From Rags to Riches: How Binance’s CZ Became the Undisputed King of Crypto
The crypto world has crowned its emperor—and his name is Changpeng Zhao. From coding in obscurity to commanding the largest crypto exchange on Earth, CZ's ascent mirrors Bitcoin's own rags-to-riches story.
Here's how a developer outmaneuvered Wall Street at its own game.
Binance's rocket-fueled growth didn't happen by accident. While traditional finance slept on blockchain, CZ built an empire processing $76 billion daily volume—more than some national stock exchanges. The BNB token's 2,800% climb since 2017? Just collateral damage.
Regulators keep swinging. CZ keeps dodging. The SEC's lawsuit? A speed bump. FSA warnings? Water off a duck's back. Meanwhile, retail traders keep flocking to the platform that 'technically' doesn't serve U.S. customers.
The punchline? The man who hates banking now controls more liquidity than most banks. Poetic justice for an industry that still thinks 'blockchain, not Bitcoin' was a smart take.
A still from CZ’s childhood
However, his journey was not easy, from the very beginning of his life he faced several difficulties, he was born in a small village where there was no electricity and no water supply. CZ’s mother has worked 12 hours a day at a minimum wage while his father had to study to upgrade his career and chose to stay away from his family to earn more.
Despite all these difficulties CZ took them as a motivation, studied in oil lamps, worked in gas stations, McDonald’s and built a billion dollar crypto empire. This is not a script of a Hollywood film; it is the real life of Changpeng Zhao.
His life is an inspiration and appreciated by the whole finance and crypto community. So stick to your seat since in this article, we will explore the extraordinary life of CZ, his early life, his legal battles and more. Without wasting more time, let’s get started.
Who is Changpeng Zhao (CZ)?
Changpeng Zhao is a Chinese-Canadian visionary who transformed a fledgling startup into Binance, which is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Under the leadership of CZ, Binance made various daily trading volume records and became the world’s largest crypto exchange. However, on November 21, 2023, CZ stepped down from his CEO position, and Richard Teng became the new CEO.
CZ has now turned to education, where he introduced Giggle Academy, a free learning platform that offers basic education to grades 1-12 in the FORM of interactive games. He has also assumed advisory positions where he has advised other countries like Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan on crypto regulation and growth.
Early Life of Changpeng Zhao
The story of Changpeng Zhao started in 1977 in Jiangsu, China, where he was born to an academic family. His father and his mother were teachers, and this created an intellectually stimulating environment.
CZ was not born with a silver spoon; his childhood was tough. In an interview, he revealed that he was born in a Chinese rural village where there was no electricity and no proper supply of water, where his mother used to go to a well 300 meters away to carry water with a bamboo stick. When he was in elementary school, he used to study under oil lamps.
CZ’s parents worked very hard. His father studied to become a professor, and his mother had to work in a sewing factory. All these difficulties motivated CZ and gave him some important learning, which helped him later on to stay grounded, adapt to changes and grow.
However, their lives were disrupted by political unrest in China, especially after the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. His father, labelled a pro-bourgeois intellectual, was temporarily exiled, and when CZ was only 12 years old, the family emigrated to Vancouver, Canada. In search of stability, this step became the first step of CZ in the West.
Life in Canada was not glamorous at all. The Zhao family was not wealthy, and CZ had to work hard to provide for his family since he was a teenager and worked in very tough jobs. He worked in McDonald’s as a burger flipper and at a gas station as an overnight attendant, which taught him to be a hard worker and gave him a realistic view of the worth of money.
His interest in technology was stimulated by his early exposure to computers, which was triggered by the fact that his father bought him a 286 DOS computer. This prompted him to study Computer Science at McGill University in Montreal where he mastered the skills that WOULD subsequently advance him to the world of finance and cryptocurrency.
The childhood of CZ was characterized by strength and flexibility. Immigration difficulties, along with financial struggle, made a man who was not afraid of hard labor and was ready to make use of opportunities. His natural ability in mathematics and programming preconditioned his career in which technology and finance would be combined and became the basis of his future empire.
CZ Relationships and Bonds
The personal life of Changpeng Zhao, which is commonly shadowed by his success in the professional field, provides a glimpse into the man behind the crypto empire. In 1999, CZ encountered Yang Weiqing whom he married in 2003. The couple had two children but divorced in the year 2005 when the eldest daughter was two years old. Despite the separation, CZ still had a family-oriented theme, which would become a part of his life later.
