’s hard to imagine a world where we don’t ship next week.”

Reuters recently reported that preliminary approval for ETH ETFs has been granted as the Bitcoin Conference is scheduled to take place from July 25-27.

BTC, ETH, and SOL are trading at $67,333, $3,528, and $174 at the time of writing, respectively.

The venture capitalist too provides an update on his prediction that the total crypto market cap will eventually hit $10 trillion. According to his chart, the path to $10 trillion is currently “23%” complete, as it sits around $2.2 trillion.

Source: Chris BurniskeX

Earlier this month, Burniske he said in an interview with Real Vision CEO Raoul Paul that he has his eye on the Move ecosystem, which was originally built by social media giant Meta and then used to develop layer 1 blockchains Sui (IUE) and Apts (APT).

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Bitcoin

Here’s the next target for BTC before bulls can hold out for $70K

Published

9 months ago

21 July, 2024

SatoshiTimes Staff

Here’s the next target for BTC before bulls can hold out for $70K

Bitcoin’s recovery is going well, and the market is seemingly poised to create a new all-time high in the near term.

Technical analysis

Per NegotiationRage

The daily chart

As the daily chart shows, the price of Bitcoin has been rising since it broke above the 200-day moving average.

The market has also reclaimed the $60K and $65K levels and is moving towards the $68K resistance zone, which could be the last hurdle before creating a new all-time high. With the RSI also indicating that the price has clear bullish momentum, it could be just a matter of time.

Source: TradingView

The 4-hour chart

Looking at the 4-hour chart, it is evident that the price has been rising rapidly since breaking the downtrend line to the upside. The market also broke the $65K resistance level with momentum, turning it into a support.

While almost everything points to a new record high in the coming weeks, there is one worrying sign. The RSI is showing a clear bearish divergence between recent price highs, which could indicate a correction or even a reversal in the near term.

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Cryptocurrency Charts by TradingView.

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