Former CEO Changpeng Zhao received offers for his controlling stake in Binance: report

Quick Take

  • Former Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao received offers to share his Binance controlling stake, Bloomberg reports.
  • However, he did not say if he plans to sell his company shares, nor for how much or to whom. 
  • The equity makes up a large portion of his roughly $53 billion net worth. 

Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao, former CEO of the crypto exchange Binance, told Bloomberg that he received offers for his controlling stake in the firm

CZ did not say if he plans to sell the shares, for how much, or to whom. CZ's equity in Binance comprises a large portion of his roughly $53 billion net worth, which jumped over $12 billion immediately after the United States presidential election, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. 

CZ noted that he's not saying he's going to hold onto the equity "forever or not" and that he's happy to review every offer — even if he hasn't done anything with them thus far, Bloomberg reports. 

In November 2023, CZ pled guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act. As part of a deal with the United States Department of Justice, he agreed to pay a $50 million fine and step down as Binance CEO. He was sentenced to four months in prison and released on Sept. 27, The Block previously reported. 


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About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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