Changpeng Zhao (CZ)

Who is Changpeng Zhao?

Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ Binance, is one of the wealthiest and most prominent members of the Crypto Industry. According to statistics provided by Forbes and other online sources, Changpeng Zhao is #1 wealthiest man alive in the Crypto Industry, with a net worth of a whopping $10.5 Billion. He is often referred to as the King of Crypto. CZ is not only the wealthiest trader, but also the founder and CEO of the world’s #1 biggest Exchange, Binance, which is a centralized platform that enables users to trade cryptocurrencies, participate in NFT Auctions, Cloud Mining, and many other services.

Although for years he has had a really good reputation in the industry, recently the SEC (Security Exchange Commission) in the U.S.A sued him and his company Binance for engaging in malicious activities, such as conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure, and calculated evasion of law. In an 136 page-long complaint, the SEC stated that CZ and his company, Binance, publicly claimed that Binance.US was a separate entity, but Changpeng Zhao was controlling it behind the scenes, which is against the law.

After this news came out, Binance took the matter to social media and replied that they had been very cooperative in the investigation done by the Security Exchange Commission, but that the agency “chose to act unilaterally and litigate.”

As of the time of writing, there has yet to be progress made to solve this matter. However, there is no doubt that this news did and will continue to affect the reputation of Changpeng Zhao.

Early Life and Education

46 years old as of 2023, Changpeng Zhao was born in 1977 in China’s province of Jiangsu into a well-educated family. His mother was a teacher while his father served as a professor at China’s leading University of Science and Technology.

However, soon after the birth of Zhao, his father was labeled as pro-bourgeois and killed. In the late 1980s, when he was 12 years old, his family immigrated to Canada and settled in Vancouver, British Columbia. Due to his family’s financial status during his teenage years, he worked as a fast-food clerk at McDonald’s.

Before getting into cryptocurrency and financial markets, Changpeng Zhao went to McGill University in Montreal and graduated in Computer Science.

Career at Blockchain.com and OkCoin

Changpeng Zhao’s career at Blockhchain.com and OkCoin was a turning point that eventually led him to the idea of creating Binance. Before we talk about it, let’s talk about his early career.

After successfully graduating from McGill University, he got an internship in Tokyo for a stock exchange subcontractor, where he served as a software developer, responsible for creating software for Matching Trade orders. After this internship, he started working as a full-time software developer for four years at Bloomberg Terminal.

Later on, he moved to Shanghai to launch his first tech startup known as ‘Fusion System’ which was a success. After learning about cryptocurrency and Bitcoin for the first time in 2013, CZ became attracted to it and joined the development team at the #1 Bitcoin Blockchain explorer, Blockchain.com, as a software developer. Soon after, he took part in the development of OkCoin Exchange and for a short period, served as Chief Technology Officer.

Founding Binance

Binance was an entirely unique idea proposed by Changpeng Zhao. In his time working on OkCoin, he decided to create an all-in-one crypto trading platform with the aim to fix problems faced by investors when getting into the crypto space.

The idea was so unique that after its launch in July 2017, Binance become the #1 Crypto Exchange in terms of trading volume. That’s not all, in its native token $BNB ICO (Initial Coin Offering) on Ethereum Blockchain, Binance was able to raise more than $15 million. Initially, BNB was an ERC-20 token but soon after the launch of Binance Smart Chain, which has smart contract functionality similar to Ethereum, BNB migrated from ERC-20 to BEP-20 at the ratio of 1:1.

Currently, two entities with the name Binance operate worldwide, first one is Binance.com also known as Binance Global and the second is Binance U.S. which claims to be a separate entity solely serving U.S. clients and is regulated under regional laws.

Binance’s Rise to Prominence

One of the key reason behind Binance’s rise to prominence is its approach to deal with new innovations in the crypto industry. After earning users’ trust and becoming the #1 Exchange in terms of trading volume, instead of celebrating, Binance started to expand its business by adding new services such as Launchpad, Binance Labs, Binance Academy, DEX, Launchpool, Binance Earn and many more.

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According to an official statement made by the company, they don’t want to be just a crypto trading platform, but an infrastructure provider product suite that can be utilized to build a better crypto future world.

CZ’s Challenges & Controversies

Because of regulatory restrictions all around the world for crypto trading, Changpeng Zhao’s career has been surrounded by many challenges and controversies, and recent allegation by the SEC is just one example of it.

As previously mentioned, Binance was launched in July 2017 with headquarters located in China. However, in September 2017, China banned all crypto Exchanges, including Binance, and from there sprung a long list of challenges. Instead of relocating its company’s physical location, CZ made a smart decision and made the company completely remote.

Presently, the company is regulated by multiple nations across different regions, and has established regional offices in Dubai, U.S.A, Thailand, Spain, Poland, France, Italy and many more.

Apart from these regulatory issues, Binance also has been involved in controversies related to hacking, fraud and drug trafficking. In a blog post published by Routers (a prominent news investigation site) back in June 2022, the journalist called Binance “a hub for hackers, drug traffickers and fraudsters.”

As published by two investigative journalists, Angus Berwick and Tom Wilson, for Routers, “In 2019 alone, Binance received more than $770 million in criminal funds.” These findings were originally reported by crypto researcher Chainalysis, at the behest of U.S government agencies tracking illegal money flow. In response, CZ took this matter to twitter and stated that such were false allegations.

CZ’s Influence in the Crypto Space

Changpeng Zhao is without any doubt one of the most influential men in the crypto industry. In the history of crypto we have seen so many times that whenever the Security Exchange Commission announces an open investigation against any project, the market dramatically collapses. However, in the recent case of Binance there was little to no fluctuation noticed. Even if we look at the reserves chart of Binance holdings, they also remained relatively stable, which indicates that no one was in a hurry to withdraw their funds out of fear.

CZ’s Philanthropic Efforts

In an interview from late 2021, Zhao said that like other major business magnates and investors around the globe, he also wanted to donate most of his wealth to serve humanity in the best way possible. He went on in saying that, “I intend to donate 90%, 95%, or 99% of my wealth.”

Conclusion

In the end, I would say Changpeng Zhao is an inspiration for many, considering his early career working as a laborer at McDonald’s, to becoming one of the wealthiest moguls in the crypto industry. Despite many allegations and controversies surrounding his career, he will continue to be one of the most influential people in the crypto industry.

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