#赵长鹏

One, The Technological Awakening of a Poor Boy

In 1977, Zhao Changpeng was born into an intellectual family in Lianyungang, Jiangsu. His father was a university professor, and his mother was a teacher. At the age of 12, the family immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, a turning point that completely changed his life trajectory. In a foreign land, young Zhao Changpeng worked in a car wash, McDonald's, and gas stations to help support his family, an experience that forged his resilient character. The IBM 286 computer that his father saved up to buy became his key to exploring the digital world.

At the age of 17, Zhao Changpeng excelled in his entrance exams and enrolled in McGill University, majoring in Computer Science. During his university years, he not only delved deeply into programming technology but also self-studied financial knowledge, laying the groundwork for his future cross-industry development. After graduating in 1997, he joined the Tokyo Stock Exchange to develop a trading order matching system. This experience gave him a profound understanding of the pain points in the traditional financial system—inefficiency and high costs of centralized trading.

Two, The Enlightenment and Adventure of Cryptocurrency

In 2013, Zhao Changpeng met early Bitcoin evangelist Bobby Lee during a poker game, marking his entry into the cryptocurrency field. He keenly sensed the disruptive potential of blockchain technology for the financial system, and the following year made a surprising move: selling his Shanghai property for $600,000 and investing everything into Bitcoin. This decision sparked strong opposition from family and friends but allowed him to accumulate initial capital.

After a brief stint at Blockchain.info, Zhao Changpeng joined OKCoin as CTO. The technological reforms he led improved transaction processing speed from hundreds to thousands per second while withstanding multiple DDoS attacks. However, differences with CEO Xu Mingxing over internationalization strategies led to his departure just nine months later. This experience deeply ingrained in him the realization that the governance structure of centralized exchanges is incompatible with the decentralized ideals of cryptocurrency.

Three, The Rise of Binance: Technological Disruption and Global Blitzkrieg

In 2017, Zhao Changpeng, along with the core team that left OKCoin, established Binance in a modest office in Shanghai. He positioned the exchange as a 'practitioner of decentralization' but adopted a centralized architecture to achieve extreme efficiency—the self-developed matching engine could handle 1.4 million transactions per second, making it the fastest trading system in the world at that time.

Binance's breakout began with the ICO ban in September 2017. When Chinese regulators halted cryptocurrency trading, Zhao Changpeng quickly moved the servers to Japan, circumventing policy risks through a 'currency-to-currency' trading model. This decision not only preserved $6 million in user assets but also allowed Binance to establish a first-mover advantage in a compliance gray area.

The issuance of BNB is a key layout of the Binance ecosystem. As a platform token, BNB not only offers trading fee discounts (50% in the first year) but also achieves a deflationary effect through a quarterly burn mechanism (repurchasing and burning 20% of net profits). By 2025, BNB has burned 25% of its initial supply, maintaining its market value among the top five cryptocurrencies.

Four, Regulatory Storm and Empire Crisis

The investment dispute with Sequoia Capital in 2018 revealed the compliance risks of Binance. Due to valuation differences, Binance unilaterally terminated its A-round financing with Sequoia, leading to a year-long legal battle. The Hong Kong court ultimately ruled that Binance did not violate exclusivity clauses, but this tug-of-war exposed its naivety in capital games.

The 2020 Steem governance crisis became a turning point. Zhao Changpeng was accused of misappropriating user funds to participate in on-chain voting, leading Binance into a crisis of community trust. He was forced to publicly apologize and promised to strengthen compliance, but this laid the groundwork for subsequent regulatory investigations.

2023 became the 'darkest hour' for Binance. The U.S. CFTC and SEC launched 13 charges, involving unregistered trading and violations of anti-money laundering laws. Under various pressures, Zhao Changpeng chose to plead guilty, paying a $4.3 billion fine and resigning as CEO. In April 2024, he was sentenced to four months in prison, falling from 'China's richest man' to a prisoner.

Five, The Road to Rebirth: From Prisoner to Philanthropist in Education

After four months in prison, Zhao Changpeng completed a personal transformation. In his letter of repentance, he wrote: 'I should have paid more attention to compliance earlier, but I was blinded by growth.' This experience allowed him to re-examine the social responsibility of entrepreneurs.

After being released in September 2024, Zhao Changpeng announced his commitment to charity and education. He founded 'Giggle Academy' to provide free basic education to children in developing countries, covering practical skills such as programming and finance, and innovatively introducing AI teaching and NFT reward mechanisms. He promised to donate 99% of his wealth, following in the footsteps of Bill Gates's philanthropic path.

Meanwhile, under the leadership of new CEO Teng Hongfei, Binance implemented a 'De-CZ' strategy: abandoning the U.S. market and focusing on layouts in the Middle East and Southeast Asia; reaching a $2 billion investment agreement with the UAE Sovereign Fund MGX in exchange for policy protection and technical cooperation; launching a 'Cryptocurrency Introduction Program' to lower the participation threshold for emerging markets. In Q1 2024, Binance's trading volume grew 30% against the trend, and the price of BNB rebounded to $300.

