Changpeng Zhao, widely known as "CZ," is a Chinese-Canadian business leader. 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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Changpeng Zhao's Biography
Zhao was born in the Chinese province of Jiangsu. In the late 1980s, he moved to Canada with his family when he was 12 years old, settling in Vancouver, British Columbia. His parents were educators in China, and his father worked as a university lecturer. In his teenage years, Zhao helped support his family by working various jobs, including at McDonald's.
Zhao studied at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, specializing in computer science. After university, Zhao began working at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, developing software for order matching. He also worked at Bloomberg Tradebook, where he was a software developer for futures trading.
In 2005, he moved to Shanghai, where he founded Fusion Systems, known as one of the fastest high-frequency trading systems for brokers. Starting in 2013, he worked on various cryptocurrency projects, including Blockchain.info, and held the position of CTO at OKCoin. In 2017, Zhao left OKCoin to launch a cryptocurrency exchange called Binance. He founded the company in July 2017 after raising $15 million in initial coin offering (ICO) funding. 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 a financial expert who explained the rules to him, Zhao's interest went beyond mere curiosity. He genuinely studied it and began exploring opportunities in the field as early as 2013.
By that time, Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency universe had become a billion-dollar industry, with much of it centered in Shanghai, the rapidly developing tech hub of China. Zhao attended crypto conferences and found employment in emerging firms. His collaboration included companies like:
- Blockchain.com
- OKCoin.
He sold his apartment in Shanghai and spent approximately $1 million to buy bitcoins at $600 per unit. Zhao held onto his conviction, even as Shanghai's property prices doubled and cryptocurrency prices 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 "binary," as in computer code of ones and zeros, and "finance." Like many other crypto ventures, it operated as a cryptocurrency exchange, matching buyers and sellers and facilitating each transaction. Zhao seemed to have a more grandiose vision, as reflected in Binance's early motto: "Exchange the World."
Launch of Binance
When Bitcoin was invented, there were naturally no specific laws governing it. Authorities were unsure whether and how to apply existing financial regulations. In the eyes of crypto entrepreneurs, they could freely build a new world without the usual institutional constraints.
In 2017, Bitcoin surged in value, reaching $20,000 per unit. Binance issued its own token, BNB, to raise funds for the exchange's launch. However, China, which had initially welcomed Zhao, began leaning towards viewing all of this as a risk. The country banned fundraising for cryptocurrencies and shut down domestic exchanges. Hong Kong was nominally a separate jurisdiction, and Binance continued to serve users on the mainland. Thanks to the vast number of coins it listed and the obstacles currently hindering its Chinese competitors, Binance experienced a massive surge in popularity.
Within six months of its launch, the platform had to halt the creation of new accounts, upgrading its infrastructure to accommodate the influx of traffic. Existing Binance accounts were selling at a premium online. In January 2018, the exchange processed $6 billion in a single day. The following month, Forbes, known for its rich lists, featured Zhao on its cover as a star.
Binance is the world's largest cryptocurrency trading platform. It offers a wide range of trading options and features, including an impressive selection of market charts and hundreds of cryptocurrencies. Users can also access various 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 accessible to U.S. customers.
