Changpeng Zhao (Chinese: 赵长鹏; pinyin: Zhào Chángpéng), commonly known as CZ, is a Chinese-born Canadian businessman, investor, and software engineer. Zhao is the co-founder and CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume as of July 2022.
According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zhao was ranked the 136th-richest person in the world, with a net worth estimated at $13.1 billion as of December 2022
Zhao’s fortune is derived from his controlling stake in Binance, a crypto exchange. Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency-exchange by trading volume, according to its website, and had more than 120 million users at the end of 2022.
Binance’s revenue of $12.6 billion is calculated using the average of the company’s annual spot and derivative trading volumes as tracked by research sites Coingecko.com and Nomics.com through Feb. 26, 2023, and the average of transaction fees disclosed on Binance’s website, calculated separately for spot and derivative volumes. It’s valued using the average enterprise value-to-sales multiple of publicly-traded peers Coinbase Global Inc, Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd and Riot Platforms Inc. The valuation is discounted by 50% due to institutional, regulatory and related risks.
Zhao is credited with 90% of Binance based on his public statements and filings in regions where ownership is publicly disclosed.
He also owns Binance.US, a related US exchange, that was valued at $4.7 billion in a March 2022 fundraising round. He’s calculated to own an 86% stake in the firm based on the firm’s fundraising history. After it was sued by the Securities & Exchange Commission in June 2023 it announced it would be transitioning to a crypto-only model and would no longer be supporting dollar transactions. Following these actions its value was reduced to zero, causing a $1 billion drop in Zhao’s fortune.
The billionaire has said that he’s also invested in Bitcoin and Binance Coin. Cryptocurrency held directly by the billionaire isn’t included because the amount is unknown.
Hazel Watts, a spokesperson for Binance, said in January 2022 that valuation estimates for Binance were “incorrect and far off” without providing further details. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment in February 2023.
Biography
Zhao was born in China’s Jiangsu province. In the late 1980s, when he was 12 years old, he immigrated with his family to Canada, settling down in Vancouver, British Columbia. His parents were both schoolteachers 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. During his teenage years in Canada, Zhao helped to support his family by holding down a number of menial service jobs, including working as a fast-food clerk at a McDonald’s restaurant and a gas station.
Zhao attended McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, where he majored in computer science.
Zhao started coding at about 16 and later completed a computer science degree in Montreal at McGill University. An internship in Japan was followed by a stint at Bloomberg’s Tradebook in New York starting in 2001.
He moved to Shanghai in 2005 to develop high-frequency trading software at Fusion Systems. An interest in cryptocurrency began in 2013 following a discussion at a poker game. He later downloaded the Bitcoin white paper and began learning about the technology.
After about a year at Blockchain.info beginning in late 2013, Zhao founded a startup that provided systems and software to exchanges before starting Binance in 2017. By 2018, Binance was the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.
Zhao, Binance and BInance.US were sued by the SEC in June 2023 for mishandling customer funds, misleading investors and regulators, and breaking securities rules. Binance said it would defend itself vigorously.
Early career
After graduating from McGill, 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
Business career
In 2005, Zhao moved to Shanghai to establish his technology startup company, Fusion Systems, which was known for “some of the fastest automated high-frequency trading platforms and systems for stockbrokers.” Zhao first heard of bitcoin in 2013 when playing poker with Bobby Lee (brother of Charlie Lee) who would later go on to found BTCC (company). Bobby Lee advised Zhao to put 10% of his money into bitcoin. Zhao instead “went all in” and sold his apartment in Shanghai and invested all in Bitcoin, to his family’s dismay.
In 2013, Zhao was a member of the team that developed Blockchain.info and he also served as Chief Technology Officer of OKCoin
Binance
After its launch in July 2017, the Binance cryptocurrency exchange was able to raise $15 million in an initial coin offering, and trading began on the exchange eleven days later. In less than eight months, Zhao grew Binance into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume (as of April 2018). Zhao also launched Binance Coin in 2017; this is a utility token that gives its owners various benefits, such as discounts on trading fees. In April 2019, Binance launched Binance Smart Chain, which has smart contract functionality and is an Ethereum competitor.
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.
In 2019, Zhao launched Binance’s U.S. affiliate, Binance.US. Binance withdrew its application to run a Singapore-based crypto exchange in 2021.
On 27 March 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against Binance and Zhao in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, claiming willful evasion of US law and allegedly breaching derivatives rules.[14] The agency accused Binance of breaking rules intended to thwart money laundering operations, pointing to internal communications describing transactions by Palestinian militant organization Hamas, and suspected criminals.
In June 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it was suing Zhao and Binance on 13 charges for alleged violations of US securities rules.
Views on Crypto
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. On April 6, 2021, Zhao told Bloomberg Markets that nearly 100% of his liquid net worth was in the form of cryptocurrency.
In 2022, Zhao invested $500 million through Binance to finance the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk
Personal life
Zhao has said that he is “a Canadian citizen, period.” Born in China in 1977, Zhao acquired a Canadian visa in 1989 and left China that same year after the events of the Tiananmen Square. In 2022, Zhao said that he had acquired Canadian citizenship some 30 years before, around 1992. In 2005, he moved back to China, eventually owning an apartment in Shanghai. In 2015, he sold his Shanghai apartment and used the funds to purchase Bitcoin. Zhao stayed in China until the Chinese government banned crypto exchanges in late 2017. He is currently based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Zhao has said he plans to donate up to 99% of his wealth, following the philanthropic examples of other global business magnates and investors. “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.”
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.
In regards to politics, Zhao stated in 2021 in Singapore: “I am not a complete libertarian, I’m not an anarchist… I don’t believe human civilization is advanced enough to live in a world with no rules.”
Milestones
- 2001 Starts work at Bloomberg Tradebook.
- 2005 Moves to Shanghai to join Fusion Systems.
- 2015 Startup Bijie Tech is founded.
- 2017 Binance is founded.
