Ten (10) Very Rare Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About CZ Binance

The crypto industry has come a long way in the last decade, and a significant part of this growth can be attributed to several veterans and prominent personalities. Changpeng Zhao, popularly known by his cool alias CZ, is one of those people. He is one of the most influential individuals in the industry, and many traders and crypto users look up to him.

Before coming in contact with crypto, CZ lived an interesting life; that didn’t change even after he got involved with digital currencies. This article will reveal five facts you probably didn’t know about the crypto veteran. Buckle up because it’s about to be a fascinating ride.

Who is CZ?

CZ is the founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. He launched the trading platform in 2017 and served as its CEO until November 2023, when he stepped down after pleading guilty to a money laundering charge in the United States. Changpeng Zhao is also known as a strong advocate for Web3 adoption. 

The industry big name has been loud about his support for decentralized finance (DeFi) and believes so much in the freedom that comes with being an active participant in the crypto space. He sees crypto as a worldview shift and has revealed that he exited the old world over a decade ago. This is one of the reasons he created Binance as a medium to accelerate the onboarding of more users into the digital asset sector. 

Besides founding Binance, the 48-year-old man is a serial entrepreneur who has worked in several companies and teams while searching for the next big opportunity. In his search for something big, he became a billionaire in less than a year after launching Binance, and his wealth has grown exponentially since then.

10 Things You May Not Know About Changpeng Zhao

Here are ten interesting facts you probably didn’t know about the crypto industry’s favorite, Zhao:

• CZ Flipped Burgers at McDonald’s

CZ Binance had a tough childhood, so as a teenager, he helped with household expenses by working at McDonald’s and taking overnight shifts at a Chevron gas station. 

Born in the Chinese coastal province of Jiangsu to a family of teachers, Zhao’s father worked as a professor at the University of Science and Technology in Hefei. However, after his father was labeled a pro-bourgeois intellect and temporarily exiled to rural areas, his family moved to Canada and settled in Vancouver. Zhao was 12 years old in 1989, when political repression was the norm in China.

On several occasions, the crypto veteran has recalled how his family waited three days outside the Canadian embassy to receive their rushed visas. He said his family members had to take turns maintaining their positions in the queue at night, and the experience changed his life forever.

• He Used to Develop High-frequency Trading Systems

In the years leading up to Zhao’s discovery of Bitcoin, he used to develop high-frequency trading systems for brokers on Wall Street. After graduating in the late 1990s with a degree in computer science from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, he moved to Japan to develop trading systems as an intern for the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

By 2001, he had been employed at Bloomberg in New York to work on futures trading software. In less than two years, Zhao was managing Bloomberg teams in New Jersey, London, and Tokyo. 

In 2005, the Binance founder resigned from Bloomberg to become an early partner at Fusion Systems in Shanghai. Within the following eight years, Fusion Systems became a leader in information technology (IT) and business consultancy, creating some of the fastest high-frequency trading systems for leading brokers across the world.

• CZ Discovered Crypto Through a Poker Game

While working with Fusion Systems, the entrepreneur had his first encounter with crypto at a poker game in 2013. During the game, Bobby Lee, brother to Litecoin founder Charlie Lee, recommended that CZ acquire some bitcoins (BTC) with a small part of his earnings; however, the Binance founder went all in a few months later.

At the time, Bobby Lee had founded BTC China (BTCC), one of China’s largest Bitcoin mining firms. After ceasing operations in 2017 due to China’s regulatory crackdown on the crypto sector, a Hong Kong-based blockchain investment fund acquired BTCC in 2018 and rebranded the firm into a digital asset exchange, with its name now standing for “BTC & Crypto.”

Following CZ’s first encounter with Bobby Lee, he began to learn about Bitcoin by reading the project’s white paper and attending crypto events. He eventually met Charlie Lee and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin at a small conference in Las Vegas. 

At the event, he also met a representative of the blockchain infrastructure provider, Ripple, who taught him how to use the XRP Ledger (XRPL). After the brief tutorial, the Binance founder wanted to transfer back the XRP he received in the process; however, the representative asked him to keep the assets and use them to teach the next guy. This experience sparked Zhao’s interest and marked the onset of his crypto adventure.

• Former Employee at OKX And Blockchain.com

CZ Binance eventually left Fusion Systems after he gained employment as head of development at Blockchain.info in December 2013. The company has rebranded to Blockchain.com, expanding its services from a blockchain explorer to a crypto exchange and wallet provider. 

He spent five months at Blockchain.info before joining the crypto exchange OKCoin as a chief technology officer; the story has it that He Yi, whom Zhao later co-founded Binance with, secured him this position. OKCoin has now rebranded to OKX and is among the top five crypto exchanges by trading volume. Zhao oversaw OKCoin’s futures trading services before his sudden departure in February 2015 due to the platform’s questionable practices. 

