Changpeng Zhao: the 60,000 million of the crypto tycoon followed by Little Nicholas

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Almost always wearing a sweatshirt and looking like a

, Changpeng Zhao can be misleading and not be identified for what he is,

He often admits in his few media interviews that he doesn't really know how much money he has.

Despite this, he is credited with a total of 65,000 million dollars (about 60,000 million euros) and his name appears at number 19 on the

2022 list, ahead of well-known billionaires such as the computer magnate Michael Dell and the of energy Charles Koch.

All this thanks to cryptocurrencies and closely following the numbers of Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google.

Changpeng Zhao is the creator of Binance, the most used platform to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

CZ, as he is known, is the biggest crypto millionaire in the world and his business never rests.

Every time a user buys or sells on its platform, Binance earns a commission.

All this without taking into account the value of the cryptocurrency that is exchanged.

Last week Changpeng Zhao visited Spain.

When the restrictions ended, she planned to tour the world to meet some of her 5,000 employees.

Her visit to Spain took place at the Wizink Center and before some 300 attendees who filled the room very quickly.

She has hordes of young boy fans and some of them stood at the gates of the venue.

Among all those who wanted to

once little Nicolás, who soon shared the snapshot on his Twitter profile.

CZ has a pull among the Spanish and young public, increasingly familiar with the cryptocurrency market and looking for new gurus beyond

Last Tuesday, the Bank of Spain published the Spring Report 2022 where for the first time it reported the volume of assets that cryptocurrencies move in Spain.

The figure: about 60,000 million euros.

"12% of adults in Spain currently own crypto assets, 13% in the case of men and 10% in that of women, while ownership would be higher for the younger ones,

explains the report.

The only interview that CZ granted in Spain was to

where he assured that the cryptocurrency market has not yet reached its full potential and that the new generations are key to this.

However, the other side of the (crypto) currency is a trend that this newspaper detailed in its pages: crypto addiction, that is, people hooked on investing in cryptocurrencies and cryptoactives.

PERSONAL HISTORY

CZ was born in 1977 in Jiangsu, China and his family emigrated to Vancouver (Canada) in the late 1980s. His father worked as a teacher and was branded in his country as a pro-bourgeois intellectual.

Once CZ settled in Canada, the young man helped out at home through temporary jobs at burger joints or gas stations.

The creator of Binance started programming at the age of 16 and graduated from Montreal with a bachelor's degree in computer science.

He spent stints in his home country and the US and returned to Canada to make his way to Binance,

This figure makes it compete at the level of other technology companies such as the parent company of Tik Tok, ByteDance or Elon Musk's SpaceX, the character of the week after learning that he is the new owner of Twitter.

CZ's story is therefore that of a programmer who has made his own fortune.

The landing of this genius in cryptocurrencies

During a game with Bobby Lee, then CEO of BTC China, and investor Ron Cao, they encouraged him to invest 10% of his net worth in bitcoin.

After spending some time thinking about it and working at some companies familiar with "crypto," Zhao decided to take a gamble on them and sold his apartment for bitcoin.

In 2017, he founded Binance and quickly became a powerhouse in the industry that he now leads.

Despite the bombastic figures surrounding this 44-year-old crypto-rich, his life is very low-key and he indulges little in luxury.

In clothing he is very austere and assures that

He has bought an apartment in Dubai (where he spends time when he does not travel) and any other investment he has made outside the crypto world is unknown.

He has not been romantically related to anyone, so at the moment he does not have any responsibilities in the family.

His future also has a goal: philanthropy and plans to donate more than 90% of his fortune.

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