Ben Zhou Net Worth, Crypto and NFT Investments

Certainly, the success of Bybit forms the basis of the net worth of Ben Zhou. He is a Chinese Tech Entrepreneur who co-founded Bybit, a Singapore-based exchange for cryptocurrency derivatives. The net worth of Ben Zhou is estimated to be around $60 million. He co-founded the exchange in 2019 after working with global forex broker, XM for seven (7) years.

He learned about cryptocurrency from a friend in 2016. Ever since, Ben Zhou has become a prominent figure in the crypto space. He has contributed to various issues aimed at advancing the crypto space. In November 2022, Ben Zhou set up a $100 million fund for 100 million to provide liquidity for institutional traders following the collapse of FTX.

Ben Zhou’s Net Worth

Early Life

Ben Zhou was born in China to a family he once described as his ”barometer for life.” At age 11, his family relocated to New Zealand. Zhou struggled to settle down due to his difficulty in speaking English. In an interview, Ben Zhou described his mother as the glue that kept the family together. He provided insights into the role of his parents while growing up. Zhou revealed that his father taught him the importance of working hard in a bid to attain success.

While growing up, Ben Zhou picked interest in Baseball. He recalled how his parents made him like the sport. According to him, his love for the sport grew further when he began playing it. He once revealed that he played baseball throughout his childhood till his college days. While at the college, he represented his institution at the all-varsity game, playing for the baseball team. For Ben Zhou, baseball provided him an enablement to socialize with people. At one point, he disclosed that the intellectual aspect of Baseball helped him to develop a better situational and tactical awareness.

During his time at the High School in New Zealand, Ben Zhou had issues settling down in the environment, owing to the culture there. He moved to the United States to further his education. In the U.S., he enrolled in a college. While at the college, Zhou trained his mind to becoming a good analyst. However, upon the completion of his education in the United States, he returned to China.

In China, he was employed by global forex broker, XM. Consequently, he became the general manager for the Greater China region. Ben Zhao served in this capacity for about seven years. In 2016, he learned about cryptocurrency from a friend. Ben Zhou realized the benefits embedded in cryptocurrency trading. He followed the industry closely, monitoring how it grew in popularity and acceptance.

Around 2017, when the price of crypto assets skyrocketed, Ben Zhou devoted more of his time to studying the innovation. Thereafter, he discovered that cryptocurrency is not gaining enough recognition due to lack of general awareness. According to Ben Zhou, the then-crypto exchanges were doing nothing or little to correct this defect. This according to Ben Zhou could have proved pivotal to the advancement of the crypto industry.

In his contribution, Ben Zhou created a YouTube channel to raise awareness about cryptocurrency. Further, his channel and content focused on educating people about cryptocurrency. By that, Ben Zhou became one of the foremost crusaders, pushing for the advancement of the industry. With his experience with XM, Ben Zhou provided educational content to orientate people about crypto. He managed this page till he founded Bybit.

Bybit

In March 2018, Ben Zhou co-founded Bybit. He realized that crypto trading platforms were mostly congested and lacked proper customer service. These factors motivated Ben Zhou to establish Bybit. The cryptocurrency exchange adopted the motto “we listen, we care, we improve” to showcase its commitment to raising the standard for crypto derivative exchange. In a revelation, Ben Zhou stated that the creation of Bybit is aimed at amending the matching of orders due to the numerous overloads. He divulged that when there is an overload, the basic needs of customers will not be met.

To avoid network congestion, Bybit is designed to handle about 100,000 transactions per second. Also, with Bybit, Ben Zhou intends to provide outstanding trading experience. The Bybit team consists of top tech and fintech professionals from Alibaba, Tencent, Morgan Staley, and other renowned brands. In August 2020, Bybit made an attempt to venture into Korean and Japanese crypto markets. Also, the crypto exchange added support for the Japanese Yen and South Korean Won.

Around November 2020, Bybit collaborated with German Domestic Football League powerhouse, Borussia Dortmund. Confirming the announcement, Ben Zhou pointed out to the large fan base of the football club. The CEO indicated that Borussia Dortmund has the seventh-largest fan base among football clubs in the world. He divulged that the partnership will further help boost Bybit’s popularity, thereby fostering massive crypto adoption.

