What To Know:
- Binance founder Changpeng Zhao ranks 13th on the 2025 Hurun Rich List with an estimated wealth of 190 billion yuan.
- Forbes estimates his fortune at around 87.3 billion dollars, placing him 21st among the world’s richest people.
- Former President Donald Trump’s pardon of Zhao has sparked widespread debate over political influence and crypto industry ties.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (aka CZ), has joined the list of the world’s wealthiest people once again. According to the “2025 Hengchang Shaofang, Hurun Rich List,” Zhao now holds the 13th position with an estimated fortune of 190 billion yuan. His wealth has gone up by about 41 percent from last year, moving him three spots higher on the list.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ) Features on Hurun Rich List 2025 Yet Again
The Hurun ranking, often seen as a reflection of China-linked wealth creation, demonstrates Zhao’s steady comeback in the billionaire list. It also demonstrates how Binance’s global business continues to dominate trading volumes across multiple markets even after the intense regulatory pressure.
Forbes, in its latest billionaire index, estimated Zhao’s net worth at nearly 87.3 billion dollars, which placed him 21st among the world’s richest people. Most of his fortune came from shares in Binance, holdings in Binance Coin (BNB), and other cryptos. However, it is worth mentioning that the figure remains fluid because cryptocurrency valuations fluctuate widely from month to month.
Zhao himself reacted calmly to the new rankings. In a post to his followers, he said he was unsure of the accuracy of the figures but added that such figures do not matter to him. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is how many people we can help and how much,” he wrote.
Forbes has described its calculations as rough estimates, and Zhao has often referred to such rankings with skepticism. His response highlights a recurring theme in his leadership: that impact and contribution to the industry outweigh the accumulation of capital.
In recent months, Zhao became the talk of the town after former President Donald Trump granted him a full pardon. This decision triggered political and ethical debates in Washington and across the global crypto community.
The pardon came after Zhao served a four-month prison term and paid a 200 million dollar fine for failing to maintain adequate anti-money laundering safeguards at Binance. The company itself paid more than 4 billion dollars in penalties following a sweeping US investigation into its compliance failures. At the time, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Binance’s lapses had enabled transactions tied to cybercriminals, terrorists, and other illicit actors. Former Attorney General Merrick Garland remarked that Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange partly because of the crimes it committed, describing the penalties as among the largest corporate settlements in American history.
The Trump administration defended the pardon as a correction of what it called overreach by the previous government. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that Zhao was prosecuted during the Biden administration’s “war on cryptocurrency,” emphasizing that there had been no fraud charges or identified victims. Trump told CNN that he acted “at the request of a lot of very good people” who believed Zhao’s actions did not constitute a crime.
The decision has financial and ethical implications. The Trump family’s digital asset venture, World Liberty Financial, relies on Binance’s technology infrastructure to run its exchange platform.
Binance also increased its lobbying activity while Zhao’s pardon was under review. The exchange paid 450,000 dollars to a lobbying firm connected to Donald Trump Jr. to discuss cryptocurrency policy and executive relief. Other crypto figures close to the Trump orbit, such as Justin Sun, have seen similarly favorable outcomes. Sun had previously faced civil fraud allegations from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which dropped its case earlier this year after he invested heavily in Trump’s crypto ventures.
Also Read: Binance’s CZ Backs AI Trading, DEXs, and RWAs for Next Growth Wave
