Changpeng Zhao

Changpeng Zhao
Zhao in 2022
Changpeng Zhao
Born	1977
Birthplace	Lianyungang, Jiangsu, China
Occupation	Businessman, technology executive
Known for	Co-founder and former CEO of Binance, CTO of OKCoin, Co-founder of Blockchain.com
Children	5

Changpeng Zhao (Template:Lang-zh; Template:Pinyin; born 1977), commonly known as CZ, is a Chinese-born Canadian businessman who co-founded the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the largest such platform in the world by trading volume. Born in Lianyungang, Jiangsu, China, Zhao emigrated to Canada as a teenager and later studied computer science at McGill University in Montreal. Before entering the cryptocurrency industry, he built trading systems for financial institutions including the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Bloomberg L.P. Zhao rose to global prominence after launching Binance in 2017, which quickly became the dominant cryptocurrency exchange. He previously served as chief technology officer of OKCoin and co-founded Blockchain.com. In November 2023, Zhao resigned as CEO of Binance after the United States Department of Justice charged him with violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four months in federal prison in April 2024, completing his sentence by September of that year. In October 2025, he received a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump. Zhao's career trajectory—from a teenage immigrant who worked fast-food jobs to one of the wealthiest individuals in the cryptocurrency industry—has made him one of the most recognizable and controversial figures in digital finance.

Early Life

Changpeng Zhao was born in 1977 in Lianyungang, a coastal city in Jiangsu province, China. His father was a university professor who had been politically targeted during the Cultural Revolution in China. The family emigrated from China when Zhao was a teenager, eventually settling in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

During his early years in Canada, Zhao took on a series of working-class jobs to help support his family. He worked overnight shifts at a McDonald's restaurant and also held a position at a gas station. These formative experiences in minimum-wage labor were later frequently cited in media profiles, often juxtaposed against his eventual accumulation of significant wealth in the cryptocurrency industry.

Zhao has described his upbringing in Canada as a period of cultural adjustment and financial modesty. Despite the family's limited means, his father's academic background fostered an environment that valued education and intellectual pursuit. This background would influence Zhao's later decision to pursue studies in computer science, a field that would prove instrumental to his career in financial technology and cryptocurrency.

Zhao has held Canadian citizenship and later also obtained citizenship in the United Arab Emirates, where he relocated as Binance faced increasing regulatory scrutiny in multiple jurisdictions. He has repeatedly stated in interviews that Binance is not a Chinese company, noting that despite his ethnic background, the company was not founded or headquartered in China.

Education

Zhao attended McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science. McGill, one of Canada's leading research universities, provided Zhao with a technical foundation in software development and systems architecture. His studies there equipped him with the programming skills he would later apply to building trading systems for financial firms and, eventually, to the development of the Binance exchange platform.

Career

Early Career in Finance and Technology

After graduating from McGill University, Zhao began his career developing trading systems for established financial institutions. He worked on futures trading systems for the Tokyo Stock Exchange and later developed software at Bloomberg L.P., the global financial data and media company. These roles gave Zhao extensive experience in the mechanics of high-frequency trading platforms, order matching engines, and the infrastructure required to process large volumes of financial transactions—skills that would prove directly applicable to cryptocurrency exchange operations.

Zhao has stated in interviews that his time in traditional finance exposed him to the inefficiencies and high costs of conventional financial systems, which contributed to his later interest in decentralized and blockchain-based alternatives.

Entry into Cryptocurrency

Zhao first encountered Bitcoin around 2013 and became interested in the technology underpinning cryptocurrency. He joined Blockchain.com (then known as Blockchain.info) as the third member of the team, serving in a development role that familiarized him with the infrastructure of cryptocurrency wallets and blockchain technology.

He subsequently became the chief technology officer of OKCoin, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in China at the time. His tenure at OKCoin provided him with direct operational experience running a major exchange, including the technical challenges of scaling a platform to handle high transaction volumes and the regulatory complexities of operating in the Chinese market.

Founding of Binance

In July 2017, Zhao co-founded Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange that conducted an initial coin offering (ICO) to raise approximately $15 million through the sale of its native Binance Coin (BNB) token. The platform launched at a time of rapidly expanding interest in cryptocurrency trading, and Binance quickly distinguished itself through low trading fees, a wide selection of listed tokens, and a platform designed to handle high transaction throughput.

Within approximately six months of its launch, Binance had become the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume. The exchange's rapid growth drew considerable attention from both industry observers and financial media. A 2018 analysis ranked Binance among the most profitable cryptocurrency exchanges globally.

Zhao's leadership of Binance was characterized by an approach that emphasized speed and adaptability over establishing a fixed headquarters. Binance operated without a declared physical headquarters for several years, a structure that Zhao described as reflecting the decentralized ethos of cryptocurrency but which regulators in multiple jurisdictions viewed with suspicion. The company shifted operations across jurisdictions, including Japan, Malta, and the Cayman Islands, in response to evolving regulatory environments.

In 2021, Binance applied for a license to operate in Singapore but subsequently withdrew the application. The withdrawal was part of a broader pattern of Binance encountering regulatory friction in various countries as financial authorities around the world moved to establish or tighten frameworks governing cryptocurrency exchanges.

Expansion and Investments

Under Zhao's leadership, Binance expanded beyond its core exchange operations. The company launched Binance Smart Chain (later rebranded as BNB Chain), a blockchain platform designed to support decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and smart contracts. Binance also established Binance Labs, a venture capital arm that invested in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups, and Binance Academy, an educational platform.

In 2022, Zhao participated in Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter (now X), with Binance committing $500 million to the deal as an equity investor. The investment signaled Zhao's and Binance's ambitions beyond the cryptocurrency sector and drew attention to the growing financial links between the crypto industry and mainstream technology companies.

