Changpeng Zhao

Changpeng Zhao — universally known by his initials CZ — is a Chinese-Canadian entrepreneur born in Jiangsu, China in 1977 who emigrated to Canada with his family during his teenage years. CZ studied computer science at McGill University in Montreal, then worked as a software developer at Bloomberg and the Tokyo Stock Exchange before entering the financial technology sector. His path to crypto began in 2013 when a poker game in Shanghai introduced him to Bitcoin and he subsequently sold his apartment to invest, becoming an early adopter before the asset's first major bull run.

CZ joined Blockchain.info (now Blockchain.com) as Head of Development in 2013, then moved to OKCoin as CTO in 2014. His exposure to the mechanics of cryptocurrency exchange infrastructure at scale provided the foundation for what would become Binance. In 2017, CZ left to found Binance — raising $15 million in an initial coin offering for the BNB token in July 2017 and launching the exchange weeks later.

Binance's rise was extraordinary even by the standards of the 2017 crypto bull market. Within six months of launch, it was already the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume — a position it has maintained through multiple market cycles. CZ's approach combined engineering excellence (Binance's matching engine could handle 1.4 million orders per second), aggressive expansion across global markets, constant product launches (futures, options, Launchpad, Earn, NFTs, Visa cards), and a founder persona that communicated directly and constantly with the community.

The BNB token, originally an ERC-20 Ethereum token, was repatriated to BNB Chain as its native asset. BNB has served multiple functions: fee discounts on Binance's exchange, the native gas token for BNB Chain, launchpad fundraising, and a deflationary burn mechanism where Binance regularly destroys BNB tokens using a portion of its profits. These combined demands made BNB one of the largest-cap cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation.

BNB Chain (launched in September 2020 as Binance Smart Chain) was CZ and Binance's response to the DeFi summer of 2020 — a period when Ethereum gas fees made DeFi inaccessible to smaller participants. BSC's EVM compatibility, 21-validator delegated proof-of-authority consensus, and three-second block times created a chain that was cheap, fast, and immediately accessible to Ethereum DeFi developers.

PancakeSwap emerged as BSC's flagship DeFi application, briefly becoming the highest-volume DEX in the world during the 2021 bull market. Venus Protocol, ApeSwap, and dozens of other protocols built on BSC, creating a DeFi ecosystem that served tens of millions of users in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa who found Ethereum's fees prohibitive. Despite persistent criticism of its centralisation (21 validators, most affiliated with Binance), BNB Chain has maintained its position as one of the three largest DeFi ecosystems by TVL.

In November 2023, following a US Department of Justice investigation spanning multiple years, CZ and Binance reached a resolution: Binance pleaded guilty to violating US anti-money laundering regulations and agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine — one of the largest corporate penalties in US history. CZ personally pleaded guilty to a single count of failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme and agreed to step down as Binance CEO. In April 2024, CZ was sentenced to four months in federal prison in the United States, which he served.

CZ's release from prison in late 2024 and his subsequent public reengagement with the crypto industry marked a continuation rather than an end of his influence. Binance, under new CEO Richard Teng, remained the largest crypto exchange. CZ announced plans to focus on Web3 education and investment in blockchain and AI ventures. His story — from immigrant student to crypto billionaire to convicted felon to industry elder statesman — is one of the most dramatic arcs in cryptocurrency history.