Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is the founder of crypto exchange Binance.
Changpeng Zhao, known globally simply as “CZ”, is the founder and CEO of crypto exchange Binance. A Chinese-Canadian billionaire due to his success in building Binance from the ground up since 2017, Zhao has residency in both China and Taiwan.
Zhao was born in Jiangsu, China, and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia with his family in the late 1980s. His father was a university professor in China before he was exiled due to being labeled a “pro-bourgeois intellect”.
Zhao studied computer science at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. After obtaining his degree, Zhao started working for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, developing software for matching trade orders, and then at Bloomberg Tradebook, as a developer of futures trading software. In 2005, Zhao moved to Shanghai and founded Fusion Systems, a high-frequency trading platform for brokers. In 2013, he worked for various cryptocurrency projects, including Blockchain.info. He also served as CEO for OKCoin. In 2017, Zhao launched Binance after raising $15 million funding during an initial coin offering (ICO).
In April 2018, Binance became the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume, in just under 180 days from its launch. The exchange hit a daily trading volume of $500 million in early 2019.