Changpeng Zhao

The United States Department of Justice has also accused CZ's company, Binance, of money laundering offenses.

The United States Department of Justice has also accused CZ's company, Binance, of money laundering offenses.In June 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also filed charges against CZ and Binance entities. Some of the charges include the unregistered offer and sale of securities as well as allowing high-value customers from the United States to transact on the platform when they were supposed to be restricted.

CZ began his career in 2001 at Bloomberg in New York City, where he was the head of Tradebook futures development. After he left Bloomberg in 2005, he co-foundedcofounded Fusion Systems, a business consultancy firm, where he also acted as partner. The company is a business consultancy firm and CZHe remained there until 2013, when he became the head of development at Blockchain.

In 2015, CZ ventured into entrepreneurship by founding his first company, Bijie Tech, which was located in Asia. The company was an exchange systems provider and was shut down in March 2017 by the Chinese government.

CZ's founded his next company, Binance, in 2017.The2017. The company is a cryptocurrency exchange and quickly grew to be the platform where the majority of cryptocurrency exchanges took place. In 2021, CZ was named as one of Singapore's 50 Richest people by Forbes.

In March 2023, CZ was sued by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC charged him with willful evasion of federal law and operating an illegal digital asset derivatives exchange. The commission is accusing CZ and others at Binance of growing the business in the United States, knowing that they would eventually block access to the platform for customers in the country.

The United States Department of Justice has also accused CZ's company, Binance, of money laundering offenses.

Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, is an entrepreneur who is most well-known for founding the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.HeBinance. He was born in ChinaChina and has Canadian citizenship. CZ studied at McGill UniversityMcGill University in Montreal before starting his career in finance and cryptocurrency.

CZ began his career in 2001 at BloombergBloomberg in New York CityNew York City, where he was the head of tradebookTradebook futures development. After he left Bloomberg in 2005, he co-founded Fusion Systems, where he also acted as partner. The company is a business consultancy firm and CZ remained there until 2013, when he became the head of development at BlockchainBlockchain.

In 2015, CZ ventured into entrepreneurship by founding his first company Bijie Tech, which was located in AsiaAsia. The company was an exchange systems provider and was shut down in March 2017 by the Chinese government.

CZ's founded his next company, Binance, in 2017.

CZ's founded his next company, Binance, in 2017.The company is a cryptocurrency exchange and quickly grew to be the platform where the majority of cryptocurrency exchanges took place. In 2021, CZ was named as one of Singapore's 50 Richest people.

In March 2023, CZ was sued by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC charged him with willful evasion of federal law and operating an illegal digital asset derivatives exchange. The commission is accusing CZ and others at Binance of growing the business in the United States knowing that they would eventually block access to the platform for customers in the country.

The United States Department of Justice has also accused CZ's company Binance of money laundering offenses.

Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, is an entrepreneur who is most well-known for founding the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.He was born in China and has Canadian citizenship. CZ studied at McGill University in Montreal before starting his career in finance and cryptocurrency.

CZ began his career in 2001 at Bloomberg in New York City, where he was the head of tradebook futures development. After he left Bloomberg in 2005, he co-founded Fusion Systems, where he also acted as partner. The company is a business consultancy firm and CZ remained there until 2013, when he became the head of development at Blockchain.

In 2015, CZ ventured into entrepreneurship by founding his first company Bijie Tech, which was located in Asia. The company was an exchange systems provider and was shut down in March 2017 by the Chinese government.

CZ's founded his next company, Binance, in 2017.

Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as "CZ", is a Chinese-Canadian business executive. Zhao is the founder and CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume as of April 2018. Zhao was previously a member of the team that developed Blockchain.info and also served as chief technology officer of OKCoin.

According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth is estimated at $96 billion as of January 2022, making him the richest person in Canada & the world’s 11th richest person.

Zhao was born on September 10, 1977, in China’s Jiangsu province. In the late 1980s, he moved with his family to Canada when he was 12 years of age, settling in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In 2017, Zhao left OKCoin to launch a cryptocurrency exchange named Binance. The company was launched in July 2017, after raising $15 million in an initial coin offering. 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 blockchain network Binance Smart Chain that has made significant contribution to the development of the decentralized finance industry.

Zhao was born on September 10, 1977, in China’s Jiangsu province. In the late 1980s, he moved with his family to Canada when he was 12 years of age, settling in Vancouver, British Columbia. His parents were both teachers 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. In his teenage years, Zhao helped to support his family by working a number of service jobs, including at a McDonald's.

Zhao attended McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, where he majored in computer science.

After graduating from university, Zhao received 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.

