The fortunes of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) have been hit hard by recent lawsuits from US securities regulators.
Armstrong's net worth fell by $289 million in the 30 hours after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance on June 5 and Coinbase on June 6, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes. , Zhao's net worth decreased by $1.33 billion . This week, the net worth of the crypto industry's richest man and 54th richest person fell 5.1% to $26 billion.
Although the Binance CEO's net worth has rebounded by more than 106% this year, it is still down by more than 73% from its peak net worth of $96.9 billion in January 2022. Armstrong, No. 1,409 on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, was hit harder by the latest SEC action as his net worth fell 11.8 percent to $2.2 billion. The Coinbase CEO has managed to reap the rewards of this year's market rally, with his net worth up 61% during that time.
Despite the recent decline, Zhao and Armstrong's net worth gains have far outpaced the 9 percent year-to-date returns of the rest of the Bloomberg Rich List. The SEC sued Binance and Coinbase, alleging that the exchanges violated various securities rules, most notably for allegedly offering cryptocurrencies that regulators considered unregistered securities.
Following the lawsuit, the SEC has now classified a total of 67 cryptocurrencies as securities. Both Binance and Coinbase have confirmed that they will "vigorously" defend the lawsuit against them.