CZ first encountered He Yi in 2014 when he was just dipping his toes into the crypto world and she is a businesswoman and co-founder of Binance. Their interaction became a life partner relationship and they have three kids. He Yi was a central figure in the development of Binance, as he headed its venture capital wing and other important divisions.
The fact that she features in both his personal and professional life highlights the close-knit group of associates that he used to establish Binance. This combination of personal and professional relationships is indicative of how CZ was able to create loyalty and cooperation, despite his being a very tight-fisted ruler of his empire.
Professional relations were also important to CZ. Early in his career, he worked at the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Bloomberg Tradebook in New York, where he designed trading systems and learned about high-frequency trading. These experiences exposed him to important players in the financial world and this formed the foundation of his future endeavours.
One of the turning points was in 2013 when CZ played poker with BTCC co-founder Bobby Lee, who made him aware of Bitcoin. While meeting Lee suggested CZ to invest some money in Bitcoin, but instead of playing safe, Zhao went all in on BTC by selling his apartment and other stuff and investing all his money in Bitcoin. This moment led to his interest in cryptocurrency, which would become his career.
CZ did not have controversy-free relationships. His competition with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, turned into one of the most remarkable episodes of his career, which was characterized by open quarrels and tactical moves that led to the failure of FTX in 2022. Nevertheless, CZ was able to create and sustain a close-knit inner circle, which included co-founder Yi He and other associates born in China, which played a significant role in the dominance of Binance.
How Did CZ Begin Binance?
The risky step by Changpeng Zhao of investing all wealth in Bitcoin altered the world of cryptocurrency forever. He continued believing in BTC despite it being in the gray area due to its unregulated nature. CZ used a large portion of the proceeds of selling his apartment in Shanghai to invest in Bitcoin, which shows his commitment to the crypto industry since the very beginning.
He then started Binance with a $15 million initial coin offering (ICO). For further context, Binance was launched together with He Yi, as a co-founder, and introduced an easy-to-use interface, low commissions, and a variety of cryptocurrencies. This business strategy helped Binance become the largest crypto exchange in the world based on trading volume in eight months.
The vision of Binance by CZ was to establish a decentralized, open platform that would be able to compete with traditional financial institutions. In 2017, he launched Binance Coin (BNB), a utility token that provided discounts on trading fees and powered the Binance ecosystem.
In the ICO, 200 million BNB tokens were distributed, and there was a certain allocation plan. Half of it (100 million BNB) was to be sold to the general population, and 40% (80 million BNB) was to be sold to the Binance team. The remaining 10%, that is 20 million BNB, was left to angel investors.
The BNB token is a very useful utility token not only because it has high market liquidity but also because it provides traders who possess the coin with a 25 % discount on trading fees. In 2019, Binance introduced the Binance Smart Chain, a rival of ethereum that supports smart contracts, which further establishes its status as an industry leader.
Binance focuses on advanced technology, innovation, a user-friendly experience and has also transformed itself according to market needs. The firm beats the competition and stays relevant according to market demand.
The company expands its horizons and its product variety from time to time, which makes it stand tall among the growing crypto ecosystem. The firm introduced various features such as P2P trading, options, futures trading and more.
All these endeavors made it the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. It reached a market value of 1.3 billion in 2018. His power outside of crypto was also evidenced by this CZ investing $500 million in Elon Musk to purchase Twitter (now X) in 2022.
But the rapid success of Binance also had its problems. The attention of regulators increased with the expansion of the platform across the world. This choice of CZ to focus on growth rather than adherence to the anti-money laundering (AML) regulations would later cost him dearly, as it eventually led to his dramatic downfall.
The Extraordinary Rise & Fall Of CZ
The emergence of CZ to stardom was quite remarkable. In 2018, Forbes ranked him as the wealthiest cryptocurrency personality with a net worth of between $1.1 and $2 billion. As of May 2025, Forbes estimated his net worth at the 24th-richest person in the world, with a wealth of $66.1 billion, mostly due to his 90% ownership of Binance and his holdings in bitcoin and BNB. His story of a McDonald’s employee to a multi-billionaire was a perfect example of what cryptocurrency could achieve.
However, the empire of CZ was under pressure. The sale of Binance’s stake in FTX in 2021 and the announcement by CZ to sell the FTT tokens that the exchange held in 2022 caused a liquidity crisis that resulted in the collapse of FTX. This was a strategic move, but it was accused of market manipulation and further escalated the competition between CZ and Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud.
