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Cryptocurrency billionaire Changpeng Zhao’s net worth rose by $9.76 billion in 24 hours to $91.2 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire tracker, as the value of his stake in Binance continued to drive his fortune.
The increase, recorded on September 20, 2026, represents a gain of about 12% in a single day. Zhao’s fortune has also risen by $41.5 billion since the beginning of the year, an 83.6% increase, according to Bloomberg billionaire index.
Zhao, 49, is the founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. The exchange offers trading markets for more than 350 cryptocurrencies and reported more than 320 million registered accounts as of June 2026.
What they are saying
His fortune is closely tied to his ownership of Binance. Forbes credits Zhao with about a 90% stake in the company, based on his public statements and filings in jurisdictions where ownership information is available.
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Unlike a conventional salary or cash payout, much of Zhao’s wealth is based on the estimated value of his ownership in the privately held exchange. Forbes calculates Binance’s transaction-fee revenue using its trailing 12-month spot and derivatives trading volumes, as tracked by CoinGecko, together with estimates of the average fees charged on those transactions.
Bloomberg estimates Binance generated about $5.4 billion in transaction-fee revenue. That figure is then adjusted using the average ratio of transaction-fee revenue to total revenue at publicly traded companies, producing an estimated total revenue of $10.7 billion.
The exchange is subsequently valued using enterprise-value-to-sales multiples from a group of publicly traded companies that includes Coinbase Global, Riot Platforms, Gemini Space Station, Circle Internet Group and Cboe Global Markets.
A change in that valuation methodology has also played a major role in the increase in Zhao’s estimated wealth this year.
On June 3, Bloomberg reduced the discount applied to Binance’s valuation from 50% to 15%, citing reduced regulatory and legal concerns surrounding the company. The adjustment increased Zhao’s estimated net worth by about $36 billion.
Get up to speed
Changpeng Zhao’s latest wealth increase comes after a series of major developments involving the Binance founder and the cryptocurrency exchange. In October 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump granted Zhao a presidential pardon after he had served a four-month prison sentence following his guilty plea to failing to maintain adequate anti-money-laundering controls at Binance.
Zhao was sentenced in April 2024 after U.S. authorities found that Binance had failed to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program. He was ordered to serve four months in prison, becoming one of the highest-profile cryptocurrency executives to receive a custodial sentence over compliance failures at a major digital-asset platform.
The pardon followed Zhao’s release and came as Binance continued to operate as one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. The development also marked a major change from the regulatory pressure that had surrounded the company and its founder in previous years.
What you should know
In January 2022, Nairametrics reported that Changpeng Zhao’s net worth had climbed above $96 billion, making him the richest person in Asia at the time and placing him among the world’s 15 wealthiest people.
The estimate was based largely on Zhao’s stake in Binance and did not include his personal cryptocurrency holdings, including Bitcoin and Binance Coin. At the time, Binance was reported to have generated about $20 billion in revenue over the preceding year.
At the time despite stepping down from the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao is still a billionaire with a networth of $26.8 billion according to Bloomberg.
The Co funder of Crypto Quant has called for some respect and sympathy for CZ despite his jail sentence arguing that CZ took one for the crypto industry which is still young and far from perfect.
