Binance co-founder He Yi, who walked from a poor village to the core of cryptocurrency power. This article discusses how she led Binance through a crisis and her vision for the industry's future, showcasing the resilience and wisdom of the 'Crypto Queen.' This article is sourced from Jeff John Roberts, written for Fortune, and compiled, translated, and authored by Saoirse, Foresight News. (Background: He Yi's full speech at the Hong Kong seminar: Extreme willpower is the 'success purgatory' for all project founders) (Additional background: He Yi of Binance publicly reveals 'Meme Coin Learning Notes' to unveil investment principles: Meme attention becomes belief, and only products with belief can have the next DOGE) Since it was said, it won't hurt. In the 1980s, when He Yi was just a little girl, she had to walk to the well to fetch water, and sometimes the family relied on kerosene lamps for light. The current situation is already different: as a co-founder and executive of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, she holds about 10% of the shares, with a net worth of billions of dollars, and has millions of fans in China. Yet, her life path has never been smooth. Another co-founder of Binance, Zhao Changpeng, has a flamboyant style and was imprisoned in the United States last year due to a plea agreement amounting to $4 billion. This was a heavy blow to Binance and a double blow to He Yi—Zhao Changpeng is not only the CEO of the company but also the father of her young child. Now that the storm has passed, Zhao Changpeng has served his sentence, and although Binance has faced a blow that could crush most companies, it still firmly retains its position as the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. He Yi played a key role in this crisis, and after years of behind-the-scenes power, she is stepping into the spotlight to lead Binance's operations more openly. He Yi told Fortune about her transformation from a poor village girl to a cryptocurrency billionaire, recounting the trials she faced during Binance's crisis year and her outlook on this rapidly reshaping global financial landscape. The unchanging down-to-earth character In her life and career, He Yi has overcome numerous obstacles—learning English was one of them. She only started learning this language around the age of 35, and it has only been four years. But during a lengthy Zoom interview at the airport, she handled it with ease, only needing slight assistance with translations when explaining Chinese idioms or proverbs. He Yi understands the power of communication deeply. At Binance, she is known for her outstanding marketing and customer service skills, which helped the exchange rise to the top ranks globally within a year. Even today, she insists on listening to user voices on platforms like Telegram, X, and WeChat, and requires her team to follow suit. Her established rule is well-known: all new employees at Binance must first go through weeks of frontline customer service experience. He Yi recounted a recent incident: a university student mistakenly transferred $500 worth of cryptocurrency to the wrong wallet. Such mistakes are common and usually mean the funds are lost forever. However, He Yi took the time to track down the funds and ultimately recovered the money that had been transferred incorrectly. She remembers the student telling her, "This amount is small for you, but it's everything for me." He Yi's ability to empathize with such stories stems from her own experiences. Growing up in a poor village in Sichuan, she lost her father at the age of 9 and spent long hours selling beverages outside supermarkets at 16. Despite later gaining admission to university (she recalls with a smile the joy of first entering a library) and working as a television host, her humble beginnings have kept her grounded and able to understand the circumstances of many ordinary users at Binance. Her experiences closely resemble those of Jennifer Lopez in 'Jenny From the Block.' The protagonist of the song maintains her down-to-earth nature even after achieving fame, and such stories are quite popular in the United States. However, Eowyn Chen, CEO of the cryptocurrency company Trust Wallet (formerly of Binance), states that this kind of narrative does not work in China: "Chinese people are not likely to cheer for those who rise from adversity; instead, they tend to mock those who 'climb too high.'" Eowyn Chen notes that He Yi often becomes a target of articles and social media attacks, but He Yi's response is to retaliate against those negative comments. "She would say to those people: 'That's right, I come from a poor background, yet I still made a name for myself; what makes you think you can't?" Bloomberg has referred to He Yi as "the most powerful woman in the cryptocurrency space." With her intelligence, determination, and courage, she has climbed to the top of the blockchain industry step by step. These qualities are remarkably similar to those of her co-founder and partner. Building the Binance Empire When Zhao Changpeng founded Binance in 2017, he had already crafted a distinct public image under the name 'CZ.' Through bold adventures (such as selling his Shanghai apartment to buy Bitcoin in 2014) and actively engaging with the cryptocurrency Twitter community, he built the 'CZ myth.' At the early stage of Binance, Zhao Changpeng invited He Yi to join, but several years earlier, it was He Yi who extended the olive branch to him. In 2014, she strongly urged Zhao Changpeng to join OKCoin (now renamed OKX) to work with her as the Chief Technology Officer. This duo not only shares a passion for cryptocurrency but also possesses many common traits. Like He Yi, Zhao Changpeng also studied in a village school without heating in his early years; later, his father immigrated to Canada, and during high school, he worked part-time at Chevron and McDonald's, earning minimum wage. In response to those who mock his background, Zhao Changpeng has always been outspoken in rebuttal, even sharing memes of himself in a McDonald's uniform to self-deprecate. The two fell in love while working at OKCoin and gained experience in operating a large cryptocurrency business. Today, this couple, who have not entered the institution of marriage but maintain a close relationship, are both parents raising children together and closely collaborating as business partners. According to the Wall Street Journal, He Yi and Zhao Changpeng jointly hold a family office, YZi Labs, which transitioned from Binance's venture capital department, and she holds at least 10% of the shares in Binance's parent company. When asked about her relationship with Zhao Changpeng, He Yi declined to comment publicly and only provided a written statement: "My personal life and professional identity are completely independent. People always get caught up in my private life, ignoring my achievements and abilities as a co-founder." She also mentioned that Binance has reached 280 million users. Regardless of their private relationship, their collaboration at work is highly efficient. He Yi's role at Binance is roughly equivalent to Sheryl Sandberg's position at Facebook—this executive not only helped Facebook grow during its early stages but also provided steady oversight to the somewhat inexperienced CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In actual operations, Zhao Changpeng plays a highly influential role as the leader and product visionary of Binance, while He Yi injects explosive growth momentum into the platform through aggressive promotional strategies, including car giveaways. Her strategy is not only well-received in overseas Chinese communities but also popular domestically—despite cryptocurrency being nominally banned in mainland China, it still has a massive audience, partly due to its nature as an easily transferable asset that can evade government capital controls. An anonymous Binance employee, who requested to remain unnamed when discussing company executives, described He Yi this way: she is a demanding boss but always provides support to employees and is willing to speak up for those around her. When discussing Binance's daily operations, He Yi mentioned that the company's core mission is 'founder culture,' a concept originating from the tech industry that refers to companies that maintain the original drive of their startup phase. For Binance, one of the notable characteristics of its early development was its flexible strategy regarding regulatory issues, swiftly adapting to different circumstances when faced with government scrutiny.

#CZ