Introduction

Changpeng Zhao is a Chinese-Canadian entrepreneur and business executive with an estimated net worth of $110 Billion.

Zhao earned his billions as the founder, former CEO, and controlling shareholder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. He launched the company in July 2017, raising $15 million through an initial coin offering. Today, Binance generates an estimated $16 billion in annual revenues and is valued at approximately $100 billion.

In this profile, we’ll discuss Changpeng Zhao’s net worth history, Binance fortune, additional business ventures, and some of the legal issues he’s faced.

Quick Facts

• Debuted on the Forbes Billionaires Index in 2018
• Launched the Binance cryptocurrency exchange a year prior
• Holds an estimated 90% stake in the company
• Net worth crossed the $100 million milestone in 2026
• Sentenced to four months in federal prison for violating the Bank Secrecy Act

Net Worth History

As we briefly mentioned in the introduction, Changpeng Zhao’s net worth is primarily derived from his reported 90% stake in Binance. The most impressive aspect of his fortune is that Zhao became a billionaire less than a year after launching the company. He debuted on the Forbes Billionaires Index in 2018, with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion. For the next few years, things actually remained relatively stable, though he briefly dropped off the Forbes list in 2020.

It’s important to note that, given the nature of Zhao’s business, his net worth is considered cyclical. What we mean is that cryptocurrency markets typically have cycles lasting three to four years. This is based on Bitcoin’s halving cycle, in which mining rewards are halved every time 210,000 BTC blocks are mined. Thus, setting off a chain reaction of events that ultimately results in a bull market. At least, this is what cryptocurrency’s short history has shown us.

During bull markets, Bitcoin has exploded to all-time highs, and there’s normally significant FOMO within the industry. In turn, this leads to increased activity on trading platforms like Binance and to parabolic increases in altcoin prices, such as Binance’s own BNB.

Why is this important?

Two reasons: Firstly, Changpeng Zhao has a substantial cryptocurrency portfolio, including 94 million BNB tokens and an estimated 1,400 BTC. Secondly, Binance’s valuation will naturally fluctuate between bull and bear markets.

How has this played out in terms of his net worth?

In the 2021/2022 bull market, BNB’s coin price rose to an all-time high of $650 per token. With an estimated 94 million BNB tokens in his portfolio, they would have been briefly worth up to $61.1 billion. By 2023, the price had crashed to $200 per token, reducing his stake to roughly $18.8 billion. 

Forbes’ estimates differ slightly. The publication reported Zhao’s net worth at $65 billion in 2022, up from $1.9 billion in 2021, then down to $10.5 billion in 2023.

In 2025, BNB’s token price hit a new all-time high of $1,170 per coin, and Binance reportedly had a valuation of $100 billion. Zhao’s fortune rebounded from $10.5 billion to $62.9 billion in just two years. In 2026, his net worth reached $110 billion, and he’s currently ranked as the 17th richest person in the world.

Cryptocurrency Holdings

In February 2025, Changpeng Zhao publicly listed his cryptocurrency holdings in a Twitter post, though only in percentage terms, stating, “I’m a boring guy.” His holdings were as follows:

• BNB (Binance coin) – 98.6%
• BTC (Bitcoin) – 1.3%
• EURI (Eurite) – 0.17%
• USDT (Tether) – 0.03%

While exact numbers weren’t listed, reports suggest that Zhao holds 94 million BNB and 1,400 BTC. It’s not clear whether this has always been the case, but assuming it has, we can roughly calculate how much his portfolio has been worth at key points in time.

• December 2020 (BNB IPO) – Totals: $3.13 billion
• May 2021 (bull market) – Totals: $61.2 billion
• June 2022 (market crash) – Totals: $18.4 billion
• June 2024 (bull market) – Totals: $64.1 billion
• October 2025 (BNB all-time high) – Totals: $110.2 billion
• July 2026 (recent prices) – Totals: $54.6 billion

Bank Secrecy Act Violations

In 2023, the United States Department of Justice filed a criminal case against Changpeng Zhao and Binance. The case alleged that Binance failed to prevent money laundering and allowed users in restricted locations to transact on the platform.

Toward the end of the year, Zhao pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and was sentenced to four months in a U.S. federal prison. He also agreed to pay a $50 million fine personally, while Binance paid $4.3 billion in penalties. Following the plea, he stepped down as the CEO of Binance. Zhao was later pardoned by President Trump in 2024.

