Trump Wants Bitcoin Monopoly | CZ's Billions Double In Jail

Much of the added lucre is the result of research by Forbes that found Zhao’s stake in the BNB cryptocurrency owned by Binance comes to 94 million tokens, or 64% of the 147.5 million in circulation. BNB has been on a tear this year, nearly doubling to $596. The BNB credited to Zhao—widely known by his initials CZ—by dint of his 90% ownership of Binance comes in two chunks: almost 42 million that was part of 80 million granted to the founding team in 2017 and more than 52 million that was left with the exchange as a result of a 100 million-token initial coin offering that attracted purchases of fewer than 11 million tokens.  

On paper, CZ’s BNB stake is worth $56 billion, but if that supply were to be dumped on the market all at once, it would almost certainly depress the price. Valuing the tokens at half the market price makes them worth $28 billion and added to the $33 billion valuation for CZ’s equity stake in the Binance exchange itself puts his estimated wealth at about $61 billion. That would jump him to 24th place on the Forbes billionaires list from 50th.

He may move higher still. In the six months since Zhao pleaded guilty to a violation of U.S. anti-money-laundering law and agreed to pay a $50 million fine, Binance has gained market share among crypto exchanges. The valuation of CZ’s 90% stake remains unchanged and would likely increase if the company’s results improve. 

Full story: How Crypto’s Richest Billionaire Doubled His Net Worth Behind Bars

Trump claimed bitcoin “may be our last line of defense against” a central bank digital currency (CBDC), reiterating opposition to a so-called digital dollar issued by the Federal Reserve. The Fed has explored the concept but not expressed an opinion on whether it is a good idea. Trump has branded a CBDC a “dangerous threat to freedom” and vowing to block its creation if reelected.

Mining remaining bitcoin in the U.S. will also help the country be “ENERGY DOMINANT” Trump wrote. Bitcoin mining consumes significant amounts of energy, but it can be turned off during peak demand periods and throttled up at other times, rewarding electricity generators who add capacity with stable usage.  

Meanwhile, bitcoin miner Core Scientific is on a roll as it repurposes some of its energy-guzzling hardware for the high-performance computing (HPC) that underpins artificial intelligence operations. Core unveiled new details about the 300 megawatts of available HPC infrastructure  that will be added to 200 megawatts committed under a recent deal with AI hyperscaler CoreWeave. CoreWeave liked the company so much it tried to buy it, offering $5.75 a share or $1 billion on June 3. Three days later, Core Scientific’s board rejected the offer as undervaluing their company, and the stock ended Friday at $10.33, up 33% for the week.

A key issue is that former customers of the exchange are being offered full compensation for the dollar value of their cryptocurrency holdings at the time FTX filed for bankruptcy protection  in November 2022. Unfortunately, that was near the nadir of digital-asset values because of an industry tailspin that was exacerbated by the company’s failure. Bankruptcy cases typically work that way, but a chorus of creditors, commentators and academics claim customers have been wrongfully deprived of their property, and that’s not the only thing they are upset about.

They also say current FTX management is failing to maximize the company’s value, neglecting the best interests of former customers and other creditors. Recurring complaints have been made against Sullivan & Cromwell, the main law firm representing the current FTX and also its counsel for various pre-bankruptcy issues.