Binance Coin (BNB) soared to a historic peak of $850.70 on July 28, 2025, catapulting the value of Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao's (CZ) personal holdings to an estimated $75.8 billion. Blockchain analytics firm Nansen and Forbes data reveal CZ controls approximately 64% of BNB's circulating supply – 89.1 million of 139.3 million tokens – while Binance holds an additional 7%.
This valuation milestone follows CZ's February disclosure that 98% of his portfolio is allocated to BNB, with just 1.32% in Bitcoin. Forbes ranks him as the world's 23rd-richest person, though the BNB holdings alone surpass Julia Koch's $71 billion net worth. Analysts attribute BNB's 12% weekly surge to three key drivers: record-high chain metrics (including TVL and PancakeSwap volume), whale accumulation like Nano Labs' plan to hold 10% of supply, and the June 30 Maxwell upgrade improving network efficiency.
Token burn mechanics remain pivotal, with Binance systematically reducing BNB's initial 200 million supply. Komodo Platform CTO Kadan Stadelmann emphasized that burns create supply reduction and investor anticipation of future burns. Despite centralization concerns from CZ's dominant stake, the ecosystem shows robust growth through expanding DeFi/NFT utility and institutional adoption.