In 2014, Zhao Changpeng did something that seemed "very irrational" at the time: he sold his house in Shanghai and all-in on Bitcoin.
That year, Bitcoin had just experienced a surge followed by a crash, halving in value from its peak down to two-thirds, while housing prices in Shanghai were taking off.
A year later, housing prices doubled; meanwhile, his Bitcoin was still struggling halfway up the mountain.
If it were an ordinary person, they would probably regret it by now. But Zhao Changpeng remained completely calm and instead appeared very composed. He said: "Cryptocurrency looks new and cool, very much like the internet 20 years ago."
Since then, he has not touched real estate because "houses are too inflexible and have poor liquidity."
This is not a joke, but rather his underlying cognition.
He no longer gambles but instead steps in to create a platform.
If the first all-in was driven by passion and belief, every step he took afterward was done with great calmness.
He focused on a core point: the demand for cryptocurrency trading is increasing, and trading platforms are the most stable money-making machines.
So he founded Binance and started building his own stage.
How big did this platform become later?
In 2021, Binance became the cryptocurrency exchange with the most users globally, with an average daily trading volume exceeding $76 billion and a total annual trading volume reaching $34.1 trillion.
The platform makes continuous profits from transaction fees, listing fees, and service fees, regardless of whether the bull market drives profits or the bear market causes losses — the platform does not lose, and Zhao Ge always profits.
A saying in the crypto circle goes: "Playing with coins returns to z", which reflects this logic.
He became the "richest person in the crypto circle", yet he still did not buy a house.
At the beginning of 2022, according to Bloomberg data, Zhao Changpeng's personal wealth reached $94.1 billion, briefly surpassing Zhong Shanshan of Nongfu Spring, becoming the richest Chinese.
His life was extremely low-key; he didn't even buy a house.
He once said: "The liquidity of houses is too poor". Looking back now, that statement is not just a recognition but more like a prophecy.
When many people were still caught between the housing market and the crypto circle, he had already crossed that line — from player to rule maker.
All-in is an art, but not everyone can afford to play it.
Zhao Changpeng's story teaches us that truly capable people do not win by gambling, but by judging trends and executing actions.
You might not be wrong choosing either a house or Bitcoin, but the number of people who can see the underlying logic and are determined to take action is truly few.
And Zhao Changpeng achieved it. He did not follow a traditional path but became the most profitable player in the digital world.
This is not a coincidence; it's a rare consistency between cognition and execution.