On March 9, 2021, Ben Zhou announced the appointment of Daniel Lim to lead Bybit’s legal and compliance team. The appointment came shortly after Bybit closed its operations in the U.K. Then, the U.K Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) placed a ban on retail crypto derivatives trading. Ben Zhou confirmed the development stating that Daniel Lim will help bolster Bybit’s compliance posture in the wake of the swiftly changing regulatory landscape. Meanwhile, Daniel Lim is a former head of legal and compliance for the Singapore-based investment bank, Daiwa Capital Markets.

In February 2022, Bybit collaborated with Cabital. The collaboration enables Bybit users to purchase crypto via Cabital’s fiat on-ramp solution. Also, it allows them to transfer any crypto assets of their choice with no transfer fees between their Bybit and Cabital wallets. A few months later, Oracle Red Bull Racing (ORBR) also collaborated with Bybit to launch ORBR’s 2022 NFT collection. As announced, the collection was minted on the Tezos blockchain. As part of the partnership, the limited-edition NFT collection was auctioned. Therefore, bidders were opportune to collect digital collectibles representing various aspects of Red Bull’s history.

On June 23, 2022, Bybit reached an agreement with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) for an out-of-court settlement after allegedly operating without proper registration. The firm paid $2.47 million in fines to the regulator. Part of the agreement also included a ban on new accounts from Ontario residents. With the ban, Bybit stopped accepting new users from the region.

In 2022, Bybit suffered heavily due to the bear market. From June to December 2022, the firm reduced its workforce heavily to manage its expenditures and remain in business. In June, Independent reporter, Colin Wu revealed that Bybit laid off some of its staff. The second layoff was announced in December 2022. Bybit co-founder and CEO, revealed a reorganization plan during the prolonged bear market. Reports indicated that the round of layoff affected 30% of Bybit’s employees. However, the crypto exchange paid three months’ salary in arrears to affected employees.

FTX Crisis and Zhou’s Efforts

At the inception of the FTX crisis, Bybit CEO, Ben Zhou requested that Alameda Research provide proof that it still holds its BIT Tokens. Recall that On Nov. 2, 2021, BitDAO swapped 100 million BIT tokens with Alameda in exchange for 3,362,315 FTT tokens. The two firms signed a public commitment agreement to hold the two tokens for three years. By the agreement, Alameda Research was expected to keep the token till November 2, 2024. The BitDAO community raised an alarm regarding the sudden dip in BIT prices, stating that it suspected Alameda Research had breached the agreement.

Bitdao community is questioning the sudden dump of $bit token caused by Alameda dumping and breaching the 3 yr mutual no sale public commitment. Nothing is confirmed but bitdao community would like to confirm a proof of fund from Alameda. https://t.co/YassKhcdPt

— Ben Zhou (@benbybit) November 8, 2022

On November 24, 2022, Bybit announced a $100 million support fund to provide liquidity to institutional traders following the collapse of FTX. The funding manifested to assist institutional investors to reduce the severity of FTX’s collapse. That month, Bybit also released its proof of reserve to assure users that their assets are safe. As revealed, the firm had about $1.9 billion worth of users’ assets in some of its largest wallets.

Around January 2023, Bybit came under huge scrutiny regarding its exposure to Genesis. The collapse of FTX compelled Genesis Global to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Consequently, reports surfaced that Bybit alongside eight (8) other crypto firms had huge financial exposure to Genesis.

However, Ben Zhou swiftly squashed the rumors clarifying that Bybit had $150 million exposure to the cryptocurrency lender through its investment organ Mirana. Additionally, Ben Zhou said Mirana only handles a little part of Bybit assets. He added that Mirana already liquidated $120 million worth of collateral position in the struggling cryptocurrency lender. Ben Zhou went on to assure users that their funds are safe. The assurance didn’t sit well with most community members who demanded that Ben Zhou should provide proof to back his claims.

Full disclosure:
1. Mirana is the investment arm of bybit.
2. Mirana only manage some bybit company asset. Client fund is separated snd bybit earn product doesn’t use mirana.
3. The reported 151m has abt 120m of collateralized positions which mirana had already liquidated. https://t.co/kqVPpAMGky

— Ben Zhou (@benbybit) January 20, 2023

On March 4, 2023, Bybit suspended the deposit of USD through bank transfer. The crypto exchange cited a service outage from its partner as the reason behind the decision. Then, the crypto exchange urged users to withdraw their funds from the platform before March 10, 2023. Bybit provided users with the alternative of making a USD deposit in Advcash wallet or with their credit cards.

