Yi He, the anonymous female billionaire behind Binance, was born in a poor village in Sichuan (China).

Her childhood was associated with carrying water from the well, lighting oil lamps, and losing her father at just 9 years old.

To help her family, Yi He had to do many odd jobs, including standing for hours in front of a supermarket handing out flyers.

Despite this, she still strives to enter the Chinese Academy of Sciences to study psychology.

After a period of trying her hand in television, Yi He fell in love with cryptocurrency and quickly realized the potential of Bitcoin.

At OKCoin, she met and collaborated with Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who later became her business partner and the father of her children.

The Person Behind the Binance Empire

In 2017, Yi He and CZ founded Binance, and in less than a year, the platform became a global leader.

While CZ is the public face, Yi He is considered the "architect" of growth, behind bold marketing campaigns, close customer service, and building a cohesive community.

By 2023, Binance faced a major crisis when CZ was imprisoned for violating anti-money laundering laws, and the company suffered a record fine of $4.3 billion.

In the midst of the crisis, Yi He did not step back but took charge alongside the new CEO Richard Teng, restructuring the system and reinforcing legal compliance.

As a result, Binance still holds nearly 40% of the global market share, proving the strength of the customer-centric strategy.

Leadership Style and Influence

Yi He is known for being strict but wholeheartedly defends her employees. She requires all new employees to work at the customer service hotline to understand the job pressures.

She personally maintains the habit of directly responding to users on Telegram, X, and WeChat. In one instance of responding to criticism about her poor background, Yi He candidly said:

"I came from hardship but still succeeded, why don't you try doing the same?"

Thanks to her resilience and vision, she was called by Bloomberg the "most powerful woman in crypto."

At the age of 39, Yi He remains steadfast in her belief that cryptocurrency will change the financial world as the Internet once changed communication.

With a philosophy of living simply: "If you speak of good things, don’t mention the pain; if you tell of good things, don’t mix it with sad stories," she continues to prove her ability to turn adversity into motivation, maintaining her position amid the fiercest turmoil in the cryptocurrency industry.