Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, has again pushed back on Forbes’ estimate of his personal fortune. In a post on X, he said Binance generates about $5 billion in annual revenue, yet Forbes values his wealth at $110 billion, a figure he argued does not line up with comparable company data.
ByteDance comparison sits at the center of his argument
CZ laid out a simple comparison in the post. He pointed to public data showing that ByteDance brings in about $150 billion in annual revenue, while Forbes estimates ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming’s wealth at $69 billion. Against that backdrop, Binance’s revenue would be roughly one-thirtieth of ByteDance’s, but Forbes still assigns CZ a fortune about 60% higher than Zhang’s. He summed up his reaction with three question marks: “???”
He then added a more pointed remark. In his view, if he were to publicly claim that his net worth is very high, Forbes might lower his ranking instead, or even remove him from the list altogether. He joked that they seem to estimate in the opposite direction, ending the comment with a laughing emoji.
A reply sparked by a comment from BlockTempo
The exchange was triggered by a reply from BlockTempo under an earlier CZ post. The outlet referenced the Chinese saying about not flaunting wealth and described CZ’s response as notably low-key. CZ answered with a fresh post and expanded the discussion by adding the revenue and wealth comparison between Binance and ByteDance, as well as the gap between his Forbes estimate and Zhang Yiming’s.
This was not the first time CZ has rejected outside estimates of his fortune. The source material notes that he has previously disputed both Forbes’ ranking of him among the world’s richest individuals and Bloomberg’s placement of him on its financial rich list.