Interesting things you didn’t know about Changpeng Zhao — Binance Founder and CEO
Changpeng Zhao is known as CEO of Binance — the biggest centralized cryptocurrency exchange, and as one of the richest men in the world. But what else do we know about it? We’ve checked, and it seems that people know about Binance more than about its founder. So, we are filling in this gap.
His Childhood Wasn’t Easy
Zhao was born in 1977 in China’s Jiangsu province in the north of Shanghai. After the death of Mao Zedong, the Cultural Revolution in the country ended, and China plunged into poverty. Zhao’s father worked as a university instructor. But he was branded a pro-bourgeois intellectual and sent to a rural area.
In 1984, Zhao’s father left China to pursue a doctorate at the University of British Columbia In Canada. His family joined him 5 years later in 1989.
Zhao remembers that only after he moved to Canada, at the age of 12, he tried fresh milk for the first time. It was a luxury in China that a family of a university teacher couldn’t afford.
Zhao Worked Wherever Possible to Help His Family
During his teen years, Zhao worked at a Chevron gas station, as a referee at volleyball games, and at McDonalds to help his family. But until now, there is no data on whether the future billionaire had any siblings.
He Studied Programming at McGill University
When his father bought a 286 DOS computer, the technology had such an impact on Zhao that he decided to pursue a career in programming. He enrolled in computer courses, and later, he majored in computer science at McGill University.
Zhao Worked for Several Companies
After graduation, Zhao interned as a subcontractor at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. There, he was working on software for matching trade orders.
In 2001, he got the position of head of the Futures Development sector at Bloomberg Tradebooks in New York. There, he developed software for futures trading.
Fusion Systems Was the First Company Founded by Zhao
Over time, China evolved, and in 2005, Changpeng Zhao was ready to return to his home country. There, he co-founded a company called Fusion Systems. It was an IT and consultancy company that offered high-frequency trading systems for brokers. The company was so successful that even Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse were among their clients.
Zhao Was First Introduced to the World of Crypto in 2013
In 2013, Zhao first learned about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. A friend introduced him to the world of crypto during a poker game. At that time, Bitcoin and crypto had grown into a billion-dollar industry, and much of it was concentrated in Shanghai. Zhao loved the concept of blockchain and money without borders. He used to refer to himself as an “anywhere” person, and borders were “just conceptual things that some people made up”. Blockchain also didn’t have borders, that’s why this technology was close to Zhao.
He started attending crypto conferences and even joined Blockchain.info and later became a Chief Technology Officer of OKCoin. OKCoin was one of the largest crypto exchanges at that time but Zhao felt that the place didn’t suit his vision of crypto. So, he left OKCoin.
In 2014, he sold his Shanghai apartment and bought BTC for $1mln. Even during the first crypto winter when BTC fell by half and the prices for accommodation in Shanghai doubled, Zhao stayed faithful to the idea of blockchain and crypto.
Bijie Tech — the Foundation for Binance
In 2015, Zhao founded Bijie Tech — a company that provided crypto exchange services to users in Shanghai. But in 2017, all the websites of Bijie Tech went dead, without any warnings or explanations. The company just disappeared but with it, a new company emerged. We know it as Binance.
July 2017 — the Binance Launch
In July 2017, Changpeng Zhao launched Binance in Hong Kong. The name Binance consists of two words — “binary”, as in the ones and zeros of computer code, and “finance”. The platform managed to raise $15 mln in an initial coin offering. The active trading on the platform started 11 days later. In 2017, Zhao also launched the platform’s native coin BNB.
The platform functioned like a stock exchange. It matched buyers and sellers and used to take a piece of every trade.
Was it even legal?
At that time, cryptocurrency was not regulated. Nobody could tell that one cannot build a trading platform around a digital coin such as Bitcoin or any other. Nobody also could tell that one cannot launch an own digital coin. That’s why crypto-enthusiasts and entrepreneurs were free to create the new world without regulatory oversight. “If there’s no law against it, it is legal,” Zhao says.
But soon, things changed. China started banning many crypto-related activities. Hong Kong was only nominally a separate jurisdiction, and Binance served users not only in Hong Kong but also on the mainland. Zhao understood that it was time to move. He moved to Japan.
A Surge in Popularity and the Growth of Wealth
In 2018, Binance experienced an overwhelming increase in popularity. Just half a year after the launch, the platform was forced to suspend the creation of new accounts to upgrade its infrastructure.
In February 2018, Zhao was on the Forbes list of the richest people in the world.
Binance Wandering
Soon, it was time for Zhao and Binance to leave Japan because regulation there started becoming too strict. The same story of setting up shop and closing shop would later repeat in Malta, Singapore, and many more places. This constant wandering of the platform and its CEO became one of their distinguishing features. In 2019, Changpeng even announced that Binance had no headquarters. There were several entities of the company in different parts of the world but their functions are unclear.
This concept presented Binance as a modern company with staff located all over the globe. Zhao incorporated in it his idea about the world without borders. But with the growth of the company’s and its CEO’s wealth, the interest of regulators started growing, too.
2021 was a complicated year for Binance as it was slammed by several regulators and had to pay billions in fines. It also forced Changpeng Zhao to change his approach to the company’s headquarters location. He says the location will be revealed soon but for now, it is still unclear where the company’s headquarters will be located.
Binance’s Attitude to Luxury
Even though Zhao doesn’t care about money, luxury homes and cars, his company does. Or well, rather the marketing department believes that pleasing users can bring good results. In 2017, the company organized a Lamborghini giveaway.
Source: https://twitter.com/binance/status/945227053892214784
The tweet about the giveaway was perceived with mistrust and got just slightly over 400 likes but soon, things changed. It seems that now, lambo giveaways are a trend as several more companies followed the example.
Any Family?
There are rumors that Changpeng Zhao is married but they are not confirmed. The famous entrepreneur keeps his private life away from the public. It is not known whether he has children, either.
He Loves Binance
Indeed, it is the company he founded and brought to success. But Changpeng Zhao seems to be very much dedicated to Binance. He wears clothes with Binance, and he even has the company logo tattoo on his arm.
Zhao’s Story Is Inspiring
The story of Chengpeng Zhao is truly inspiring, to say the least. This person demonstrated that it doesn’t matter the financial situation and pressure, one can create his own pathway. The Binance CEO needed slightly over 5 years to create one of the most successful companies in the history of crypto and become one of the richest people in the world. But for him, money doesn’t mean much. He shares that he doesn’t care what the price of crypto is. He believes that blockchain will change the way we live just like the internet did, and it is the main thing.
