In one recent 24-hour span, Binance completed $170 billion of transactions. On a really slow day, he said, it’s about $40 billion—and that’s up from as little as $10 billion two years before that.
In the crypto world, these are gargantuan numbers. Binance routinely facilitates as much trading as the next four largest exchanges combined.
When Bloomberg’s Erik Schatzker asked the billionaire about his wealth during the November interview in Singapore, Zhao demurred. “I don’t care about wealth, money, rankings,” he said.
The slender crypto entrepreneur, donning rimless glasses and a slightly oversize striped tie, added that such matters are a distraction and that he’s prepared to give away almost all of his fortune before he dies.
Whether Zhao can hang on to what he’s gained remains to be seen, and he has plenty of reason to be concerned about his firm’s unbridled growth.
In addition to the DOJ and IRS investigation, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is probing possible market manipulation and insider trading within Binance, and whether it illegally allowed U.S. clients to trade derivatives tied to cryptocurrencies, according to people familiar with the matter. The CFTC declined to comment.
Binance also has been the subject of consumer warnings in the U.K., Japan and Germany, among other countries. On Dec. 30, a Canadian securities regulator reprimanded the company for telling users of its trading platform that it was allowed to continue operations in the country when it still lacks a registration to do so.
A spokesperson for Binance said the company is “working with regulators around the world and we take our compliance obligations very seriously.”
Zhao has said he welcomes—and wants—regulation.
“I’m not an anarchist,” he said at the Bloomberg forum. “I don’t believe human civilization is advanced enough to live in a world without rules.”
Fortunes built on crypto have ballooned along with the value of digital tokens, which totaled $2.09 trillion on Jan. 7, up from $135 billion three years ago.
Until recently it was rare for a crypto entrepreneur to appear on global wealth rankings. An increasing number are making the cut as more firms in the industry tap venture-capital funding or public markets, bringing greater transparency into the value of these businesses.
Exchanges such as Coinbase, Gemini, FTX and Kraken have attracted hefty valuations in public and private markets, and Binance’s popularity with users and myriad products may be even more enticing to investors.
Crypto fortunes, however, are volatile. Bitcoin has slumped more than 11% this year to about $41,000 and is well below early November’s highs of nearly $69,000. Coinbase shares have tumbled about 35% over the past two months.