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Changpeng Zhao

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The native form of this personal name is Zhao Changpeng. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Changpeng Zhao
CZ speaking at Vietnam NFT Summit 2022
Born (1977-02-05) February 5, 1977 (age 47)
Jiangsu, China
NationalityCanadian
Other namesCZ
Alma materMcGill University
Known forCo-founder and CEO of Binance

Changpeng Zhao (Chinese: 赵长鹏; pinyin: Zhào Chángpéng), commonly known as "CZ", is a Chinese-Canadian business executive. Zhao is the co-founder and CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume as of July 2022.[1] CZ was born in Jiangsu, China and moved to Canada at a young age with his family. He is currently based in Singapore.[2]

According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zhao was ranked the 30th-richest person in the world, with a net worth estimated at $33 billion as of October 2022.[3][4]

Early life and education

Zhao was born in China's Jiangsu province. In the late 1980s, he moved with his family to Canada when he was 12 years old, settling in Vancouver, British Columbia. His parents were both teachers in China. His father worked as a university instructor before he was branded a "pro-bourgeois intellect" and exiled to rural areas shortly after Zhao's birth.[5] In his teenage years, Zhao helped support his family by working a number of service jobs, including at a McDonald's.[6]

Zhao attended McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, where he majored in computer science.[6]

Career

After graduating from university, Zhao was selected for an internship in Tokyo working for a subcontractor of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, developing software for matching trade orders. He then worked full-time for four years at Bloomberg Tradebook where he was a developer of futures trading software.[6]

In 2005, he moved to Shanghai where he founded Fusion Systems,[7] known for "some of the fastest high-frequency trading systems for brokers."[6]

In 2013, he was a member of the team that developed Blockchain.info and also served as Chief Technology Officer of OKCoin.[6]

Binance

After launching the cryptocurrency exchange in July 2017, Binance was able to raise $15 million in an initial coin offering, and trading began on the exchange eleven days later.[8] In less than eight months, Zhao grew Binance into the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume (as of April 2018).[9][8] Zhao also launched Binance Coin in 2017, which is a utility token that gives its owners various benefits, such as discounts on trading fees.[10] In April 2019, Binance launched Binance Smart Chain, which has smart contract functionality and is an Ethereum competitor.[11]

In February 2018, Forbes placed him third on their list of "The Richest People In Cryptocurrency," with an estimated net worth of $1.1-2 billion.[9][12]

In 2019, Zhao launched Binance's U.S. affiliate, Binance.US.[13] Binance withdrew its application to run a Singapore-based crypto exchange in 2021.[2]

Views

In an interview with The New York Times, Zhao said people are getting into crypto as they see it grow, "trade it and make money off it as opposed to using it", but that the market will always self-correct.[14] On April 6, 2021, Zhao told Bloomberg Markets that nearly 100% of his liquid net worth was in the form of cryptocurrency.[15]

In 2022, Zhao invested $500 million through Binance to finance the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk.[16]

Personal life

In 2022, Zhao said that he acquired Canadian citizenship 30 years beforehand, around in 1992.[17] Zhao has said that he is "a Canadian citizen, period."[18] In 2005 he moved back to China,[19] eventually owning an apartment in Shanghai.[20] In 2015, he sold his Shanghai apartment and used the funds to purchase Bitcoin.[21] Zhao stayed in China until late 2017.[22]

Zhao said he plans to donate up to 99% of his wealth, following the philanthropic feats of other magnates. "I intend to donate most of my wealth, as many other entrepreneurs or founders have done, from Peabody to today. I intend to donate 90%, 95%, or 99% of my wealth."[23]

According to a Reuters investigative story about Binance, Zhao had a romantic relationship with former Chinese travel television show host and Binance co-founder Yi He for "several years." She later gave birth to a son in the United States.[24]

References

  1. ^ Browne, Ryan (2022-07-18). "Crypto exchange Binance fined $3.4 million by Dutch central bank for operating illegally". CNBC. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  2. ^ a b "Binance ends its Singapore application to run a local crypto exchange".
  3. ^ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Changpeng Zhao". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
  4. ^ "World's Biggest Crypto Fortune Began With a Friendly Poker Game". Bloomberg L.P. 9 January 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-01-09. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  5. ^ "赵长鹏与币安的崛起". 知乎专栏 (in Chinese). Retrieved 2021-11-09.
  6. ^ a b c d e Ambler, Pamela (February 28, 2018). "From Zero To Crypto Billionaire In Under A Year: Meet The Founder Of Binance". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  7. ^ Russell, Jon (2018-05-04). "Catch Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao at TechCrunch's blockchain event on July 6". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
  8. ^ a b Lee, Justina; Nakamura, Yuji; Robertson, Benjamin (2018-03-28). "How a Billionaire Crypto King Built the No. 1 Exchange in Just 8 Months". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
  9. ^ a b Cao, Sissi (2018-04-03). "Despite Bitcoin Bubble Popping, Crypto Exchanges Are Making Billionaires Richer". Observer. Retrieved 2018-04-24.
  10. ^ "Fee Structure on Binance". Binance.com. Binance.com. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  11. ^ "An Introduction to BNB Smart Chain (BSC)". academy.binance.com. binance.com. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  12. ^ Ambler, Pamela; Au-Yeung, Angel; Chung, Grace; Kauflin, Jeff; Konrad, Alex; Shin, Laura; Vardi, Nathan (February 6, 2018). "The Richest People In Cryptocurrency". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  13. ^ "Our US Partner, Binance.US, Opens for Registration and Deposits | Binance". www.binance.com. Retrieved 2022-07-11.
  14. ^ Lipton, Eric; Livni, Ephrat (2021-07-23). "'I Feel Conflicted': Crypto's Offshore Trading Moguls Talk Shop". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2021-11-25. Retrieved 2021-11-28.
  15. ^ Kharif, Olga (6 April 2021). "Binance CEO Goes All-in on Tokens: 'I Just Want to Keep Crypto'". Bloomberg Markets. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  16. ^ "Crypto CEO says Elon Musk has no plan for Twitter, and reveals why he wrote him a $500 million 'blank check'". Business Insider.
  17. ^ "'Binance isn't a Chinese firm. Have to repeat it cause I look Chinese': CEO Changpeng Zhao". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  18. ^ "How China's crypto king went from McDonald's to billionaire". South China Morning Post. 2022-10-29. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  19. ^ "How China's crypto king went from McDonald's to billionaire". South China Morning Post. 2022-10-29. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  20. ^ Gomes, Ezequiel (2021-06-04). "CZ, CEO of Binance, sold his house and bought Bitcoin in 2014". Criptoeconomia. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  21. ^ Zhao, Changpeng. "I wish I could tell you my lame story from 2015, when the btc price "crashed" to below $200, and I just sold my house and bought in at $600 a few months earlier..." Twitter. Twitter.com. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  22. ^ "Changpeng Zhao reiterates Binance is not a Chinese company". forkast.news. 2022-09-02. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  23. ^ Shoes, Eloisa (2021-11-17). "Bilionário da Binance vai doar quase todo seu dinheiro". Investidores Brasil - Juntos Podemos Mais (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  24. ^ "How Binance CEO and aides plotted to dodge regulators in U.S. and UK". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
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