Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US presidential election has sparked a massive rally for some of the world’s richest individuals, with Tesla’s Elon Musk and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) among the biggest beneficiaries.
As markets reacted to Trump's victory over Kamala Harris, billionaires' wealth shifted dramatically, with Musk's net worth rising from $264 billion to $290 billion, while Tesla shares rose by 20%.
For CZ, the founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Trump’s win sent his net worth soaring by an estimated $12 billion overnight. Bloomberg estimated CZ’s net worth was $38 billion on election day, but that number rose to $52.7 billion the next morning. Forbes, using a different valuation method, put CZ’s net worth even higher at $60.6 billion.
CZ’s wealth is primarily based on his 90% stake in Binance, which has over 150 million registered users worldwide. While Binance is privately held and does not disclose its financials, Bloomberg estimates that the exchange generates around $9.8 billion in annual revenue through spot and derivatives trading. CZ has also publicly stated that he has personal holdings in both Bitcoin and Binance Coin (BNB).
CZ’s rapid increase in net worth was driven by a surge in cryptocurrency prices following the election results, with Bitcoin up 12% in a week and global crypto market caps rising by hundreds of billions of dollars. Analysts noted that since Binance’s valuation is highly sensitive to the crypto market, the surge in crypto prices likely also boosted Binance’s equity value, contributing to CZ’s overnight wealth increase.
*This is not investment advice.