Six, The Underlying Code of the Technological Empire

Binance's technological moat comes from its dual-chain architecture:

- Binance Chain: Utilizing the Proof of Authority (PoA) mechanism, focusing on high-frequency trading, supporting the core business of centralized exchanges;

- Binance Smart Chain (BSC): Based on PoSA consensus, compatible with the Ethereum virtual machine, attracting over 1,000 DeFi projects, with daily trading peak reaching 470,000, and gas fees only 2% of Ethereum's.

This 'CeFi + DeFi' dual-driven model enables Binance to maintain trading efficiency while capturing the wave of decentralized finance. Its cross-chain technology 'Token Canal' achieves seamless transfer of over 30 types of assets, while the BToken anchoring mechanism opens up value channels between traditional finance and the cryptocurrency world.

Seven, The Future Empire: Deep Technological Engagement and Global Layout

By 2025, Binance's technological ambitions will further escalate. The technical roadmap released by BNB Chain shows that it plans to reduce transaction latency to sub-second levels through parallel Ethereum virtual machines and continuous block production, achieving the capability to handle 100 million transactions daily. The Megafuel system, also being launched, will allow users to pay gas fees for all types of transactions through staking BNB, completely removing the barriers for ordinary users to participate in Web3. In terms of integrating AI and blockchain, Binance is developing decentralized AI agents that support user data ownership, allowing individuals to profit directly from AI training.

In terms of globalization strategy, Binance consolidates its position through a dual layout in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The $2 billion cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund MGX not only brings financial support but also obtains policy protection—MGX will assist Binance in establishing a compliant cryptocurrency center in the UAE and facilitate connections with the local banking system. In Southeast Asia, Binance's Indonesian exchange, Tokocrypto, obtained a physical cryptocurrency asset trading license in September 2024, becoming the third licensed exchange in the country, with plans to expand operations to Malaysia and Thailand in 2025.

Eight, Zhao Changpeng's Multiverse: From Exchange to AI and Education

After his release, Zhao Changpeng is building a dual life of 'technology + charity.' He has transformed Binance Labs into a family office, YZi Labs, managing about $10 billion in assets, focusing on investments in AI, biotechnology, and Web3. In 2025, YZi Labs announced a strategic investment in the data ownership platform Vana, with Zhao Changpeng personally serving as an advisor to promote the decentralized confirmation of AI training data. Additionally, YZi Labs is also investing in the prediction market platform Opinion Labs and the Web3 developer education platform HackQuest, attempting to reshape the industry ecosystem through investment.

In the education sector, Giggle Academy has launched 17 courses covering practical skills such as programming and finance, and collaborated with TikTok's renowned writer Barbara Miller to develop interactive storybooks. Zhao Changpeng revealed in an interview that the project plans to generate personalized teaching content through AI and introduce a 'learn and earn' mechanism—user data can be authorized for training AI companies in exchange for BNB rewards. By 2025, Giggle Academy will expand to Africa, partnering with local governments to establish digital education centers, aiming to reach 100 million children within five years.

Nine, New Compliance Chapter: From Regulatory Confrontation to Co-creation of Rules

After experiencing severe penalties from the Justice Department, Binance entered the 'Compliance 2.0' era. By 2025, its compliance team expanded to 2,000 members, establishing the industry's first cross-chain trading monitoring system, capable of real-time tracking the flow of over 30 types of assets. The cooperation with the Kyrgyz government is a model: Zhao Changpeng serves as the country's blockchain policy advisor, assisting in the formulation of the (Virtual Asset Law) and promoting the issuance of the gold-backed stablecoin USDKG, which will circulate both in centralized exchanges and the traditional banking system. This 'government + enterprise' cooperation model provides a new paradigm for the compliance of cryptocurrencies.

Ten, The Legendary Revelation: From Disruptor to Guardian of Value

Zhao Changpeng's tumultuous life reflects the duality of the cryptocurrency industry:

- Opportunity Aspect: He seized the blockchain revolution with technological acuity, building the world's largest exchange in five years, with personal wealth once exceeding $90 billion;

- Risk Aspect: Regulatory arbitrage and compliance loopholes ultimately led to the empire's collapse, proving that in the collision between traditional finance and cryptocurrency, there is no absolute 'lawless land.'

Though Zhao Changpeng no longer controls Binance, his influence remains pervasive: the global team and technological infrastructure he laid out early on, along with the ecological stickiness of BNB, continue to serve as core barriers for Binance to withstand the regulatory winter. His personal transformation from 'King of Cryptocurrency' to philanthropist in education may signal that the industry is moving from barbaric growth to a return to value.

In this unpredictable field, Zhao Changpeng's story is far from over. As he wrote in prison: 'Cryptocurrency is not the endpoint; it is a bridge to a fairer financial system.' When technological innovation and social responsibility achieve balance, perhaps that is when the true legend begins.