The king among Chinese billionaires was sitting in an American prison. Changpeng Zhao got rich on the Binance cryptocurrency exchange,

Among the richest men in China, cryptocurrency trader Changpeng Zhao has long been at the forefront. The world was even taken aback by the news that, according to the Forbes rankings, he became the richest Chinese man, which particularly interested members of the cryptocurrency community.

However, the story of the operator of the world's largest cryptocurrency trader shows how peculiar the world of cryptocurrencies is and if you mix in the color of red Chinese capitalism, everything can be even more convoluted.

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Although at first glance Zhao looks like a Chinese and was also born in China, he is not completely Chinese. As his father, a teacher by profession, was part of more liberal circles, his family emigrated from China in 1989. This coincided with the Tiananmen Square massacre, which halted the transition process of Communist China, which occurred in almost all Communist regimes including the Soviet Union (only Russia did not undertake the transition to democracy).

Officially, Zhao is a Canadian, but in 2005 he moved back to China, where he embarked on further business activities in the world of computer technology. However, in 2017, China banned cryptocurrency trading, so he sold his luxury apartment in Shanghai and is now believed to be in Dubai.

Thanks to Canadian citizenship, this businessman of current globalism is also listed as Canadian in the Forbes ranking, which puts the first crack in the story of the richest Chinese person. Not the only one, however. While for a quarter of a century at the posts of the richest Americans there has been only occasional change at the first position among the four richest (Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos), in the Czech Republic, Petr Kellner also reigned supreme for a long time, in Chinese conditions rocket rises are followed by steep falls.

In mid-June, Zhao was the richest Chinese man, and in July, he's already surpassed by TikTok's Zhang Yiming. Furthermore, no one knows the actual wealth of the top leaders of the communist party, to whom all Chinese entrepreneurs must bow.

The official salary of the president and lifelong Chinese dictator President Xi Jinping is officially around 20,000 dollars, which is below the average wage in the Czech Republic! However, he lives in the luxurious Zhongnanhai palace in Beijing with a supermarket, cafe, basketball court, tennis court, hospital, and cinema where he doesn't have to pay, plus he enjoys assets in the USA or in tax havens. It is not ruled out that his family owns more riches than the officially richest men in China.

The third problem is the very nature of property in cryptocurrencies. They are so volatile that their value jumps up and down sharply, which can shake up the position in the billionaire ranking really from day to day. As has been shown in our case, a new "technological currency" can easily fall into a problematic legal vacuum and be used for suspicious financial machinations.

"In the case around Pavel Blažka, it should not be overlooked that we have once again seen what Bitcoin can be used for. Despite its wide use in the standard economy, so many years promised by cryptocurrency supporters, it is somehow not coming,"

Ex-minister Ivan Filip noticed on Twitter.

Zha§v's fate much resembles domestic Bitcoin drama. Not only did the Chinese billionaire probably become the richest prisoner in the world during his four-month sentence, but his future plans are philanthropic, much as we heard comment on the bitcoin gift of Pavel Blažek.

He wants to donate 99 percent of his property to charity.