Changpeng Zhao
Changpeng Zhao ( Chinese 赵长鹏 , Pinyin Zhao Peng Cháng * 1977 ) is a Sino-Canadian businessman who since April 2018, the founder and CEO of Binance is the world's largest trading volume cryptocurrency Exchange . Zhao was previously a member of the team that developed Blockchain.info and also served as OKCoin’s chief technology officer. His net worth is estimated at $ 1.2 billion.
Life
Zhao was born in Jiangsu Province, China. In the late 1980s, he and his family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His father was a professor in China before he was branded a "pro-civic intellect" and banned from his country. In his teenage years, Zhao helped support his family by holding a number of jobs in the service industry, including as an employee at McDonald's.
Zhao attended McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he majored in computer science.
After college, Zhao began working for the Tokyo Stock Exchange , developing software for matching trade orders. He also worked at Bloomberg Tradebook, where he developed software for futures trading.
In 2005 he moved to Shanghai where he founded Fusion Systems , known for "some of the fastest high frequency trading systems for brokers".
From 2013, he worked for various cryptocurrency projects, including Blockchain.info, and also served as OKCoin’s Chief Technology Officer.
In 2017, Zhao left OKCoin to start a cryptocurrency exchange called Binance. He founded the company in July 2017 after raising $ 15 million as part of an initial initial coin offering . In less than eight months, Zhao built Binance into the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, which went live in April 2018. In February 2018, Forbes Magazine placed him third on the list of “Richest People in Cryptocurrency”. In September 2018, his net worth was estimated at $ 1.4 billion.