CZ Questions Reports of His Rising Riches Despite Market Drop, Gets Hit With Backlash

In Brief

• CZ questioned Forbes' estimate that his net worth grew by $47 billion despite crypto prices falling sharply.
• Forbes values CZ at $110 billion, making him the world's 17th-richest person.
• Many commenters remain sceptical, arguing that Binance's growth came at the expense of its users.

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Forbes reported that Changpeng Zhao (CZ)’s net worth surged by an estimated $47 billion in a single year, even during a market downturn, while CZ asks how that could be possible. Commenters are not satisfied with his post.

The founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance questioned Forbes’ March 2026 estimate and subsequent reports on it, writing: “How is that last sentence possible? ‘His net worth jumped $47 BILLION in a single year even as crypto prices fell over 50%’.”

With this, he publicly challenged Forbes’ calculation of his wealth, seemingly indicating that it’s incorrect.

17^th richest man on Earth?

Forbes ranked Zhao the 17^th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $110 billion. This is ahead of Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates, respectively.

Between 2025 and 2026, the number increased from $62.9 billion, indicating a $47.1 billion rise in a year, as of March 2026.

CZ’s wealth is reportedly largely tied to Binance, and Binance continues dominating the crypto exchange landscape. It currently commands roughly 36% of the global market share, leading in the spot and derivatives trading sectors.

Yet the falling crypto prices are dragging the connected businesses down, including Binance. Therefore, not just CZ, but many others have wondered why Forbes’ estimate would be so high.

Julius Elum, CoreNex founder and Binance Alpha TGEs analyst, seems to agree that this increase is indeed possible, but because CZ “kept building,” “diversified to TradFi,” and provided “the largest liquidity pool for everything tokenized.”

Commenters are not convinced

Despite the support among some peers and in certain news outlets, the top comments on CZ’s post are overwhelmingly negative. These people also argue that it’s possible that Zhao accumulated so much wealth in a year, but not because he “kept building,” but because he pursued the most profitable avenues for himself, on Binance users’ expense, the commenters insinuate.

Here are some of the reactions:

These accusations are not new and have been following CZ for a while now. They amped up after, in November 2023, CZ stepped down as CEO and pleaded guilty to one count of causing Binance to violate the US anti-money laundering statutes.

As part of the settlement, Binance agreed to pay a $4.3 billion penalty to US authorities, and CZ personally paid $50 million. He served 118 days in a US prison, but received a full presidential pardon in October 2025.

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