Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Thursday, March 12th.

Today on Forbes, Binance founder, CZ, is now richer than Bill Gates.

A year and a half ago, Changpeng Xiao was just getting out of jail.

After a sweeping investigation into Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange he founded in

2017, Zhao, better known by his initials, CZ, pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective

anti-money laundering program and agreed to pay a $50 million fine, on top of $4.3 billion paid by Binance, resign as CEO, and

serve four months in a California prison. What a difference 17 months makes. Forbes estimates

that CZ is now richer than ever. His net worth has skyrocketed to $110 billion, up $47 billion from last year,

on the annual World's Billionaires list, which was released on Tuesday. CZ now ranks as the 17th

wealthiest person on the planet, by our count, and one of just 20 people worth 12 figures. And he is richer than Bill Gates. Some of Zhao's smaller assets took minor hits over the past 12 months, with the value of his estimated 1,400 Bitcoins dropping by 25% to around $100 million. And his stash of what is believed to be the majority of Binance's

BNB token in circulation merely held steady. But, despite stepping down as chief executive in

2023, the core of Zhao's wealth and the reason for the surge in his net worth remains Binance.

The privately held company, headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, where CZ, who is a

Canadian citizen, lives, does not disclose detailed financials or a clear ownership structure.

Conversations with industry insiders and comparisons with other crypto

exchanges, including the publicly traded Coinbase, suggest Binance, still the world's largest

crypto exchange with roughly 38% market share, is worth around $100 billion, and legal filings

from the investigation indicate that Zhao owns about

90% of it.

Zhang Ji Lim, an analyst at Crypto Data Provider Artemis, says, quote,

finance generated and estimated $16 to $17 billion in revenue in 2024 and 2025,

that is roughly two and a half times Coinbase's $6.6 billion.

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