When 48-year-old Changpeng Zhao (#CZBÄ°NANCE ) entered a jam-packed hall in the sweltering heat of Dubai on Wednesday, he was greeted with thunderous applause by hundreds of onlookers as he made a rare public appearance.
The crowd that has assembled to listen to CZ at the #Binance Fire Side chat on Day 1 of TOKEN2049 Dubai, wasnât just an ordinary group of crypto lovers; they were some of the very best from the industry-âCEOs, entrepreneurs, media moguls, coders, developers, and influencers-âall hooked to cryptoâs favorite poster boy.
And CZ didnât disappoint either as he spoke on a range of topics, discussing the future roadmap of decentralized finance (DeFi), crypto and AI in todayâs age, emphasizing the need to bring the world closer with the emerging technology. The crowd listened enchanted as CZ spoke on his experience while dealing with regulators worldwide when it comes to crypto adoption and the need for crypto to become the currency for AI.
âChangpeng,â âCZ,â âCrypto Kingââthere are many connotations attached to this bare-scalped crypto maverick, who founded the worldâs largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, and today sits at a net value of $63 billion as per Forbes.
CZâs journey from flipping burgers to shaping global crypto markets
But CZâs journey to crypto king has not been easy, to say the least. Born to a professor in Jiangsu province of China who was exiled for being âpro-bourgeois intellectâ
Son of a professor who was exiled for being a âpro-bourgeois intellectâ during the âcultural revolutionâ of China, CZ immigrated to Canada at the age of 12 with his parents and had to learn the harsh realities in adolescence. For the next few years, CZ was busy flipping burgers at McDonaldâs and toiling at gas stations to support his parents, all this while pursuing education at McGill University.
CZ also worked at the Tokyo Stock Exchange as a subcontractor and later developed software for Bloombergâs Tradebook.
CZ and Bitcoin
Despite its launch in 2009, CZ was aloof from the phenomenon of Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Their paths met indeed, but it was only in 2013, when CZ heard about Bitcoin while playing poker with friends.
Shortly after, he sold his Shanghai apartment to invest in Bitcoin and in the next 4 years, CZ would build something that would redefine the crypto industry and set the course for its global adoption and several imminent controversies.
CZ sets up Binance
In July 2017, CZ founded Binance, a centralized cryptocurrency exchange that catered to crypto audiences with its seamless and easy-to-use interface. The name âBinanceâ was a fusion of Binary and Finance and in no time, CZ raised $15 million in an initial coin offering of Binance Coin (BNB).
In the next one year, Binance emerged as the worldâs largest crypto exchange, even as CZ moved his operations first to Japan and then to Malta to avoid regulatory crackdowns by governments.
As the crypto world kept growing, so did the interests of regulators in Binance, and CZ tried his best to maneuver his baby from deep waters for the next 5 years.
A visionary who realized the importance of Twitter (now X) in setting up discourse in the crypto world, CZ invested a mammoth $500 million in 2022 during Elon Muskâs Twitter buyout.
