Zhao Changpeng: Wealth Creation and Downfall in the Cryptocurrency Frenzy

At the age of 12, Zhao Changpeng immigrated to Canada with his family from Lianyungang, where he wiped tables and fried fries at a McDonald's in Vancouver. No one expected that this boy, who was struggling for a living, would later stir up the global cryptocurrency market.

When choosing a major in college, he dove into computer science. After graduating, he started as a junior programmer at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, coding and building trading systems, gradually climbing to the position of technology head at Bloomberg. By the age of 27, he was able to mobilize technical teams in New York, London, and Tokyo, making his mark in the traditional financial world by turning code into a stepping stone.

In 2013, a chance conversation led him to stumble upon Bitcoin. What was then still seen as a “geek toy” appeared to him as a gold mine. Without any hesitation, he sold his house in Shanghai, took $1 million, and bought in fully at a price of $600 per coin. Later, when the price halved, those around him advised him to cut his losses. He simply replied, “If you don’t understand it, don’t touch it; if you believe in it, then hold on.”

In 2017, the cryptocurrency market experienced a frenzy, and Zhao Changpeng rode the wave to establish Binance. Without a luxurious office, the team squeezed into a small apartment in Hong Kong to write code, yet they broke through with their emphasis on “speed”—processing 1.4 million transactions per second, which eased the anxiety of users during the bullish market. Within three months, registered users surpassed one million; six months later, daily trading volume exceeded $10 billion, making it the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.

In 2021, Bitcoin surged to $60,000, and Binance's valuation skyrocketed to $300 billion. Zhao Changpeng became the richest Chinese person with a fortune of $94.1 billion, going from “coder” to “wealthiest” in just eight years. The media dubbed him the “Musk of the cryptocurrency world,” but he stated in an interview, “I still prefer others to call me CZ (his English name abbreviation).”