Regulatory and Legal Challenges

Binance and Zhao faced a mounting series of regulatory actions beginning in the early 2020s. Financial regulators in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany, issued warnings about Binance operating without proper licenses or authorizations.

In March 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil enforcement action against Binance and Zhao, alleging violations of derivatives trading rules. The CFTC alleged that Binance had allowed U.S. customers to trade derivatives products without registering with the commission and had failed to implement adequate anti-money laundering and know your customer (KYC) procedures.

In November 2023, the United States Department of Justice brought criminal charges against Zhao, alleging violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The charges centered on allegations that Binance had failed to implement an effective anti-money laundering program and had processed transactions that violated U.S. sanctions. Zhao resigned as CEO of Binance as part of a plea agreement in which the company agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines and penalties. Richard Teng, who had previously served as Binance's head of regional markets, succeeded Zhao as CEO.

Guilty Plea and Imprisonment

In April 2024, Zhao was sentenced to four months in federal prison after pleading guilty to the charges brought by the Department of Justice. The sentence was considerably shorter than the maximum penalties available under the statutes, and the case drew attention as one of the highest-profile criminal prosecutions in the cryptocurrency industry. Zhao completed his sentence by September 2024.

Presidential Pardon

In October 2025, President Donald Trump granted Zhao a presidential pardon. The pardon drew immediate attention and scrutiny, arriving amid a period of closer alignment between the Trump administration and the cryptocurrency industry. Shortly after the pardon, Zhao appeared at a Trump family cryptocurrency event at Mar-a-Lago, where he discussed Binance's plans for growth in the United States.

Continued Binance Controversies (2026)

In February 2026, reports from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Fortune revealed that Binance internal investigators had identified approximately $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency transfers to entities linked to Iran, in potential violation of U.S. and international sanctions. According to these reports, the internal investigators who discovered the alleged violations were subsequently fired, and the probe was dismantled. Binance denied that the investigation had been ended or that staff were terminated in retaliation.

The Guardian reported that the revelations came shortly after Zhao received his presidential pardon, raising questions about the timing and the company's compliance commitments. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal opened a congressional inquiry into the matter, stating that "Binance appears to have ignored clear warning signs, knowingly allowed illicit accounts to operate, and even provided hands-on support" to sanctioned entities.

Binance released a statement claiming that its sanctions exposure had fallen 96.8% since January 2024, pointing to compliance improvements made following the 2023 settlement with the Department of Justice.

Personal Life

Zhao has been in a relationship with Yi He since 2014. Yi He is a co-founder of Binance who previously worked as a television presenter in China and served as vice president of OKCoin. The couple have five children together.

Zhao holds citizenship in both Canada and the United Arab Emirates. He relocated to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where Binance established a significant operational presence. He has been described in media reports as the richest Canadian.

Zhao has spoken in interviews about his experience as an immigrant, noting the contrast between his upbringing—including working at McDonald's and gas stations in Canada—and his later financial success in the cryptocurrency industry. He has emphasized in public statements that Binance should not be characterized as a Chinese company, despite his own ethnic Chinese background, pointing to the company's multinational operations and his Canadian citizenship.

Recognition

Zhao has appeared on numerous wealth and influence rankings compiled by major business publications. Forbes has listed him among the wealthiest individuals in the cryptocurrency industry and among the richest people in the world.

His rapid accumulation of wealth drew particular media attention during the cryptocurrency bull markets of 2017–2018 and 2020–2021, when Binance's trading volumes and the value of the BNB token both increased substantially. The 2018 Forbes profile of Zhao characterized his rise as one of the fastest wealth-creation stories in the cryptocurrency sector.

However, Zhao's public profile has been shaped as much by legal and regulatory controversies as by business achievement. His 2023 guilty plea and 2024 imprisonment marked a significant reputational turning point, making him one of the few founders of a major global financial platform to serve prison time for regulatory violations. The subsequent 2025 presidential pardon by Trump, followed by Zhao's appearance at a Trump-affiliated cryptocurrency event, generated further media coverage and debate about the relationship between the cryptocurrency industry and U.S. political leadership.

Legacy

Changpeng Zhao's role in the cryptocurrency industry is defined by the scale and speed with which Binance grew to dominate global cryptocurrency trading. Within months of its 2017 launch, Binance established itself as the largest exchange by volume, a position it has maintained through multiple market cycles, regulatory challenges, and the departure of its founder as CEO.

The Binance model—characterized by a wide token selection, low fees, a native utility token, and initially minimal regulatory engagement—influenced the design and competitive strategies of subsequent cryptocurrency exchanges. The BNB token and Binance Smart Chain (later BNB Chain) expanded Binance's footprint beyond trading into decentralized finance and blockchain infrastructure, creating an ecosystem that encompassed multiple aspects of the cryptocurrency economy.

At the same time, the legal actions against Zhao and Binance became landmark cases in the development of cryptocurrency regulation. The $4.3 billion settlement between Binance and the U.S. Department of Justice in 2023 was the largest penalty ever imposed on a cryptocurrency company at that time, and it established precedents regarding the application of anti-money laundering laws and sanctions compliance requirements to digital asset platforms.

The February 2026 reports alleging continued sanctions-related violations at Binance, including the firing of internal investigators, raised ongoing questions about whether the compliance reforms implemented following the 2023 settlement had been sufficient. The congressional inquiry initiated by Senator Blumenthal indicated that Binance's compliance practices remained a subject of U.S. government scrutiny well after Zhao's departure as CEO.

Zhao's trajectory—from immigrant teenager working minimum-wage jobs, to builder of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, to convicted felon, to pardoned former prisoner—encapsulates many of the contradictions and unresolved questions surrounding the cryptocurrency industry's relationship with financial regulation, geopolitics, and mainstream legitimacy.