Founded by Chinese-Canadian programmer Changpeng Zhao, Binance was initially based in China but later moved out of China due to increasing Chinese restrictions on cryptocurrencies.
On May 7, 2019, Binance revealed that it had been the victim of a “large-scale security breach” in which hackers stole 7,000 Bitcoins, worth around $40 million at the time. CEO Changpeng Zhao said the hackers “used a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses, and other attacks” and structured their transactions “in a way that passed our existing security checks.” Binance suspended additional withdrawals and deposits but allowed forms of trading. The site pledged to compensate customers through its Secure Asset Fund.
CEO Changpeng Zhao founded Fusion Systems in 2005 in Shanghai, where the company built high-frequency trading systems for stock market brokers. In 2013, he joined Blockchain.com as the third member of the cryptocurrency wallet team. He also worked for less than a year at OKCoin, a platform for trading fiat currencies and digital assets. He was hired to the position in 2014 by Yi Hu, with whom he would co-found Binance several years later.
The company was founded in 2017 in China but has moved its servers $BNB