Changpeng Zhao

Changpeng Zhao is the founder and CEO of the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance. He is known in the crypto community as CZ.

The future cryptocurrency billionaire was born in 1977 in a small town in one of China’s eastern provinces, Jian Ning Suzhou. His parents were representatives of the local educational intelligentsia and were actually dissidents — they had pro-Western views that went against the communist policy of the Chinese authorities. After participating in mass protests in the late 1980s, the Zhao family was forced to emigrate to Canada. After the move, the family faced financial difficulties, so as a teenager, Changpeng Zhao helped his parents by working part-time at McDonald’s and gas stations.

Despite his financial problems, Zhao was successful at school, where teachers emphasized his volleyball skills. However, his sports career never took off, as Changpeng Zhao decided to focus on computer technology, which was already his main passion in life. After graduating from high school, Zhao began studying computer science at McGill University (Montreal, Canada).

Career

After graduation, the future CEO of the Binance platform moved to Japan, where he participated in the development of software for the Tokyo Stock Exchange. And in 2001, at the invitation of the analytical trading platform Bloomberg Tradebook, he settled in America for 5 years. There, he worked as a trading interface designer for the futures and options platform. The talented Chinese programmer was appreciated by the management — he was promoted three times in 4 years.

After the expiration of his contract, Changpeng Zhao returned to his historical homeland in Shanghai, where in November 2005 he participated in the creation of Fusion Systems and headed it. The main activity of the company was the development of high-frequency brokerage trading systems (Zhao worked there for more than 8 years).

Binance CEO became interested in blockchain technologies in 2013. The story of the trading software developer’s acquaintance with cryptocurrencies was quite prosaic. His friend, with whom he played poker together, worked as a director of the Lightspeed venture investment fund. It was Ron Cao who awakened Changpeng’s interest in cryptocurrencies when his company started investing in Bitcoin China.

The developer began to actively study new technologies, devoting almost all his free time to it. It was blockchain technologies that became a fundamental element of Changpeng Zhao’s success story, as a new cryptocurrency was built on their basis. The programmer studied the project roadmap written by Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto from start to finish.

To improve his expert skills and theoretical knowledge, the future founder and CEO of Binance began to actively attend cryptocurrency conferences and participate in various forums.

Changpeng Zhao became friends with Bobby Lee, who is known in the crypto world as the co-founder of BTCC (in 2014, the exchange became the largest in terms of sales) and is the brother of Litecoin founder Charlie Lee. It was Bobby Lee who advised the talented developer to invest 10% of his assets in bitcoin (at that time, the coin was actively growing in value).

Changpeng Zhao with Bobby Lee

Meeting Roger Weir (one of the first investors in BTC) was another turning point in Zhao’s life, as it was Weir who invited the developer to join the Blockchain.info project (a cryptocurrency wallet service). Zhao made a significant contribution to its transformation. At Blockchain.Info, Zhao held the position of chief developer, but it did not last long, as the desire to work with trading platforms won out and Changpeng took a job as CTO of OKCoin.

As Changpeng Zhao himself said earlier, his dismissal from Blockchain.Info was perceived quite normally and he still maintains friendly relations with the developers of the cryptocurrency wallet. However, the situation with OKCoin was quite the opposite — Zhao had a serious conflict with the platform’s management, so he left OKCoin in 2015.

After leaving, Zhao opened his own company, BijieTech, which provided cloud-based digital currency exchange networks for operators in Shanghai.

Binance

Seeing the growing popularity of ICOs (a form of raising funds for projects by selling new cryptocurrencies to users), Zhao decided to develop his own cryptocurrency trading platform.

In July 2017, the exchange launched its initial public offering. The competent conduct of the ICO allowed to raise more than $ 15 million. The experienced developer managed to sell more than 200 million Binance Coins. This is where the culmination of Changpeng Zhao’s success story begins: he received the necessary amount of money, so all that remained was to create a high-quality platform.

In less than 8 months, Changpeng Zhao managed to do the incredible — in April 2018, Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. In addition to this exchange, Changpeng also launched Binance Smart Chain, a well-known blockchain network.

Zhao has made a significant contribution to the development of DeFi. According to Forbes magazine, in February 2018, Zhao was the third richest person in the crypto community with an estimated net worth of $ 1.2 billion. In 2021, the Binance Coin, known as BNB, grew by about 1300%.

Binance Holdings Ltd. has managed to become one of the best places to trade altcoins.

However, despite its great success, the company is dealing with investigations by regulators around the world. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice are investigating whether Binance Holdings Ltd. is a conduit for tax evasion and money laundering. The Canadian securities regulator reprimanded Binance for informing its platform users about the legal continuation of the platform’s operation in Canada (although, as the regulator stated, the exchange did not have permission to do so).

A Binance spokesperson has repeatedly stated that the company cooperates with regulators around the world and takes its compliance obligations very seriously.

Changpeng Zhao’s net worth

Thanks to the profits generated by the Binance crypto exchange, Changpeng’s net worth is estimated at $ 1.9 billion (Forbes rating for 2021). Bloomberg, on the other hand, estimated the founder of the Binance crypto exchange’s wealth at $ 96 billion. This difference arose due to a different method of calculation. Anyway, the developer is on the list of the richest people in the cryptocurrency world.

According to Changpeng Zhao himself, he invests his money in his own business, cryptocurrencies, and promising blockchain startups. In an interview with Forklog, he confirmed that in 2014 he sold his house in Shanghai and used all the money to buy bitcoins. Since then, he has not sold them because he believes that the coins will continue to grow in value.

Currently, 99% of Binance CEO’s net worth is invested in the exchange’s internal token, the BNB coin. Regarding real estate, expensive cars, fashionable homes, premium accessories and clothing from world-famous brands, or private jets, Zhao said that «all the traditional attributes of billionaires are of no value» to him.