In 2005, he moved to Shanghai where he founded Fusion Systems, known for "some of the fastest high-frequency trading systems for brokers."

Beginning in 2013, he worked for various cryptocurrency projects including Blockchain.info and also served as chief technology officer of OKCoin.

In 2017, Zhao left OKCoin to launch a cryptocurrency exchange named Binance. The company was launched in July 2017, after raising $15 million in an initial coin offering. 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 blockchain network Binance Smart Chain[when?] that has made significant contribution to the development of the decentralized finance industry.

In February 2018, Forbes Magazine placed him third on their list of "The Richest People In Cryptocurrency" at an estimated $1.1-2 billion.

CEO

Binance

July 2017 - present time

Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, Singapore

Founder

BijieTech

September 2015 - July 2017

Shanghai, Tokyo

CTO

OKEX

2014-2015

Head of Development

Blockchain

2013 – 2014

Partner

Fusion Systems

Nov 2005 - Dec 2013

Head of Tradebook Futures Development

Bloomberg

2001 – 2005

In a now-deleted tweet, on August 26, Zhao came under public scrutiny when he said "poor people tries to say bad things about Binance".

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 an interview published on November 16, 2021, Zhao said he plans to donate up to 99% of his wealth, with the intention to follow the feat of other magnates. "I intend to donate most of my wealth, as many other entrepreneurs or founders have done. From Rockefeller [late American business tycoon John D. Rockefeller] to today. I intend to donate 90%, 95%, or 99% of my wealth."

Zhao had previously founded Fusion Systems in 2005 in Shanghai; the company built high-frequency trading systems for stockbrokers. In 2013, he joined Blockchain.info as the third member of the cryptocurrency wallet's team. He also worked at OKCoin as CTO for less than a year, a platform for spot trading between fiat and digital assets.

Binance was founded in China but moved its servers and headquarters to Japan prior to the Chinese government’s ban on cryptocurrency trading in September 2017.

As of January 2018, Binance was the largest cryptocurrency exchange with a market capitalization of $1.3 billion, a title it has retained as of April 2021, despite competition from Coinbase, among others.

In March 2018, Binance announced its intentions to open an office in Malta after stricter regulations in Japan and China. In April 2018, Binance signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Bermuda. Months later, a similar memorandum was signed with the Malta Stock Exchange to develop a platform for trading security tokens. In 2019, company announced Binance Jersey, an independent entity from its parent Binance.com exchange, with the aim to expand its European influence. Jersey based exchange offers fiat-to-cryptocurrency pairs, including the Euro and the British pound.

In August 2018, Binance along with three other big exchanges raised $12 million for a stablecoin project. The idea of stable coins is to provide a cryptocurrency without the notorious volatility of Bitcoin and other popular digital assets.

In January 2019, Binance announced that it had partnered with Israel-based payment processor Simplex to enable cryptocurrency purchases with debit and credit cards, including Visa and Mastercard. The purchases are subject to Simplex’s local bank policies and are limited to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple’s XRP.

On 7 May 2019, Binance revealed that it had been the victim of a “large scale security breach” in which hackers had stolen 7,000 Bitcoin worth around $40 million at the time. Zhao said the hackers “used a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses and other attacks” and structured their transaction “in a way that passed our existing security checks.” Binance halted further withdrawals and deposits but allowed trading to continue. The site pledged to reimburse customers through its "Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU)". Withdrawals resumed by 19 May.

In September 2019, the exchange began offering perpetual futures contracts, allowing leverage as high as 125 times the value of the contracts. In November 2019, Binance acquired Indian bitcoin exchange WazirX.

On 21 February 2020, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) issued a public statement responding to media reports referring to Binance as a 'Malta-based' cryptocurrency company. The statement noted that Binance "is not authorized by the MFSA to operate in the cryptocurrency sphere and is therefore not subject to regulatory oversight by the MFSA." The MFSA added that it was "assessing if Binance has any activities in Malta which may not fall within the realm of regulatory oversight."

On 28 October 2020, Forbes staff released leaked documents alleging that Binance and Zhao created an elaborate corporate structure designed to intentionally deceive United States regulators and secretly profit from cryptocurrency investors located in the country. Binance officially blocks access from IP addresses located in the United States, but "potential customers would be taught how to evade geographic restrictions", Forbes claimed.

In May 2021 it was reported that Binance was under investigation by both the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Department of Justice on allegations of money laundering and tax offenses.

1. The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni.

“I agree with the book’s assertion that the competitive advantage of successful companies lies more on how healthy and well a company’s organization behaves and operates."

2. Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands by Rory Sutherland.

