The founder and former CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, reacted to the Forbes assessment, which placed his fortune among the 20 richest people on the planet, ahead of figures such as Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg.
CZ Binance among the 20 richest people on earth
On Tuesday, Forbes estimated that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, is “richer than ever” and his fortune has risen to $110 billion on the annual list of the world’s billionaires, up $47 billion from last year.
As of February 10, 2026, Forbes reality tracker listed CZ as one of the richest people in the world with a net worth of $78.78 billion, while the Bloomberg Billionaires Index pegged his net worth at around $52.2 billion.
According to the list’s latest estimates, Zhao is currently the 17th richest person on earth, ahead of Bill Gates, who has a net worth of $108 billion. In addition, he sits among the 20 people worth twelve figures.
Binance founder ranks 17th on Forbes' annual World’s Billionaires list. Source: Forbes
Forbes acknowledged the downturn in the crypto market, noting that some of his holdings, including his 1,400 BTC stash and BNB holdings, have dropped nearly 25% in the past year.
However, they confirmed that the main source of Zhao’s wealth remains Binance, citing it as the reason for his rising net worth despite the correction in the crypto market.
Conversations with industry insiders and comparisons with other cryptocurrency exchanges, including publicly traded Coinbase, suggest that Binance — still the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, with about 38% market share — is worth about $100 billion, and legal filings show Zhao owns about 90% of it.
Based on this information, Forbes concluded that “the exchange is likely to sell for twelve figures if CZ ever decides to load it, even after applying a generous discount, since it operates largely outside of US regulations, unlike Coinbase, which is listed on Nasdaq.”
CZ is calling Forbes a “Guess the Number” list
In a series of X posts, Zhao confirmed that Forbes’ calculations are “definitely inaccurate” because Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto as a whole are significantly behind last year’s highs.
Last month, he shared his path to crypto riches, which began when a friend suggested he take Bitcoin seriously in a Shanghai poker game, prompting him to sell his apartment to put a significant portion of his net worth into the cryptocurrency in 2013.
The former CEO of Binance, who was pardoned by US President Donald Trump last year, revealed that he had not read the article, but argued that “you know it’s wrong” by looking at their chart and considered it a “guess number” list.
He noted that the increase in his net worth does not make sense given the current market environment, which has seen BTC and BNB prices fall more than 50% from their 2025 peaks and 25% from their 2026 opening values.
“Crypto prices are already down more than 50% in 2026. And my net worth is up? I wish they could use some common sense and basic logic,” he wrote, adding that Forbes’ estimates are “way off.”
He made his point by comparing his alleged net worth to Zhang Yimin, the founder of ByteDance, the company behind TikTok. ByteDance’s estimated annual revenue, according to public sources, is about $150 billion, while Binance’s undisclosed annual revenue is about $5 billion.
However, Forbes estimates Zhang Yiming’s net worth at $69 billion, ranking him 26th on its annual list of the world’s billionaires, while CZ’s net worth is estimated at $110 billion.
“I think if I claim to be high-net-worth, they’ll put me down a lot or maybe delist me,” Zhao joked, adding, “They like to count the other way around.”
BNB trades at $645 in the one-week chart. Source. BNBUSDT on TradingView
Featured image from CNBC, Chart from TradingView.com
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