The twist of events occurred in November 2023, when CZ and Binance were found guilty by the federal U.S. authorities of breaking the Bank Secrecy Act by not having proper AML programs. Binance was fined a new record of $4.3 billion, CZ himself had to pay $50 million and leave the post of CEO, handing over the position to Richard Teng.
In April 2024, CZ was given a four-month prison sentence, less than the three years asked by the prosecutors, due to his cooperation and good character references. The court also accused CZ of focusing on the expansion of Binance rather than its compliance, saying that he had the means to follow the rules but did not.
The decline of CZ was the opposite of his rise. Having once been called the most powerful man in crypto, he stepped down by Binance leadership for life and was subject to heavy regulatory pressure. However, his immense wealth was not affected, and his position as a 90% shareholder would guarantee that he would continue to play a major role in the industry.
How Did CZ End Up in Prison?
CZ reported to a low-security federal prison in Lompoc, California, in June 2024, to serve his four-month sentence. It was a humbling experience for the billionaire who had been living outside the reach of the U.S in Dubai. CZ spent his time in prison exercising, reading books, and talking crypto with other prisoners.
The period that CZ spent in custody was characterized by introspection. In a letter to the court, he said he regretted not having implemented strong AML controls at Binance, admitting that he had no excuse for missing it. His mother, sister, and son stood with him and gave character references that helped the judge to give him a light sentence. The prison life did not affect the wealth and influence of CZ, and he started working on the post-prison plans.
Zhao’s Legendary Comeback
On September 27, 2024, two days before the end of the sentence, CZ was released on bail. He returned to society with a bang as seen when he appeared at a Binance event in Dubai and was welcomed with applause and shouts of the king is back. No longer allowed to participate in the daily activities of Binance, CZ has turned his attention to other things, especially charity and education.
Giggle Academy is one of the most important projects of CZ after prison, an educational platform based on blockchain technology and gamification that offers free education. This is one of his efforts to pay back, influenced by other philanthropists such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. CZ has also shown interest in investing in artificial intelligence and biotechnology, which is an indication of a wider vision than crypto.
In April 2025, CZ was hired as a strategic advisor to the Pakistan Crypto Council, whose role would be to promote blockchain technology in Pakistan. In a month, he was appointed an advisor to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic in the field of digital asset development. These positions show that he still has some sway in the international crypto community, even as a passive investor.
The fortunes of CZ exploded after the launch, as the crypto market rallied following Donald Trump’s 2024 U.S. presidential election victory. The Billionaires Index report shows that in 2025, Changpeng Zhao’s net worth is around $66.1 billion, making him one of the richest crypto individuals and placing him in the top list among the richest bitcoin owners.
By July 2025, CZ is still a giant in crypto, but it is a giant on the sidelines. The fact that he is working on Giggle Academy indicates that he wants to make a lasting legacy besides money, and he wants to change the education sector with the help of blockchain. His advising experience in Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan makes him a worldwide proponent of digital assets, whereas his investments in AI and biotech suggest a diversified portfolio.
Social media activity on CZ, especially on X, still influences the mood in the market. His tweets frequently affect the crypto trends, which shows his long-term power. He has said that he wants to relax and spend more time with his family, including his children and partner, He Yi, who is still a top executive at Binance. However, the lure of business is hard to resist, and CZ has such a huge stake in Binance that he will never be too distant from the industry that he helped to shape.
Wrapping It Up!
The story of Changpeng Zhao is a testament to the transformative nature of vision, risk, and resilience. CZ was the teenager who helped his family in Vancouver and became a billionaire who transformed the financial world. His career was a meteoric one, his downfall a humbling one and his redemption an inspiring one. Although his legal problems revealed the dangers of uncontrolled ambition, they also demonstrated his capacity to change and develop.
CZ’s story is not just about money or power; it’s about the human ability to dream big, fall, and rise again. His turn to charity and teaching implies a man who wants to re-establish his legacy, and who wants to use his money and power to do good. However, his legacy in Binance and the crypto sector is unforgettable, so his shadow will continue to cast a long one over the years.
Living in a world where innovation can go ahead of regulation, the life of CZ is a lesson and an example. He was not afraid to go against the status quo, and he has paid a price for his oversights and has come out with a new sense of purpose. The crypto world is closely following his second act, as it is well aware that the next step of CZ can reshape the future once again.