Changpeng Zhao moved on to create BijieTech, an exchange development company that offered cloud-based trading technology services to Asian trading platforms. By mid-2017, he had departed BijieTech to establish Binance. He brought a few past BijieTech employees, including senior developers and engineers, and fixed them at top ranks in Binance, creating an experienced team that avoided mistakes while setting up the leading exchange.

• He Resides in Dubai

In Zhao’s 48 years on earth, he has lived in different countries, namely the United States, Canada, Malta, China, and Japan. 

Developing Binance was a major reason for CZ’s frequent relocations. China’s ban on crypto trading in September 2017 caused Zhao to move the exchange’s servers and headquarters out of the country and into Japan. He later sought to establish Binance headquarters in Malta and moved there briefly. His career as a trading system developer dragged him to New York.

Currently, the serial entrepreneur resides in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, but Binance still has no headquarters.

• Crypto Investments Mostly in BNB And BTC

When Zhao discovered Bitcoin, he sold his apartment and raised money to acquire around 1,000 BTC while the cryptocurrency was worth $600. Over time, he refrained from selling his bitcoins and invested only in the leading digital currency as well as Binance Coin (BNB), the native crypto asset of the BNB Chain. 

He said so in his X bio that he holds only BTC and BNB. Recent revelations show Zhao’s portfolio comprises 98.48% BNB, 1.32% BTC, 0.17% Eurite (EURI), and 0.03% Tether (USDT). Zhao’s all-in position in BNB reflects his commitment to the Binance ecosystem. It is worth mentioning that Changpeng Zhao’s BNB holdings are mostly part of his equity stake in Binance.

Through the venture capital firm YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), the entrepreneur has also invested in companies in promising sectors like artificial intelligence (AI) and biotech. However, Zhao owns no equity in other projects, crypto or not; he says this is to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. So, the investments in the AI and biotech sectors are made via his official capacity as a leader in YZi Labs.

• Personal Minimalist, Business Maximalist

Despite the wealth he has accumulated via his BNB and BTC holdings, CZ Binance is known to be frugal. He is minimalistic in his lifestyle and owns no luxury cars, houses, watches, or even a yacht. In 2021, he revealed that he bought a Toyota Alphard van, but there have been no updates on more car purchases since then.

Zhao is only passionate about Binance hoodies and T-shirts – they make up most of his outfits. In 2020, the Binance founder said he didn’t even own a business suit. His favorite color appears to be black, as he is mostly seen wearing black Binance merchandise. 

When asked why he is so minimalistic, CZ said it is difficult to carry anything physical since he moves frequently and could live in a different city anytime. He insisted that he did not need a car because Uber makes easy movement possible and did not need to buy a house because of Airbnb apartments. In fact, owning a lot of stuff complicated his life, and he preferred to keep everything simple.

On the other hand, the former Binance CEO is a maximalist when it comes to work. He believes in working hard, attributing such characteristics to his Chinese origin. Under his leadership, Binance offered several promotions that made headlines. On one occasion, the crypto exchange had a Lamborghini as a giveaway. Over time, Binance has become known as an exchange with massive promotional methods, keeping the firm in the headlines as often as possible.

• CZ is an Ex-convict

In his quest to create a leading crypto exchange, Zhao encountered several regulatory challenges. However, these issues did not catch up to him until November 2023. The U.S. Justice Department charged Binance and CZ with anti-money laundering, know-your-customer, and sanctions violations, imposing a $4.3 billion fine on the platform. During negotiations with the Justice Department, CZ agreed to pay a $50 million fine and step down as his company’s CEO.

Following his guilty plea to the charges, a United States court sentenced the ex-CEO of Binance to four months in prison in April 2024. Zhao spent the first two months of his jail term at a minimum-security prison in the California desert and the remaining half at a halfway house in Long Beach. 

When Zhao was released on September 27, two days ahead of his release date, the crypto community was overjoyed, as seen in the excitement surrounding his first tweet after the sentence. The Federal Bureau of Prisons released the Binance founder earlier because his release date fell on a weekend, as is the rule at the agency. 

• Love For Philanthropy

CZ Binance has communicated his love for philanthropy on several occasions. He has also launched philanthropic projects, such as the non-profit online education platform Giggle Academy. Giggle Academy aims to provide free education to underprivileged children from grades 1-12. Zhao started building Giggle Academy before he was sentenced to prison and focused on the project after he left the correctional facility. 

Sometime in February 2025, the Binance founder donated 150 BNB worth approximately $100,000 to victims of the Libra (LIBRA) memecoin rug pull. The rug pull, tied to Argentine President Javier Milei, was executed within hours of Libra’s launch, incurring massive losses for investors. 

While disclosing to the crypto community that he had sent the funds as promised, he exposed one of his addresses, and the wallet ended up receiving way more funds than he had donated. However, the crypto veteran insisted that he would donate the digital assets he received to more victims of other fraudulent memecoin projects.

In late 2021, Changpeng Zhao also revealed his intentions to give away about 90% to 95% of his wealth, as many entrepreneurs and founders have done. The Binance founder’s intentions stem from his minimalistic living, as he believes he is financially free and does not need a lot of money to maintain his lifestyle.

