Zhao is the founder of Binance, the world?s largest cryptocurrency-exchange by volume. The company offers markets in more than 360 cryptocurrencies and has said it has over 150 million users. Zhao was sentenced to four months jail in April 2024 after pleading guilty to anti-money laundering violations.
Zhao’s fortune is derived from his controlling stake in Binance, a crypto exchange. Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency-exchange by trading volume, according to its website, and had more than 150 million users as of August 2023.
Binance’s revenue of $9.8 billion is calculated using the average of the company’s trailing 12-month spot and derivative trading volumes through March 2024, as tracked by research services Coingecko.com and CCData, and the average of transaction fees disclosed on Binance’s website, calculated separately for spot and derivative volumes.
It’s valued using the average enterprise value-to-sales multiple of publicly-traded peers Coinbase Global Inc, Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd and Riot Platforms Inc and has been discounted by 50% due to institutional, regulatory and related risks. The revenue figure used in the calculation was updated in March 2024 and this led to net worth gain of about $11 billion.
Zhao is credited with 90% of Binance based on his public statements and filings in regions where ownership is publicly disclosed.
He also owns Binance.US, a related US exchange, that was valued at $4.7 billion in a March 2022 fundraising round. He’s calculated to own an 86% stake in the firm based on the firm’s fundraising history. After it was sued by the Securities & Exchange Commission in June 2023 it announced it would be transitioning to a crypto-only model and would no longer be supporting dollar transactions. Following these actions its value was reduced to zero, causing a $1 billion drop in Zhao’s fortune.
The billionaire has said that he’s also invested in Bitcoin and Binance Coin. Cryptocurrency held directly by the billionaire isn’t included because the amount is unknown.
Hazel Watts, a spokesperson for Binance, said in January 2022 that valuation estimates for Binance were “incorrect and far off” without providing further details. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment in October 2023.
Biography
Education: McGill University
Born in Jiangsu, China in 1977, Zhao’s mother was a teacher and his father an academic. The family moved to Canada in the late 1980s after his father got a job at the University of British Columbia.
Zhao started coding at about 16 and later completed a computer science degree in Montreal at McGill University. An internship in Japan was followed by a stint at Bloomberg’s Tradebook in New York starting in 2001.
He moved to Shanghai in 2005 to develop high-frequency trading software at Fusion Systems. An interest in cryptocurrency began in 2013 following a discussion at a poker game. He later downloaded the Bitcoin white paper and began learning about the technology.
After about a year at Blockchain.info beginning in late 2013, Zhao founded a startup that provided systems and software to exchanges before starting Binance in 2017. By 2018, Binance was the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.
Zhao, Binance and Binance.US were sued by the SEC in June 2023 for mishandling customer funds, misleading investors and regulators, and breaking securities rules. He pleaded guilty to anti-money laundering and sanctions violations and agreed to step down as chief executive officer of the firm in a settlement in November 2023. In April 2024, he was ordered to spend four months in prison.
Milestones
- 2001 Starts work at Bloomberg Tradebook.
- 2005 Moves to Shanghai to join Fusion Systems.
- 2015 Startup Bijie Tech is founded.
- 2017 Binance is founded.
- 2023 Pleads guilty to anti-money laundering and US sanctions violations
