Got sentenced to prison.
And still owns 90% of Binance.
He says he’s done.
But nobody believes it.
Who is CZ?
Changpeng Zhao was born in China, but moved to Canada at 12.
His father, a teacher, was exiled for being a "pro-bourgeois intellect."
Having a humble background
He worked at McDonald's and a gas station to support his family
CZ studied computer science at McGill University.
After graduating
He interned in Tokyo, creating software for the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Later, he spent four years at Bloomberg Tradebook
Working on futures trading software.
In 2005
CZ returned to Shanghai to start Fusion Systems.
A company focused on high-frequency trading software.
But he discovered Bitcoin in 2013
And Zhao sold his apartment, and invested everything he had into crypto.
Before founding Binance, CZ held important roles.
He was the head of development at Blockchain info, a Bitcoin wallet provider.
He then became the CTO at OKCoin, one of China's top exchanges
But CZ wanted to take the next step.
In 2017, CZ co-founded Binance.
The platform grew fast due to its simplicity and variety of cryptocurrencies.
But China banned crypto exchanges in September.
Zhao then relocated Binance and switched to a fully remote model.
Binance raised $15 million through an ICO and launched BNB coin as an ERC-20 token.
In 2019, the company introduced its own blockchain:
BNB Chain
That year, they became one of the earliest investors in a new exchange called FTX.
Coindesk exposed FTX's financial issues with Alameda and FTT.
CZ revealed Binance would sell its FTT holdings and initially planned to acquire FTX.
But after a review, Binance backed out.
Leading to FTX’s collapse.
Binance's global expansion led to regulatory warnings from the UK and Japan.
By 2023, US authorities took action.
Binance agreed to a $4.3B settlement with the US Department of Justice for breaking anti-money laundering laws.
But that wasn’t the end.
As part of the settlement
CZ agreed to step down as CEO of Binance and pay a $50M personal fine.
Federal guidelines suggested 18 months in prison.
But CZ was sentenced to four months on April of 2024.
CZ has been released.
He served 4 months and paid $50M.
He’s no longer part of Binance.
But his story didn’t end there.
Changpeng launched Giggle Academy.
A free platform to teach 1 billion kids.
And he’s writing a book about everything.
He also advises governments like Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Helping them build crypto regulation and blockchain systems.
And created YZi Labs with Yi He
A new fund for early-stage projects
His first investment was Airdrop infra for verified users
What will CZ do next?
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