The founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, has been crowned crypto’s wealthiest person for the third year running as Forbes unveils crypto bigwigs.


Popularly known as CZ, Zhao is now worth an estimated $33 billion, up from $10.5 billion last year and the 50th-wealthiest person in the world.


Despite pleading guilty to U.S. money laundering charges in November, Forbes reported that CZ who is now the biggest crypto gainer in dollar terms since last year made a bulk of his fortune from his majority stake in Binance, which remains the industry’s largest global trading venue by volume.



Also, the CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor’s net worth has surged to an estimated $4.4 billion, compared to $760 million the previous year, thanks to MicroStrategy’s heavy investments in Bitcoin.


Similarly, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s net worth hit an estimated $11.2bn, up from $2.2 billion, buoyed by the impressive performance of Coinbase’s shares, which have more than quadrupled over the past 12 months.