By
Steve Muchoki
April 26th, 2024
Zhao’s woes and those that are related to his exchange have been largely a result of the ongoing lawsuits against them.
Binance co-founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao continues to see his fortune slashed after he reportedly lost another $11.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This brings his total fortune loss from the January 2022 peak of $97 billion to around $80 billion.
Zhao Is Losing His Wealth, Here’s Why
As of publication, Zhao’s crypto empire is now worth a measly $17.3 billion, a far cry from what it used to be just over a year ago.
Meanwhile, his losses may be attributed to the trading volumes at Binance. According to Bloomberg’s Index, the plummeting of the trading volumes means that the exchange’s revenue estimates are now down by 38%, effectively bringing Zhao down to 95th on the billionaires list. However, it might be worth mentioning that Zhao sat comfortably at 11th position on the world’s richest list as of January 2022.
Bloomberg’s index drew its estimations of Binance’s revenues from the exchange’s spot and derivatives trading data. That is according to data it obtained from crypto data aggregators CoinGecko and Coinpaprika.
September marked the seventh consecutive month that Binance saw its spot trading market share drop, falling to 34.3% in the process. Whereas the same spot market share was over 55% in January. Also noteworthy is the fact that Binance.US, the United States-based arm of the exchange is also seeing low trading volumes, touching new lows last month.
Zhao’s woes and that of his exchange have been largely a result of the ongoing lawsuits against them. Regulatory authorities: the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have slammed them with various charges. From selling unregistered securities to mismanagement of customer funds, the regulators are all out against Zhao, Binance, and Binance.US.
However, the billionaire businessman has since denied all the allegations. He would be hoping to have the court dismiss both lawsuits.
As troubling as Zhao’s fast-depleting wealth may seem, it certainly looks better than that of his once-rival Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). At least, for now. SBF lost his entire $16-billion fortune to the November 2022 crash of FTX. Coinspeaker recently reported that Bankman-Fried would be taking to the witness stand in his own criminal trial on October 26. He is being tried for conspiracy and fraud-related charges. However, in court, he denied all charges and pleaded not guilty.