By
Temitope Olatunji
May 14th, 2024
CZ said he had sold his apartment to buy Bitcoin some years ago. Moreover, he also left his job back then.
Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao has revealed that almost 100% of his net worth is in crypto. Zhao, the CEO of the largest exchange platform is also one of the world top crypto billionaires and has said he does not own much fiat currencies, except for cryptocurrencies. Zhao mentioned that most of his assets are in crypto while speaking with Bloomberg in an interview on the 7th of April.
Nearly Zhao’s Total Net Worth Is in Crypto
Apart from not owning many fiat currencies, Zhao said in the interview that he does not have any real estate. He said that he is one of the people “who value liquidity much more than owning something.” He added that he would prefer not to have anything.
In response to how much of his net worth is in crypto, Zhao replied:
“I would say probably close to 100%. I don’t own any fiat. The physical stuff that I own is probably negligible in terms of my networth. So, this is a concept shift, I’m not using crypto to buy fiat; I’m not using crypto to buy houses. I just want to keep crypto. And I don’t plan to convert my crypto into cash in the future.”
Speaking further, the CEO said he was in a hurry to sell his apartment after he got his first Bitcoin. He added he sold his apartment to buy Bitcoin and he also left his job back then.
He added:
“You can rent an apartment or stay in a hotel – that gives you much higher liquidity.”
Before now, Binance CEO had said that he had zero fiat. Zhao announced his zero holdings of fiat in a tweet posted on the 21st of February. When asked by a Twitter user how he makes payments he said that he uses the Binance Card to make payments where credit cards are accepted. He said that he converts crypto to fiat to make payments that support only fiat. He, however, added that he converts the exact amount of crypto to fiat and does not “hold fiat for any extended period of time.”
CEO Says Binance Offers Strongest KYC Programs
In addition, Zhao denied allegations that Binance has some issues with its know-your-customer (KYC) compliance.
The crypto billionaire said:
“That’s not true. Binance actually offers the strongest KYC, AML [anti-money laundering] programs. We use 8 or 10 different vendors for KYC alone around different parts of the world…But today we are probably the most complicated exchange worldwide.”
Also, Zhao was asked if Binance has plans to go public like Coinbase. The CEO replied that the exchange is not considering an initial public offering (IPO) for now. He added that the company is “cash-sufficient” and does not need a huge amount of money.
Notably, Coinbase announced its intent to become a publicly-traded company in a blog post published on the 28th of January.