Binance Founder CZ Still A Billionaire Despite Legal Woes, Ends 2023 Nearly $25B Richer

Despite being mired in legal issues, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder and former CEO of Binance, has reportedly managed to retain his billionaire status, with his wealth growing by nearly $25 billion as 2023 comes to a close.

Zhao, who is currently stuck in the U. S., may have to wait for his sentencing in February to know if he can go back to his home in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This year, Zhao made several decisions that will significantly impact his career as a crypto mogul in the years to come.

Following Binance's historic agreement with the U. S. Department of Justice, Zhao was forced to step down from his post as the chief executive officer of the multi-billion-dollar company he founded. He also pleaded guilty to one charge of violating the Bank Secrecy Act last month and was released on a $175 million personal recognizance bond, with some cash on escrow and guarantors putting up 5 million worth of assets as collateral.

Recently, a U.S. court entered an order against Binance -- the world's largest centralized crypto exchange platform -- and Zhao that would see both pay $2.7 billion and $150 million, respectively, as part of the settlement agreement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ending its years-long enforcement action against the exchange and its founder.

But, despite the piles of legal woes Zhao faced this year, the Canadian crypto entrepreneur reportedly increased his net worth by roughly $25 billion since December 2022, data from Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of Dec. 25 revealed.

The 46-year-old billionaire, who founded Binance in 2017, has a net worth of $37.2 billion, which means his wealth saw a year-to-date increase of $24.6 billion.

Based on his net worth, Zhao is currently sitting on the 35th spot of the list of billionaires in the world, the top spot occupied by Elon Musk whose net worth is $232 billion.

But, the $37.2 billion net worth this year is a far cry from its peak at the start of 2022 which recorded Zhao's net worth at $97 billion and is a little higher from its year-to-date high of $50.4 billion in July.

At the time of announcing his resignation, Zhao said will not be managing any crypto startup. The crypto founder said he would take a break, including a break from his phone, which is something he has not done for the past six years or more.

He also mentioned doing "passive investing" and spending more time on decentralized finance (DeFi).

"I will take a break first. I have not had a single day of real (phone off) break for the last six and half years. After that, my current thinking is I will probably do some passive investing, being a minority token/shareholder in startups in areas of blockchain/Web3/DeFi, AI and biotech. I am happy that I will finally have more time to spend looking at DeFi," CZ wrote in a post on X.