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Introduction 

David Filo is an American billionaire with an estimated net worth of $4.6 Billion.

Filo made his billions as the co-founder of Yahoo in the early 1990s, though it wasn’t all smooth sailing. The company ultimately went through more than a few missed opportunities as the internet grew. Had things been different, Filo could have become one of the 20 richest people in the world today.

In this profile, we’ll highlight our research into David Filo’s net worth history, the rise and fall of Yahoo!, and other aspects of his finances.

Quick Facts

• Debuted on the Forbes Billionaires Index in 1999
• Once held a 12.8% stake in Yahoo
• Rejected a $44.6 billion offer from Microsoft to acquire Yahoo (2008)
• Ultimately sold the primary business to Verizon for $5 billion (2016)

Net Worth History

The history of David Filo’s net worth and Yahoo’s market valuation is perhaps one of the most interesting you’ll come across. When the company held its initial public offering in April 1996, it had a valuation of approximately $330 million. To the best of our knowledge, Filo held roughly 12.8% of the shares at the time, which valued his stake at roughly $42 million.

Two years later, Yahoo’s market cap began to experience meteoric rises thanks to the dotcom boom towards the end of the decade. As a result, Filo debuted on the Forbes 400, with an estimated net worth of $840 million. The following year, he was placed on the Forbes Billionaires Index, with a net worth of approximately $4 billion.

Yahoo’s stock price and market capitalization during the last three months of 1999 showed the true gravity of the dotcom bubble. In fact, in just a 30-day period, the company’s valuation more than doubled, from $59 billion to roughly $125 billion by the 3rd of January 2000. This placed Filo’s shares at somewhere between $12.5 billion and $16 billion.

The following year, that bubble burst, and by October 2001, Yahoo’s market cap had fallen to just $6 billion. David dropped off the Forbes index in 2000, and didn’t return until 2004, with a net worth of roughly $2.2 billion. Ever since then, his fortune has ranged between $2 billion and $5.5 billion, depending on the year.

At the time of writing, David Filo is worth an estimated $4.6 billion.

Yahoo!

After graduating from Tulane University with a degree in computer engineering, David Filo enrolled at Stanford. He earned an M.S. degree there in 1990 and, four years later, co-created “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web” with Jerry Yang. At the time, this site hosted a human-edited directory of other popular sites on the 90s internet.

Soon after, the site was renamed Yahoo, a name it retains today as one of the biggest sites on the web. Like Bill Gates and Microsoft, David Filo has since earned billions thanks to his hand in creating Yahoo. After being incorporated as a search engine in 1995, Yahoo quickly became the go-to site for looking things up.

In 1996, Yahoo became a public company, and its stock price jumped 600% in just two years. The following year, Yahoo began offering free email after acquiring RocketMail, which was renamed Yahoo Mail.

By 1998, Yahoo was the most popular starting point for internet users and the most used search engine. In 2000, Yahoo began using Google for its search function before developing its own, following its acquisition of Inktomi. To compete with Gmail, Yahoo began offering unlimited email storage in 2007, but Larry Page’s Google continued to grow in popularity.

The Decline

In 2008, David Filo had to lay off hundreds of people as Yahoo struggled to stay afloat. The same year, Microsoft offered $44.6 billion to acquire Yahoo, but the offer was rejected, with the company claiming it undervalued the company. This is after Yahoo missed the opportunity to buy Facebook from Mark Zuckerberg in 2006, having lowballed the deal.

By 2012, Yang had left as CEO, and the once-popular website was looking grim. In 2013, Yahoo acquired the social media blogging site Tumblr for $1.1 billion, followed by the video advertising provider BrightRoll. A few years later, in 2016, Yahoo’s core business was acquired by Verizon Communications for $4.83 billion. Unfortunately, it was too late to turn things around, and data breaches in 2017 only exacerbated Yahoo’s problems.

Yahoo’s Downfall

Following the 2017 data breaches, which caused the company no shortage of headaches, things never turned around. The following year, Yahoo banned all adult content on Tumblr, leading to an extreme amount of backlash and a mass exodus from the site.

