Early life
Changpeng Zhao was born in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province in 1977 and moved to Vancouver, Canada with his family when he was 12 years old1.
In order to reduce the burden on his family, he worked at McDonald's for 4.5 Canadian dollars (about 24 yuan) an hour and also worked night shifts at a gas station.
In college, he studied computer science at McGill University in Montreal.
Accumulation in the field of financial technology
After graduating from university in 1997, Zhao Changpeng entered the fintech industry and became a software developer for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, developing a system for matching trading orders for the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
In 2001, he moved to New York to work for Bloomberg, where he helped develop futures trading software and, at age 27, became a team leader for the company in New Jersey, London and Tokyo.
In 2005, Zhao Changpeng resigned and moved to China, where he founded Fuxun Information (which developed the fastest high-frequency trading system for securities firms) and Bijie Technology in Shanghai, earning his first pot of gold.
Getting into the cryptocurrency industry
In 2013, Zhao Changpeng met Vitalik Buterin, one of the founders of the cryptocurrency Ethereum, at a conference in Las Vegas and became very interested in blockchain.
He joined the team of cryptocurrency wallet Blockchain.info as the third founding employee, responsible for product development. He worked there for 8 months and frequently came into contact with BTC evangelists Roger Ver and Ben Reeves, which strengthened his confidence in blockchain.
In 2014, despite his family’s opposition, Zhao Changpeng sold his house in Shanghai and obtained $1 million, which he invested all in Bitcoin, becoming the first person believed by crypto believers to hold 99% of his assets in crypto.
He also met OKCoin's founder Mingxing Xu, joined OKCoin as a co-founder, and served as CTO, but left after nine months due to a dispute with CEO Mingxing Xu over the company's development direction.
Founding Binance
In June 2017, Zhao Changpeng officially founded the digital currency trading platform Binance and served as CEO.
In July of the same year, it launched its own blockchain currency, the digital currency "Binance Coin" (BNB), and raised $15 million in start-up funds through the initial coin offering (ICO).
In August 2017, Zhao Changpeng and Sequoia Capital negotiated the terms of Binance's Series A investment, but the talks ultimately broke down due to issues such as valuation.
Despite the policy environment of the central bank and seven other departments jointly halting ICO financing, Binance has continued to develop rapidly with market opportunities and its own advantages, becoming the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange in less than eight months. In the three months from December 2017 to February 2018, Binance's registered users increased from 1 million to 7 million.
Binance’s Growth and Expansion
In 2019, Binance partnered with a company called BAM Trading Services to establish the US version of Binance "Binance.US", which began operations in September of that year.
In 2020, Zhao Changpeng tweeted an apology for misappropriating user funds to participate in the Steem voting incident.
At the end of 2021, against the backdrop of a surge in many cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Zhao Changpeng became the richest Chinese with a net worth of US$94.1 billion (approximately RMB 634.8 billion), and also ranked among the top ten richest people in the world.
In 2022, Zhao Changpeng ranked 19th on the (2022 Forbes Global Billionaires List) with a fortune of US$65 billion.
Legal issues and crises faced
On March 27, 2023, Changpeng Zhao and Binance were sued by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for allegedly violating trading rules.
On June 5, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed 13 charges against Changpeng Zhao and Binance.
On November 21, 2023, Zhao Changpeng pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering, paid a $50 million fine, and agreed to pay a $175 million bail. Binance also pleaded guilty to a criminal charge and agreed to pay a total of $4.3 billion in fines.
On April 30, 2024, Zhao Changpeng was sentenced to 4 months in prison in the United States. On September 27, local time, Zhao Changpeng was released from a correctional facility in California.