On April 24, 2023, Bybit introduced new KYC measures on its platform. The exchange restricted those who haven’t completed their KYC. As announced, those who are yet to complete their KYC will only be able to close existing open positions or orders, return loans, or withdraw starting from May 8, 2023. They were restricted from carrying out new trades. Likewise, the platform set its daily withdrawal limit to $20,000 and a monthly limit of $100,000. The crypto exchange announced that it adopted the measure for security, regulatory compliance, deterrence of illegal activities, and enhancement of its services.

On May 2, 2023, Bybit began offering lending services to users. The service is designed to offer interest payouts to users that make crypto deposits into the platform through its lending service. According to findings, lenders are eligible to enjoy passive returns on their funds in the lending pool. On the other end, borrowers can as well take loans to explore other trading options on the platform. In a statement, Ben Zhou revealed that Bybit is committed to providing users with a way of generating income.

🔥 Earn up to 133% APR on your $SUI with Bybit Lending!

Go to the latest Bybit mobile app version, click More and start earning APR by lending funds to other users for trading purposes!

*Lending is available only on mobile (App Version 4.16.0)#Bybit #TheCryptoArk pic.twitter.com/DGKCfYozJv

— Bybit (@Bybit_Official) May 3, 2023

Is Ben Zhou Pro Crypto?

Ben Zhou has established himself as a consistent advocate and promoter of cryptocurrency. His first exposure to the industry was in 2016 through a friend. Consequently, he made personal research on crypto to discover its possibilities and potential. This thus formed the basis of Zhou’s knowledge about the assets and the industry at large. Having realized the bountiful benefits that dwell in cryptocurrency, he was encouraged to pick an interest in it.

However, Zhou discovered that the level of awareness and education about the crypto industry is low; thereby hindering its widespread adoption. He is a strong believer in the usage of awareness and education to drive the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency. Amid the 2017 bull run, the Bybit co-founder decided to start a YouTube channel, primarily to educate and avail substantial insights to people about the industry. Through the channel, he conveyed commentaries about unfolding developments in the world of cryptocurrencies as well as their future potential. This thus shows the kind of passion and enthusiasm Zhou has for cryptocurrency.

Zhou is one of those notable individuals who see crypto as a revolution for the financial system. In one of his interviews; he reflected on why he picked an interest in crypto. According to the Bybit co-founder; he developed a passion for crypto because it redistributes power to the people; rather than the few. Zhou is confident that this decentralized feature alone places crypto ahead of the existing traditional systems in the financial arena. He has no doubt about the potential of cryptocurrency to fully dominate the financial setting within a few years to come.

Specifically, Ben Zhou is a Bitcoin bull. Over the years, he likened the largest crypto by market cap to gold; affirming his confidence in its capacity to continuously dominate the industry for years. Although, he admitted that the asset is notoriously volatile and that forms an integral part of its appeal. During one of his 2019 interviews; the Bybit co-founder reflected on numerous factors that can push Bitcoin into overdrive price. While discussing these factors, he referenced how the public endorsement of blockchain by President Xi spiked the token by 12%. According to him; the public endorsement aided the mass adoption of Bitcoin; which in turn, impacted its price.

Over the years, Ben Zhou built a strong reputation for himself as an influencer in the industry. A lot of his followers look up to his insights and recommendations for crypto investments. No doubt, he has also been able to live up to the expectations, offering suggestions to investors on the kind of crypto portfolio to keep. In recent times; he advised new investors to ensure that they hold BTC and ETH in their portfolio.

According to him; “the top two cryptocurrencies by market cap — BTC and ETH — are essentially indices of the broader crypto market, and an investor can get decent exposure by merely holding one or both of these assets. Bitcoin is the original and largest cryptocurrency, while Ethereum is like a business that sells space on its blockchain, earning a revenue last year of over $10 billion — it issues ETH to power its network.”

More so, Zhou usually emphasizes the importance of seeking information about the industry from credible and trustworthy sources. Recently, he lamented how rampaging fake news purveyors have continued to misguide potential investors. According to him; “Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are complex subjects, and much of the mainstream reporting lacks a deeper understanding of the subtleties of the technology and what builders in the space are trying to achieve.”

In 2018, Ben Zhou defiled the lingering bear market at that time to establish Bybit. His vision with this project is to drive crypto education, access, and adoption. Since its launch, Bybit recorded 10 million registered users across 140 countries and $1.26 trillion in volume. It is worth mentioning that the mouthwatering revenue of Bybit contributes hugely to the net worth of Ben Zhou.

Over the years, Bybit focused on teaching people. Zhou said; “Bybit is committed to educating users and equipping them with critical insights and analysis within the rapidly changing financial landscape. We want to position wealth in the hands of the common people.”

