CZ has been hot on the news following the recent crash of FTX.

While some folks believe that he tactically put the exchange out of business, others believe that he did the crypto market a favor by exposing a fraudster.

In today’s post, we’ll dive into the life story of CZ; how he grew from nothing to become a crypto billionaire.

However, if you’re interested in the FTX scandal, you can check here for the full gist.

Otherwise, let’s get into the main reason why we are here.

CZ Binance Background

Chanpeng Zhao popularly known as CZ Binance was born on the 10th of September, 1977 in Jiangsu, china.

His parents were teachers and his father later gained admission to do his master’s degree at the University of British America, Canada.

Thus the family relocated to Canada and CZ was just 12 years old at the time. They settled in Vancouver, British Columbia.

His father also completed his Ph.D. and became a professor, leading a very simple life as one would expect from an academic.

When he was 14 years of age, CZ supported his family financially by taking on different jobs.

He completed his tertiary education at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec. where he studied Computer Science.

Unsurprisingly, CZ worked at different jobs while in the university. 

CZ Binance Work Life

After his graduation, CZ went for an internship at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan.

Later, he worked full-time for four years at Bloomberg Tradebook, where he served as a developer for futures trading.

By the time he was 27 years old, he had been promoted twice within a period of two years.

He moved on to manage several teams in New Jersey, London, and Tokyo. Traveling across these states no doubt added to his work experience.

CZ worked in Tokyo for four years and in New York for four years as well.

One major challenge that he faced was transferring money from one country to another.

This led him to launch a startup in Shanghai In 2005 with 5 other people.

They started Fusions systems which enabled high-frequency trading for brokers. So cool!

CZ Binance Crypto Journey

Then in 2013, Bobby Lee and Ron Cao introduced CZ to bitcoin

Lee encouraged him to invest 10% of his net worth in bitcoin but CZ preferred to go all in after seeing the potential of the cryptocurrency.

He sold his house in Shanghai for 1 million dollars and bought bitcoin with it. Not only that, he decided to explore other crypto projects as well.

So, he left Fusions systems and went into the crypto industry full-time.

In the same year, he worked for blockchain.info as the head of development of the cryptocurrency wallet team.

Also, he served as the CTO at OKCoin. While at it, he noticed some lapses in the top crypto exchanges.

These exchanges were mere copycats of each other without any unique features.

CZ Starts Binance

Having learned so much about the crypto industry and gaining confidence, CZ started the no. 1 crypto exchange, Binance.

In 2017, he launched the exchange with Yi Hu as a cofounder. She was his colleague at OKCoin. They raised $14 million in an ICO for Binance which was based in China.

But then the Chinese government banned cryptocurrency trading and so the young crypto exchange moved its headquarters to Japan.

However, the current headquarters of Binance is at George Town, Cayman Islands with about 40 branches in 38 countries.

8 months after its launch, Binance grew to become the largest cryptocurrency exchange in April 2018. Kudos CZ!

On average, Binance has 1,000 employees that handle 1.4 million transactions per second.

Furthermore, CZ launched the Binance Smart Charn, a blockchain that has contributed largely to the growth of the DeFi industry.

The Billionaire CZ

In the same April 2018, Forbes listed CZ Binance as the 3rd richest in the crypto industry with an estimated net worth of $1.1 – 2 billion.

Also, in August 2018, Binance with only 3 other exchanges was able to raise $12 million for a stablecoin project which became a success in the long run.

Then disaster struck. On 7th May 2019, CZ and Binance lost $40 million in bitcoin to hackers.

Gratefully, it didn’t pull the company down. Deposits and withdrawals were halted for a while but users were eventually refunded from SAFU.

CZ Binance Lifestyle

CZ loves to dress in Binance-branded T-shirts and hoodies. He is always in black clothing too. Who knows, black may be his favorite color.

Interestingly, this 45-year-old billionaire does not own a house or a car. Following his tweets, it is obvious that he would rather give his wealth to charity than amass material possessions.

Here’s one of them:

“Do not worry about rankings. Focus on how many people you can help.” – CZ Binance.

Wow, such an amazing personality.

Conclusion

The story of CZ Binance is a motivation to everyone thriving for success.

Never give up and make use of all the opportunities that come your way.

Notice that CZ Binance didn’t take any shortcuts, he followed due process, gained the needed knowledge, and built a magnificent exchange.

I hope you enjoyed reading this documentary. Please share.

You’re also welcome to show some love for CZ in the comments section below.

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