Main Takeaways
Bitcoin Pizza Day is all about celebrating the ever-growing practical utility of digital assets. On this day, as part of Binance employee spotlight series, we feature our culture star, Cynthia. Follow her journey at Binance embodying our hardcore, user-focused culture.
Discover why talented individuals like Cynthia join Binance and thrive here through a vibrant culture of collaboration, finding purpose and growth opportunities. We’ll dive into Cynthia’s unique journey from traditional finance to the freedom of crypto, driving the adoption and utility of borderless payments.
Gain insight into how Cynthia and her colleagues serve users, building trust through innovative solutions that empower Binance’s vision of a globally connected monetary future.
Every day, crypto reshapes our global financial landscape, impacting the lives of millions worldwide, with each transaction forging a path toward a more connected future. Back in 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz sparked a revolution when he traded 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, igniting the journey of real-world crypto transactions. Fast forward to today, digital assets have grown into a trillion-dollar industry, driven by a diverse array of participants worldwide. Yet, it’s the people behind the scenes who propel this transformation forward.
Users stand at the forefront of Binance’s mission, driving every decision we make. This Bitcoin Pizza Day, we pay homage to those who tirelessly strive to shape a more inclusive and accessible financial ecosystem. Among them is Cynthia, a Product Manager at Binance, whose dedication embodies our commitment to serving users worldwide.
A Product Manager’s Pride
As a product manager, Cynthia designs seamless payment solutions for millions of users worldwide. She works to bring more users into crypto by helping them understand the monetary freedom it provides, directly embodying our user-focused culture. By creating products that demonstrate the utility of crypto, her work is nurturing the future of Web3 adoption. “Product managers are like mothers,” she explains. “Every one of your products are like your babies.” Seeing the products you’ve created resonate with users and facilitate their journeys instills a sense of pride and achievement.
Cynthia’s colleagues describe her as humble and hardcore, qualities that help her thrive in Binance’s dynamic environment. “When facing various challenges and difficulties in work, I need to remain calm and focused, using professional knowledge and skills to solve problems,” Cynthia describes. “This allows me to take on more responsibilities and challenges in the project, and partners can rely on me more.”
From Cross-Border Payments to Crypto
Cynthia recalls realizing at an early age that technology has the power to improve people’s lives tangibly and quickly. This realization sparked her interest in innovation and led her to pursue a degree in Engineering at the university. What captivated her was the potential to blend technical disciplines with the practical side of the financial world.
Eventually, she found herself facing a wall that the traditional cross-border payment systems struggled to surmount: settlement. She could see that traditional solutions were cumbersome, usually taking days to settle. Not to mention the hefty fees, eating away at transaction amounts. This was when Cynthia found cryptocurrencies and the innovations they offered for the payments industry, particularly regarding settlement speeds and transaction costs. These prospects drew her into the rapidly developing crypto industry, and it was through this curiosity that Cynthia found Binance.
The Precipice of a New World
A blend of curiosity and passion led Cynthia to Web3; her experiences in the cross-border payments industry led her to believe in blockchain’s capacity to change the world. Binance’s vision of leveraging digital assets to nurture global monetary freedom shone as a guiding light. The organization’s industry-leading position and a culture that chimed in harmony with her own beliefs beckoned Cynthia to join the movement.
Joining Binance
Stepping into her new role with Binance’s Pay team in June 2021, Cynthia began acclimating to its fast-paced environment. Here, building an open and united team spirit is essential, as Cynthia would soon come to discover. With the support of her teammates, Cynthia was able to smoothly embed herself into the workflows. The trust she could place in her colleagues helped foster trust in herself, and quickly found herself overcoming the gaps in her knowledge. This driven and collaborative attitude led her to become an integral part of the team soon after joining.
Cynthia recalls that relocating to a new country to join Binance also presented new obstacles – climate, language, and even currency. Upon arrival, she was yet to acquire any of the local fiat money. Tired, craving a small comfort to unwind from the journey, she bought a cup of coffee using crypto. Just like Laszlo Hanyecz in 2010, as well as countless others thereafter, she was experiencing the convenience of crypto in the everyday joys of life, whether that be coffee or pizza. As Cynthia describes, “I don’t want to be limited by local fiat currencies when traveling. Switching one fiat for another can be a troublesome process, and crypto makes life much more convenient and free.”
Curious people like Cynthia tend to tackle new challenges as quickly as crypto payments settle. She embraced her new circumstances with an open mind and came to appreciate her new city’s charm of vibrancy and diversity, turning her adjustment into an exciting journey.
At Binance, we have a saying that a year of working here is equal to working three years elsewhere. True to this maxim, after only a few months, Cynthia already felt she had been working at Binance for a long time. Navigating the twists and turns of the crypto world with a group of fellow enthusiasts gave Cynthia a sense of contributing to something bigger. Moreover, remote work meant she had the independence to choose her own way of working and living with flexibility, while having the room to truly shine and grow in her field.
Staying Motivated Through Challenges
The team’s trust and connection foster a deeper team spirit, which is Cynthia's top motivator. As Cynthia puts it, “professional knowledge and trust in partners is essential for success.”
Having this robust support network to fall back on allows Cynthia to thrive in her role. Striking the right balance between autonomy and teamwork, this environment is a testament to the team’s leadership and the bonds Cynthia and her colleagues have built.
Red Packets Giveaway campaign
Cynthia fondly recalls the launch of the first Crypto Red Packets Giveaway campaign launched in July 2022. The campaign aimed to teach potential users about the features of Binance Pay by providing them with a small amount of crypto to start their journeys. Having helped design, launch, and evaluate the campaign, Cynthia was empowered to see her team’s efforts resonate with users and bring in waves of new joiners. As Cynthia’s first growth project, the Red Packet campaign had been a huge milestone for her. Having been improved and optimized since then, the promotion is now a monthly occurrence with over 2,000,000 participants each time.
Beyond the product’s success, it was also a valuable experience in terms of promoting user education. Though an intuitive mechanism, the campaign helps new users settle into Binance Pay by providing them with a small amount of crypto to get started. This was Cynthia’s vision when designing the product – to ease the journey into the world of digital assets. Putting herself in the user’s shoes, she understood that it may not be easy or comfortable to deposit one’s own money into the platform a new user doesn’t fully understand yet. Thus, the campaign gives them a little boost in confidence to begin the exploration.
Driven by the Bigger Vision
On weekends, Cynthia enjoys getting together with friends and playing murder mystery table games. Cynthia’s passion for playing these games, where she nimbly switches personas and unravels mysteries, stands as a colorful metaphor for her dynamic role at Binance. Just like her hobby demands adaptability, Cynthia's work requires her to wear multiple hats – that of user, analyst, designer, and more.
Binance’s vibrant culture of user focus and collaboration is embodied in the efforts of professionals like Cynthia. In the heart of this rapidly evolving space, she turns challenges into opportunities, working to design seamless payment solutions and further crypto adoption and utility. As we celebrate yet another Bitcoin Pizza Day, we recognize the enormous strides made since the first real-world crypto transaction and the massive contributions to this process by inspiring Web3 professionals like Cynthia. As we keep advancing this remarkable crypto transformation together, Binancians like Cynthia are striving towards a future where the freedom of money is a tangible reality for all.
Interested in working at Binance? Learn about our open Product roles and more.
