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The BNB token, a cryptocurrency linked to Binance and its incarcerated co-founder Changpeng Zhao, surged to a record high in the first week of his four-month jail sentence in the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Its rally underscores Zhao\u2019s status as the richest person ever to do time in a US federal lock up. Zhao\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0to a prison in California on Tuesday to begin a four-month sentence for failing to properly safeguard the world\u2019s largest crypto exchange against money laundering. \u00a0<\/p>\n The price of BNB climbed to a peak of $717.48 on Thursday, lifting its market capitalization to $109 billion, according to\u00a0data<\/a>\u00a0from CoinGecko. The token has more than doubled in price since the start of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n The trajectory of BNB also reflects the fortunes of Binance itself. The total value of assets on the exchange has swollen from around $80 billion in early January to $125 billion today, cementing its dominance even after a precarious period last year that culminated in the company paying an historic $4.3 billion fine to settle a case with US authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Holders of BNB get trading-fee discounts on Binance and the token is also used to settle fees on BNB Smart Chain, a blockchain popular with crypto apps, including games and exchanges.<\/p>\n BNB\u2019s recent rally was foreshadowed in derivative market trading patterns from late May, with spot demand starting to pick up in June and buying consistently outpacing selling between June 2-5, according to Kaiko analyst Dessislava Aubert.\u00a0<\/p>\n BNB trades on more than a dozen centralized exchanges, she said, \u201cwhich differs from other exchange tokens that are almost exclusively traded on their affiliated platforms.\u201d Binance still accounts for 85% of BNB volume globally, she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Binance had been accused of anti-money laundering and sanctions breaches that included failing to prevent Hamas, Al Qaeda and other militant groups from accessing the exchange. Zhao also agreed to pay a $50 million personal fine to settle the charges. \u00a0<\/p>\n That is a drop in the bucket of Zhao\u2019s net worth, which is estimated to stand at $38.5 billion \u2014 though the exact composition of the fortune is unknown. Zhao said in a 2021 interview with the Associated Press that the majority of his net worth was denominated in BNB, adding that he is a \u201cdecent sized shareholder in Binance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The man known as \u201cCZ\u201d is currently ranked as the 40th richest person in the world and has seen his net worth grow by $4.1 billion in 2024, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Zhao has never disclosed exactly how much BNB he owns, a 2017\u00a0whitepaper<\/a>\u00a0from BNB\u2019s initial coin offering or ICO shows that 80 million tokens, today worth about $56 billion, were allocated to the founding team. The money raised through that ICO was used to launch the Binance exchange.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nLearn more about all things crypto with short, easy-to-read lesson cards. Click here for Fortune’s Crypto Crash Course<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n