In 2021, Yahoo ended operations in mainland China, citing a challenging legal environment. Two years later, Yahoo acquired the social investing platform Commonstock and cut 20% of its workforce. This was after massive layoffs from other tech companies, including Meta, Amazon, Google, and Twitter.

In 2024, Yahoo acquired Artifact, an AI-driven news aggregator that pulls news stories from various sources. However, despite these recent acquisitions, Yahoo remains a shadow of its glory from the 1990s. That said, the site has still made David Filo one of the wealthiest people in America, with a net worth of billions.

Most recently, Filo donated $10 million to the University of California, Berkeley School of Journalism, the largest gift in the school’s history.

Real Estate

In December 2012, David Filo paid $1.37 million for a 4,580-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Half Moon Bay, California. He returned this property to the market in August 2017, with an asking price of $2.1 million. It sold for $1.95 million two months later.

Introduction 

Hans Rausing was a Swedish industrialist with an estimated net worth of $12.8 Billion.

In this profile, we’ll detail our research into Hans Rausing’s net worth history, Tetra Laval fortune, and the estate he left behind. 

Quick Facts

• Debuted on the Forbes Billionaires Index in 1987
• Sold his 50% stake of Tetra Laval to his brother for $7 billion in 1995
• Peak estimated net worth of $12.5 billion in 2018

Net Worth History

At the beginning of the 1990s, Hans Rausing was reportedly worth between $7 billion and $10 billion, due to his ownership stake in Tetra Laval. In 1995, he sold his entire 50% stake to his brother, Gad, for approximately $7 billion in cash. This led to Rausing’s net worth remaining somewhat stagnant throughout the 90s and 2000s, as he was no longer growing his wealth through Tetra. 

Instead, Hans invested his billions wisely, allowing his fortune to grow gradually over time. By 2010, he was worth approximately $10 billion, and by 2015, estimates placed his net worth at $12.5 billion. After he died in 2019, the bulk of Rausing’s fortune was inherited by his wife, Marit, and his three children, Lisbet, Sigrid, and Hans Kristian.

Tetra Pak

After graduating from Lund University in 1948, Hans Rausing became the managing director of Tetra Pak in 1954. The company had been primarily focused on manufacturing dairy packaging since its formation in the 1940s, getting its first major patent in 1944. This concept, which introduced tetrahedron-shaped packaging from a tube, became synonymous with the brand, leading to its steady growth.

Throughout the 1950s, Hans Rausing worked to introduce a new packaging system to the company, refining the Tetra Classic system with innovative improvements. As a result, the company expanded its operations significantly, establishing its first production plant outside Sweden in 1960 in Mexico.

Transformation Of Tetra Pak Into A Global Powerhouse

The expansion of production to different regions around the world continued under Rausing’s guidance throughout the 1960s.

By the 1980s, a series of mergers and acquisitions had led to Tetra Pak emerging as a global player in the packaging industry. Rausing understood the importance of leveraging assets for growth. This included many business deals through the Tetra Leval Group, which was created in 1993 and has its headquarters in Lund and Lausanne.

By 2021, Tetra Pak was operating in over 160 countries, providing packaging supplies to a range of emerging markets and generating significant annual turnover. The brand has reported near-consistent increases in sales over the decades, with annual turnover exceeding $10 billion.

Notable Products & Technology

Hans Rausing’s long and impressive career has been characterized by his association with a diverse range of products and technological advancements. The company pioneered aseptic processing for dual sterilization, introducing ultra-high temperatures to extend the shelf life of food products.

In addition to the Tetra Pak, they have revolutionized many space-saving approaches to packaging design, saving businesses millions of dollars. Their most popular product, the Tetra Brik Aseptic, has been a proven best-selling item for the company since the early 1970s.

More recently, Rausing’s influence has enabled the company to become the industry leader in sustainable and eco-friendly drinking containers. Their designs have received international acclaim and are widely regarded as iconic and revolutionary, with exhibitions dedicated to these accomplishments at science museums.

Philanthropy

Like many other highly wealthy individuals, such as Warren Buffett, Hans Rausing has made numerous charitable donations over the years. He has also invested funds in a range of philanthropic ventures, often in close association with his wife, Marit, in both Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Rausing’s daughter is also involved in these activities, notably using money from her Arcadia fund to finance the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages project. Rausing contributed funds to numerous scientific research projects throughout his career, as well as community projects through the Marit and Hans Rausing Fund.