Changpeng Zhao (CZ)

Changpeng Zhao, universally known as CZ, was born in China and moved to Canada. He worked in traditional finance at Bloomberg before entering crypto, working at Blockchain.info and OKCoin. He founded Binance in July 2017 with a focus on crypto-to-crypto trading, launching one of the first exchanges to offer a wide range of altcoin pairs. Binance grew explosively to become the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. Binance Coin (BNB) became one of the top cryptocurrencies by market cap. CZ became one of the wealthiest people in the world during the crypto bull market of 2021. In November 2023, Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines to settle US charges related to anti-money laundering violations and illegal money transmission, and CZ resigned as CEO and pleaded guilty personally, receiving a four-month prison sentence in 2024.