“This book addresses some of the counterintuitive points in life and business in a very interesting way.”

3. Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

“From personal investing to building a long-lasting company, it’s important to understand what’s fragile and what’s not is important. We definitely want Binance to be antifragile. This book may explain why we make some of the decisions we make.”

4. Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman.

"This book goes into detail on how organizations of different sizes work, as well as some of the implications when teams grow to different sizes. This has been very helpful to Binance as we chart our growth as an organization. It’s a fairly up-to-date book, which even talks about recent topics like cryptocurrencies."

5. The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier.

“If you are leading a team or mentoring someone, you should read this book.”

6. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger.

“This is a must-read for all product designers and marketers, and a lot of people in our team have taken the lessons in this book to heart.”

7. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore.

"In the context of Binance and many other blockchain or high-tech companies, there’s an ongoing challenge to market our products and services in a way that the general public will care about it. This book has helped me hone my message with regard to talking about Binance to the world."

8. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle.

"At Binance, we constantly strive to build a great culture, and we constantly draw lessons from this book’s case studies of admirable organizations."

9. The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations by Gene Kim, Patrick Debois, John Willis, and Jez Humble.

“This book explains how modern technology departments work, as well as how to do a continuous deployment of code and build high-quality platforms. This is a must-read for tech teams.”

10. Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt.

"More than 60 years have passed since this book was first published, but there are few books that better encapsulate the inner workings of economics than this one."

11. Exponential Organizations: New Organizations Are Ten Times Better, Faster, and Cheaper Than Yours (and What to Do About It) by Salim Ismail, Yuri van Geest, Michael S. Malone.

“This is an excellent book on organizations, and I found this book more relevant the more we grow our team.”

12. Fallen Dragon by Peter Hamilton.

"Every once in a while, I enjoy science fiction novels like this one. Fallen Dragon is about someone who sought out a treasure and ended up finding something more significant, as well as a variety of characters with compelling quests as well. I wouldn’t divulge too much, as I want you to enjoy the journey yourself."

13. Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers by Jay Baer.

“This book is a must-read for marketing and customer service teams. It talks about how we should service our users, interact with them on social media, and more.”

14. The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek.

“This book gives a perspective on long term vision. It will broaden your horizons and views. There is a bigger picture out there that’s more meaningful. This sense of meaning explains why some companies last a hundred years and others struggle from invoice to invoice.”

15. The Law by Frédéric Bastiat.

"This short (only 60+ pages) but timeless book by French essayist Bastiat is pretty advanced for its time, and it aligns with a lot of my personal philosophy."

16. Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries by Safi Bahcall.

“The title says it all. After reading this book, you will understand why we tolerate failures at Binance, and more importantly, what types of failures we tolerate or not.”

17. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath.

“Yet another great marketing book, this informs a lot of our public outreach in terms of making our services more essential for our users.”

18. Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy - and How to Make Them Work for You by Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Paul Choudary.

“This is a great book about platforms, how to build them, and why they are important and impactful.”

19. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein.

“While many books talk about specialization and the 10,000-hour rule in an ultra-competitive world, this book gives a different view to balance that argument. And how many great inventions happen at the intersection of disciplines.”

20. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.

"While I read a lot of work-related books, I also draw inspiration from books like this, which gives me a greater perspective about how humans emerged and why we behave the way we do."

21. Sell with a Story: How to Capture Attention, Build Trust, and Close the Sale by Paul Smith.

With this book, you can learn how powerful storytelling is if you want to be a better salesperson, marketer, and communicator.”

22. Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

“I see this book as a complement to. ‘Economics in One Lesson.’ And it’s an excellent read on its own.”

23. The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman, Rod Beckstrom.

“This book talks about operations in decentralized organizations, especially compared to centralized ones, as well as why decentralized teams are generally more resilient against global and regional challenges.”

24. Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber by Mike Isaac.

“While I don’t think that everyone should follow everything in this book, it narrates the opportunities and challenges that come with developing in a new industry and how Uber took an aggressive approach to those hardships. Regardless of how you view Uber, this book is a great read.”

25. Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

“I believe every modern organization should be run under these principles: Top-down structures no longer work Decisions should be made by people who understand the situation Embed/exchange programs help people grow Information sharing to everyone is encouraged Eyes on, hands-off.”

26. Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais.

"I think this is a must-read for team players, team leaders, and aspiring leaders. This book can help you understand what you need to do to progress your career and company."

27. Work Rules! by Laszlo Bock.

"This book talks about work-related insights derived from the author’s time at Google. No matter what your opinion is about Google, there are lessons in this book that are good to know, especially at Binance as we also release product after product at a fast pace."