Binance Founder CZ Stays Ahead Of Bill Gates On Forbes Billionaires List

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has stayed ahead of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on the Forbes real-time billionaires list, giving crypto one of its highest positions inside the global wealth rankings.

The latest Forbes tracker placed Zhao at No. 18 worldwide with an estimated net worth of $107.7 billion. Gates ranked No. 19 with an estimated $105.9 billion, leaving less than $2 billion between the two names on a list still led by U.S. technology, retail, luxury and industrial fortunes.

Zhao’s position is tied mainly to Binance, the crypto exchange he founded in 2017. His Forbes profile lists him as the founder and former CEO of Binance and estimates that he still owns about 90% of the exchange, alongside a personal stash of BNB tokens.

The live ranking follows Forbes’ annual 2026 billionaires list, which had already placed Zhao above Gates earlier this year. Forbes’ March estimate put Zhao’s wealth near $110 billion, up roughly $47 billion from the prior year, driven largely by a rebound in Binance’s implied private-market value.

Binance Stake Drives Most Of Zhao’s Fortune

Zhao’s net worth remains unusually concentrated because Binance is privately held, does not publish full financial statements, and is not valued through a public share price like Microsoft, Tesla, Amazon or Meta. Forbes’ estimate therefore depends heavily on Binance’s implied valuation, Zhao’s reported ownership stake and the market value of cryptoassets linked to his holdings.

That also makes the estimate more volatile than traditional billionaire rankings built around listed equities. BNB recently traded near $553, with CoinGecko placing the token’s market value near $75 billion. The token remains one of the largest cryptoassets by market capitalization, but it is still far below its previous peak, which gives Zhao’s public pushback more weight.

Zhao disputed the Forbes estimate after the annual ranking appeared in March, calling the figure “not accurate” and describing rich lists as “guess a number lists” in a post on X. His argument was that crypto prices had fallen sharply while Forbes still showed his wealth moving higher, a mismatch he framed as a problem with the ranking’s assumptions rather than a confirmed view of his personal finances.

Even with that caveat, Zhao’s position reflects Binance’s continued scale inside centralized crypto trading. The exchange remains one of the industry’s largest platforms by activity, while BNB has also stayed in market focus through amended BNB ETF filings from major issuers seeking regulated exposure to the asset.

Legal Overhang Has Eased But Has Not Disappeared

Zhao’s climb also comes after one of the biggest legal episodes in crypto exchange history. He stepped down as Binance CEO in 2023 after he pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. Binance also entered guilty pleas and agreed to a multibillion-dollar resolution with U.S. authorities.

Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison in 2024 after the plea. The case removed him from Binance’s executive seat, but it did not remove his ownership exposure to the company. That distinction is central to the wealth ranking because Forbes’ estimate depends on the value of his stake rather than his current management role.

Gates’ ranking has moved lower over time for different reasons. The Bill Gates Forbes profile continues to list him among the world’s richest people, but his wealth has been reduced by decades of philanthropy, his 2021 divorce and continuing commitments through the Gates Foundation. Gates wrote in 2025 that the foundation had already given away more than $100 billion over its first 25 years and planned to spend more than $200 billion by 2045.

Zhao has remained active in crypto commentary since leaving Binance’s CEO role, including recent remarks that stablecoins could grow thousands of times from their current size. On the latest Forbes real-time list, Zhao stood at No. 18 with $107.7 billion, while Gates stood at No. 19 with $105.9 billion.

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