• CZ Believes in The Simulation Theory

Remember when we said Zhao had a keen interest in the AI and biotech sectors? Well, that is a result of his strong belief in simulation theory.

The simulation theory is a hypothesis that postulates that humans experience the world as a simulated reality. According to the theory, what people perceive as reality is an advanced, artificial, digital simulation orchestrated by a more sophisticated intelligence.

Therefore, CZ believes that progress in AI and biotech will help humans advance significantly. While it remains unclear what simulation humans are living in – whether we are just sitting or sleeping and dreaming about ourselves – Zhao insists that humans should take development seriously because everything in the simulation still matters. He also thinks that the advancement of technology will make human simulation more controllable in the next 100 to 500 years.

Interestingly, Zhao said the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 could be solved if research funding was accelerated. He advocates making the world better by properly handling global challenges like flooding and climate change.

Finally, one perk of believing in simulation is that the Binance founder finds it easy to deal with difficult situations. Since he sees reality as just a game, it gives him a lighter view of things and allows him to do his best while moving forward. 

Frequently Asked Questions

• How did CZ get so rich?

It is believed that the primary source of Changpeng Zhao’s wealth is his equity stake in Binance. The controlling stake, estimated to be 90% of the company, is in BNB, which has grown more than 792,000% since it went live in 2017. As the value of BNB skyrocketed over the years, so did Zhao’s wealth. 

In addition to CZ Binance’s BNB holdings, the entrepreneur acquired bitcoins after liquidating his real estate portfolio in 2014. Since then, he has spent a negligible portion of his BTC and held the rest. Like BNB, bitcoin’s value has also ballooned, however, by a greater percentage. So, Zhao became so rich because the value of BNB and BTC skyrocketed over time.  

• What does CZ stand for?

CZ is an alias of Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume. It’s a really cool moniker, so most industry participants prefer to address Zhao by the nickname.

• Who is the founder of Binance?

Changpeng Zhao, popularly known as CZ, is the founder of Binance. He founded the exchange in 2017, and less than a year later, it grew into the largest digital asset trading platform.

• What is the full name of Binance?

The full name of Binance is Binance Holdings Ltd.

• Is CZ married? 

Yes. However, there is a lot of controversy surrounding Zhao’s marital life. While some sources say he is married to He Yi, whom he co-founded Binance with, others insist that he tied the knot with one Yang Weiqing in 2003, years before meeting Yi. Regardless, a court filing from April 2024 listed both Yi and Weiqing as Zhao’s family members, alongside his three kids, Jessica, Rachel, and Ryan, all born of Yi.

• What is CZ number 4? 

Changpeng Zhao’s number 4 tweets and posts refer to his commitment to focus on development in the digital asset ecosystem, ignoring fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) that could be triggered by fake news and attacks from rival firms.

He first tweeted about number 4 on January 2, 2023, when he was revealing his plans for the year. The Binance founder laid out four points, saying he would focus on the first three, which are education, compliance, and product and service. The fourth and last point was to “ignore GUD, fake news, attacks, etc.” He also mentioned that he would occasionally tweet 4 in the future and that users should link back to the tweet.

To cement his stance on number 4, CZ eventually released a photo of himself forming the number with his fingers. In the picture, he is smiling and wearing a black Binance polo shirt, as he often does.

• How much is CZ worth now?

According to Forbes, Changpeng Zhao is currently worth $78.5 billion. The Binance founder is the 23rd richest person in the world. 

Interestingly, Zhao was the richest person to ever be sentenced in the United States. His net worth was estimated to be around $43 billion at the time. While some reports claim that the Binance CEO is worth as much as $300 billion, he flatly denies the claims.

Final Thoughts

CZ’s story is a good example of a young man moving from grass to grace in his lifetime. Exiled from his country at the age of 12, Zhao has grown into a billionaire, driving growth and innovation in a budding sector through hard work and grit. 

There were situations when Binance’s first team members, Zhao included, worked in rooms so small that their workstations were crammed next to each other and even right outside toilets. However, the story has changed today—Binance has employees all over the globe, and most traders have confessed to gaining financial freedom on the leading crypto exchange.

Before Changpeng Zhao stepped down as CEO, he helped his firm handle several issues, ranging from regulatory challenges to hacks and media attacks from rivals. His determination and decision-making abilities have helped the exchange thrive and maintain the number one spot for years.

Zhao is hyper-focused on building. Most of his words, especially in times of industry chaos, encourage crypto developers to keep building on their projects regardless of the state of the digital asset economy. He is all for building real blockchain applications, not just fun projects like memecoins. To CZ, there is still so much work to be done in the cryptosphere, hence his unwavering contribution and support for new and innovative projects. 

Despite the hurdles he has encountered in his career and some investments and collaborations that have gone sour, Zhao is on the lookout for new ideas and is hell-bent on making the Web3 world better each day. Hopefully, the next few years will see the Binance founder help his brainchild navigate the evolving regulatory landscape and overcome new challenges.

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