A forensic analysis by Gray Wolf Analytics and Forbes reveals that Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Binance’s founder, holds many BNB tokens that substantially boosted his wealth.
Reportedly, CZ controls about 64% of the circulating supply of BNB tokens, which equates to 94 million tokens.
Why Zhao Controls 64% of Binance’s BNB Supply
BNB is the native token of the crypto exchange Binance, providing holders with trading fee discounts on the platform. The digital asset’s maximum supply is capped at 200 million tokens, and over 147 million BNB tokens are currently circulating. Notably, BNB’s price has more than doubled since the beginning of the year, peaking at nearly $720 this week.
While Zhao has never publicly disclosed his exact BNB holdings, the 2017 whitepaper from BNB’s initial coin offering (ICO) allocated 80 million tokens to the founding team. Analysis shows that Binance retains 46.2 million of these tokens.
Given Zhao’s 90% ownership of Binance, his share would be approximately 41.6 million tokens.
Further analysis suggests that Changpeng Zhao increased his BNB holdings through additional means. According to Forbes, Binance’s ICO was undersubscribed, with only 10.8 million BNB sold instead of the claimed 100 million.
The unsold tokens, about 58 million BNB, were allegedly transferred to Zhao’s wallets. Therefore, based on his 90% ownership, CZ would control around 52 million of these tokens.
Read More: How To Buy BNB and Everything You Need To Know
CZ’s total holdings from the initial team reward and the unsold tokens would amount to approximately 94 million BNB. Consequently, Forbes concluded that Zhao’s substantial holdings have propelled him to the 24th richest person globally, with an estimated net worth of $61 billion.
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