Also, Zhou has continued to leverage Bybit to provide a reliable financial infrastructure for users. He found inspiration from the numerous inefficiencies of the traditional market which had made many unbanked. Through Bybit, Zhou provides access to a lot of product suites; including crypto derivatives, trading services, and many more. In 2023, the exchange launched debit and credit card payments to allow the easy purchase of cryptocurrencies by people.

It also sponsored the year’s Blockchain Life Conference, graced by key industry players, government representatives, heads of international companies and funds, investors, promising startup teams, and beginners. The conference is a yearly programme to discuss the future of crypto exchanges and how they are driving the mass adoption of blockchain technology. At the 2023 event, Ben spoke about how the industry is moving toward decentralization and the efforts of Bybit in onboarding millions of people into web3.

As a crypto bull and supporter, Ben Zhou has shown remarkable commitment towards the advancement of digital assets. As part of such commitment, he traveled to Turkey in, April 2023, to back ongoing crypto growth in the region. In the past few years, the country saw a huge rise in crypto adoption, meaning a significant number of its residents have embraced the innovation for wealth creation. Today, Bybit has cemented its presence in Turkey, and many other countries of the world. Its co-founder believes the popularity and adoption of cryptocurrencies will grow through establishing Bybit’s presence in these countries.

Amid the 2022 bear market which crippled the crypto economy, Zhou was one of the notable actors who motivated investors to stay patient. It is worth mentioning that his firm, Bybit was also among the list of firms that suffered from the implications of the bear market. In December 2022, the exchange reduced its workforce to remain in business.

1) Difficult decision made today, but tough times demand tough decisions. I have just announced plans to reduce our workforce as part of an ongoing re-organisation of the business as we move to refocus our efforts for the deepening bear market.

— Ben Zhou (@benbybit) December 4, 2022

Despite the tough challenge, the Bybit CEO has no doubt about the ability of the industry to recover from its downturn. After the resurgence of Bitcoin in May 2023, Zhou, in an interview, declared that the bear market ravaging the industry is over.

It is also noteworthy that Mr Zhou is an advocate of clear regulatory framework. Over the years, he joined other top voices in the industry to agitate better and clearer regulations. The Bybit co-founder believes the presence of a clearer regulatory framework can push the industry to greatness. Zhou has continued to commend nations that have taken the path and, on numerous occasions, assured them of Bybit’s commitment to adhering to their local laws. At the moment, Bybit does not accept U.S. residents owing to its “unclear” regulatory framework.

Speaking on the significance of clear crypto regulations, Zhou said, “We are not regulated simply because there isn’t a regulation fit for crypto in Europe at the moment. With that being said, if there is a regulation fit for the business or industry, we will love to apply and get regulated. Clients feel a little bit worried when it’s completely unregulated. I think it would help, at least for exchanges, because it would help them onboard more clients.”

Crypto and NFT Holdings of Ben Zhou

Apart from being a committed advocate, Ben Zhou also holds several crypto assets in his portfolio. Although the Bybit CEO is yet to publicly talk about his personal crypto and NFT holdings, there are indications that he owns BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP and many more. More so, there is no credible information about the overall worth of the holdings at the moment.

It is not in doubt that Ben Zhou must have grown his net worth through his undisclosed personal investment in cryptocurrencies. At the time he had his first exposure to crypto, Bitcoin was trading around $900. While there is no credible information about the exact amount of BTC he bought at that time, we are sure Zhou must have made gains from the investment. This is due to how the token had grown from $900 to thousands of dollars within a few years. If accurate information about his personal holdings is known very soon, the Bybit co-founder will likely make the next list of rich Bitcoin investors across the globe.

Ben Zhou’s Net Worth – Our Verdict

We can regard Ben Zhou as one of the biggest actors in the crypto industry. One of his early contributions to the industry was educating and giving substantial insights to people about the rudiments of crypto. Zhou’s aim was to foster the widespread adoption of crypto through education. His YouTube channel usually features comprehensive and comprehensible analyses of the potential of cryptocurrency.

Later, Ben Zhou resolved to establish a crypto-derivative exchange, Bybit whose success contributed to his current net worth. Today, Bybit has expanded its offerings beyond crypto derivatives. It offers crypto and NFT trading services, with support for scores of digital assets. The exchange, to a reasonable extent, fostered the widespread adoption of crypto assets through its presence in hundreds of countries.

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