CZ, or Changpeng Zhao, founded and runs Binance, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. Zhao established Binance in 2017, and since then, the exchange’s daily trading volume has risen to almost $20 billion. Zhao is a Bitcoin enthusiast who has accumulated a fortune in the digital currency; nonetheless, his $15 billion+ wealth is mostly attributable to his stake in Binance Holding Company.

In November of 2022, Zhao made headlines when competing exchange FTX had a liquidity problem. At first, Zhao halted all transactions using the FTT token, FTX’s native token. Then, when FTX’s problems became worse, Zhao said he was in discussions to buy the company from FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried. After a day of due diligence revealed a gap of much more than $6 billion as well as raised issues about FTX’s management of client assets, Zhao announced that Binance was withdrawing its purchase attempt. Once worth $32 billion, FTX filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 two days later.

Primitive Years: Background and Formative Experiences

On February 5, 1977, within the Chinese province of Jiangsu, Changpeng Zhao entered the world. His father, Shengkai, moved to Vancouver, Canada in 1984 to get his Ph.D.; the rest of the family followed in 1989. The Zhaos were able to quickly get visas and leave China shortly after the slaughter in Tiananmen Square.

When he was young, his father bought the family a 286 DOS computer that cost a cool $7,000. Zhao went on to study computer science at McGill University after enrolling in programming courses.

Binance’s Founder’s Background and Professional History

Zhao worked as a Tokyo Stock Exchange contractor after graduating from McGill, and subsequently led Bloomberg Professional Services’ Tradebook Futures Development team from 2001 to 2005.

He finally relocated to Singapore with a group of pals to establish an IT consultancy firm called Fusion Systems.

To add to his already impressive resume, Zhao also founded Bijie Tech, a company that offers cloud-based services to markets. However, in March of 2017, China started clamping down on cryptocurrency exchanges, and Zhao began thinking of starting his own crypto exchange to avoid the government’s regulations.

Binance began trading in July of 2017, but by September of that year, all cryptocurrency exchanges were outlawed in China. After being forced to leave China, Zhao and his firm decided to go completely remote rather than just moving to a new nation.

Within a short period of time, Binance expanded to become one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, the premise to create the success of BSC ecosystem. Over $10 billion is traded on a daily basis in spot transactions, and $50 billion is traded in derivatives, expanding its worldwide reach. Since then, Zhao’s net worth has skyrocketed, with his wealth hitting about $100 billion during the height of the crypto bullish run in 2021, when he was the company’s main shareholder.

Personal Life

Although he doesn’t divulge much about himself online, a recent feature did provide some insight into Zhao’s formative years.

When Zhao immigrated to the United States at the age of 12, he had never before had the opportunity to drink fresh milk. After his father purchased the family a computer, he started doing odd jobs as a youngster and eventually grew interested in computer programming.

As of now, Zhao is single.

How much is Changpeng Zhao worth right now?

Depending on how much Binance is worth, Changpeng Zhao’s wealth may be anywhere from $15 billion and more. He could also have substantial crypto or other asset holdings, but this is not public knowledge. At the peak of the cryptocurrency market mania in 2021, his personal wealth was over $65 billion. However, the ensuing market fall in 2022 substantially reduced his wealth.

Is it true that Binance has acquired FTX?

According to Zhao’s tweet, Binance and FTX entered into a purely symbolic letter of intent (LOI) to buy each other on November 8th, 2022.

After a day’s investigation, Binance decided not to acquire FTX, and the agreement was terminated.

The company eventually sought protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Twitter handle for Changpeng Zhao?

On his widely followed Twitter account, which goes by the name @cz binance, Changpeng Zhao expresses his opinions.

What is Changpeng Zhao’s Twitter account?

Changpeng Zhao shares his thoughts on his popular Twitter account; his handle is @cz_binance.

To sum up

Binance is a crypto powerhouse, and Zhao is an industry leader. With other large crypto exchanges folding, Binance maintains the top spot as the no. 1 crypto exchange in the world. Zhao’s companies are not without controversy, and the continuous evolution of cryptocurrency regulation may present new challenges. Zhao may be the one crypto executive who can help usher in the next phase of crypto legitimacy as regulatory oversight increases.