Who is Changpeng Zhao, and how did he start in crypto?

Changpeng Zhao was born in 1977 in Jiangsu province, China. His family emigrated to Vancouver, Canada, in 1989, and he grew up there before studying computer science at McGill University. His early career was in traditional finance, starting at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, working on trade matching engines, then moving to Bloomberg Tradebook to build futures trading software.

He found crypto in 2013. The story he tells is that he sold his apartment in Shanghai to buy Bitcoin after a poker game conversation convinced him to look into it. Whether that is entirely accurate or not, by 2013, he was working in the industry. He joined Blockchain.info as the third member of the team, then became CTO at OKCoin, one of China's largest crypto exchanges at the time. He was hired into that role by Yi He, who would later co-found Binance with him.

Founding Binance and the 2017 BNB ICO

CZ left OKCoin in 2015 and spent two years building his next move. In July 2017, he launched Binance and simultaneously ran the BNB ICO, raising $15 million for 100 million BNB tokens at $0.15 each. The timing was almost perfect: the ICO boom was at its peak, crypto interest was surging globally, and there was genuine demand for a new exchange that prioritised speed and a wide range of trading pairs.

Binance launched with a clean interface, fast execution, and lower fees than established competitors like Bitfinex and Kraken. Within 180 days, it had become the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume. That growth rate had no precedent in the industry.

How Binance became the world's largest crypto exchange

Binance grew by moving fast and adapting constantly. When Chinese regulators cracked down on crypto exchanges in September 2017, Binance had already been planning to move its servers offshore. It relocated from Shanghai to Japan, then to Malta, and then operated without a fixed headquarters as regulatory environments shifted.

The product expanded rapidly. Binance added futures trading, margin accounts, a Visa card, a launchpad for new token sales, a decentralised exchange, a staking platform, and its own blockchain. BNB was woven into each of these products as the utility and fee token, which kept demand for the token tied directly to Binance's growth.

At its peak, Binance processed more daily trading volume than the next several exchanges combined.

The 2023 US settlement and CZ's prison sentence

November 2023. Binance and CZ settle with the US Department of Justice, FinCEN, and the CFTC. Binance pays $4.3 billion, the largest financial settlement in the history of crypto. CZ pleads guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme, a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act.

He resigned as CEO. Richard Teng, who had previously led Binance's regional markets, took over as the new chief executive.

In June 2024, CZ reported to a federal correctional institution in California to begin a four-month sentence. He was released on September 27, 2024.

CZ's role in BNB and crypto today

CZ returned to an advisory capacity after his release. In October 2025, he received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump. He published a memoir titled Freedom of Money in April 2026. He continues to back YZi Labs, which invested $100 million into Hash Global's BNB-focused fund in March 2026, signalling continued interest in the BNB ecosystem.

He remains one of the most recognised figures in crypto, and his public commentary still moves markets. Binance has continued operating as the world's largest exchange by volume, and the legal issues of 2023 have not visibly disrupted its market position. In December 2025, co-founder Yi He was appointed co-CEO alongside Richard Teng. Whether CZ takes a more active role again remains an open question.

Changpeng Zhao: The Founder Who Built Binance and BNB