Changpeng Zhao is the founder of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance. However, he has faced major hurdles a number of times throughout his career, most notably by the Chinese government and later by U.S. authorities, who charged him with violating money laundering laws in 2023.
• Changpeng Zhao’s interest in the crypto industry was sparked in 2013
• Binance will become the largest crypto exchange in the world in just 180 days
• Resigned as CEO in November 2023 after pleading guilty and being fined billions
Changpeng Zhao
Changpeng Zhao was born to teachers in China and lived in Anhui Province, according to a Binance blog post. However, in 1989, at the age of twelve, he emigrated to Canada with his family after the Tiananmen massacre. “We were staying on the campus of Hefei University of Science and Technology, one of China’s top four universities, at the time. I didn’t understand much of what was going on, but I heard snippets of conversation from older students, and from what I could piece together, I was lucky to be able to leave at that time,” Zhao explained. He and his family spent three days waiting in line at the Canadian embassy to obtain a visa. To support his family financially, Zhao worked at McDonald’s in Vancouver during his teenage years. After studying computer science at McGill University, he eventually worked on trading software for the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Bloomberg. In 2005, he went to Shanghai to found an IT start-up with five other expats.
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Binance founder
He became interested in cryptocurrencies in 2013. During a poker game, he learned about the digital currency Bitcoin and decided to devote himself entirely to cryptocurrency. In order to be able to buy Bitcoin, he even sold his apartment in 2014. Two years before founding Binance, Zhao founded Bijie Tech, which provided exchange-as-a-service platforms to other exchanges. It was primarily about the exchange of art and objects such as stamps, baseball cards and the like. However, in March 2017, the Chinese government decided to close all such exchanges, forcing all of the company’s customers to go out of business. Together with the Bijie team, Binance finally launched on July 14, 2017. But this company also faced a major hurdle when, just a month and a half after its founding, the Chinese government published a memo stating that crypto exchanges were not allowed to operate in China. A full 30 years after Zhao and his family fled China, he was forced to leave the country again. But despite the difficulties, Binance became the largest crypto exchange in the world in just 180 days.
Legal problems and realignment
In November 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to violating US money laundering laws (Bank Secrecy Act) and resigned as CEO of Binance. Binance paid a $4 billion fine as part of its settlement with US authorities, the US Department of Justice reported. In April 2024, Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison, significantly less than the three years demanded by prosecutors. After his release from federal prison in California in September 2024, he was given a full pardon by US President Donald Trump in October 2025. The pardon came amid extensive business ties between Binance and World Liberty Financial, a Trump family cryptocurrency company. Richard Teng took over the position of CEO at Binance in November 2023, and Yi He, co-founder of Binance, was appointed co-CEO in December 2025. Zhao remains Binance’s largest shareholder, according to Bloomberg, and has an advisory role at Binance and Binance Labs, but has made it clear that he will not return as CEO.
Assets and new projects
Changpeng Zhao is now one of the richest people in the world. He is among the top 30 wealthiest people in the world on Forbes list and is the richest Canadian citizen. In 2020, he was also included in the Bloomberg 50 as one of the most influential people of the year. In March 2024, Zhao announced Giggle Academy, a free, non-profit, token-free educational project. The platform uses NFT badges, point systems and playful elements to impart knowledge. In January 2026, he announced on
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