Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as "CZ", is a Chinese-Canadian business executive. Zhao is the founder and CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume as of July 2022.
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Biography of Changpeng Zhao
Zhao was born in the Chinese province of Jiangsu. In the late 1980s, he moved with his family to Canada when he was 12, settling in Vancouver, British Columbia. His parents were teachers in China. His father was a university lecturer. As a teenager, Zhao helped to support his family by working a number of jobs, including at McDonald's. Zhao attended McGill University in Montreal, Quebec where he majored in Computer Science. After university, Zhao started working at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, developing software for matching trade orders. He also worked at Bloomberg Tradebook where he was a futures trading software developer. In 2005 he moved to Shanghai where he founded Fusion Systems, known as one of the fastest high frequency trading systems for brokers. Since 2013, he has worked in various cryptocurrency projects, including Blockchain.info, and also served as CTO of OKCoin. In 2017, Zhao left OKCoin to open a cryptocurrency exchange, called Binance. He founded the company in July 2017 after funding $15 million during the initial coin offering. In less than eight months, Zhao turned Binance into the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.
Zhao and cryptocurrency
Zhao first learned about cryptocurrency while playing poker with friends. According to one financial professional who explained the rules to him, Zhao's interest went beyond mere curiosity. He really looked into it and started looking for opportunities in the field back in 2013. By then, Bitcoin and the wider universe of cryptocurrencies had grown into a billion dollar industry, most of which was centered in Shanghai, China's booming tech capital. Zhao attended crypto conferences and found work at emerging firms such as Blockchain.com and Okcoin. He sold his apartment in Shanghai and spent roughly $1 million to buy bitcoins at $600 per unit. Zhao maintained his conviction even as the value of real estate in Shanghai doubled and the cryptocurrency halved – it was his first crypto winter. In 2017, he founded his own exchange platform in Hong Kong. Its name, Binance, was a combination of two words: "binary", as in the ones and zeros of computer code, and "finance". Like many other crypto businesses, it functioned like a stock exchange, matching buyers and sellers and executing each trade. Zhao seemed to have a grander vision in mind, as evidenced by Binance's early motto: "trade the world."
Launch of Binance
When Bitcoin was invented, of course, no specific laws were for it. The authorities were unsure whether and how the existing financial rules should be applied. In the eyes of crypto entrepreneurs, they were free to build a new world without the usual institutional restrictions. In 2017, bitcoin rose and was worth 20 thousand US dollars per unit. Binance has launched its own BNB token to raise funds to launch the exchange. But soon China, which welcomed Zhao, was inclined to believe that it was all a risk. The country banned fundraising for cryptocurrencies and closed domestic exchanges. Hong Kong was nominally a separate jurisdiction and Binance still served users on the mainland. Thanks to the sheer number of coins it has listed and the hurdles currently hampering its Chinese competitors, Binance has experienced a huge surge in popularity. Six months after its launch, the platform had to suspend the creation of new accounts, updating its infrastructure to accommodate the influx of traffic. Existing Binance accounts were sold for premium online. In January 2018, US$6 billion flowed through the exchange in one day. The following month, Forbes, noted for its rich lists, crowned Zhao a cover star. Binance - the largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the world. It offers a wide variety of trading options and features, including an impressive selection of market charts and hundreds of cryptocurrencies. Users can also access a variety of trading options, including futures and options, as well as multiple order types. However, many options and features are not available in the United States, and only over 65 cryptocurrencies are available for US customers.
