binance ceo changpeng zhao theinformation

#Binance ceo changpeng zhao theinformation software
#Binance ceo changpeng zhao theinformation tv

It was a hit almost immediately, accruing 120,000 users in its first 45 days of operation.

For tens of millions of users around the world, Binance is the place to actually do that - a tool with enough accessibility for newcomers and enough fine-tuned analytics for professionals. The key to the site’s success is that it works as an on-ramp to the entire industry: if you want to get your hands on some Bitcoin or use any kind of crypto-based web application, you’ll need to first take your non-crypto money and turn it into crypto. He spent the next four years at different crypto startups before co-founding Binance in China in 2017, with dreams of creating an international hub for digital assets. After learning about Bitcoin at a poker game in 2013, Zhao immediately sold his place in Shanghai, put a million dollars in Bitcoin, and left his post at Fusion to break into the crypto industry.

#Binance ceo changpeng zhao theinformation software

CZ’s direct supervisor at Bloomberg described him to me as “a smart software technologist with excellent people skills,” but added that he’s “not the classic Wall Street asshole” and “not the classic technology sociopath.”Īfter his time at Bloomberg, CZ moved to Shanghai, co-founding a financial software company called Fusion Systems. He cut his teeth after college as a software developer for Bloomberg’s trading division. He then ended up following in the footsteps of his academic father, studying computer science at McGill University in Montreal. Inside Sam Bankman-Fried’s Bahamas Penthouse, Before It All Came Crashing Down The McDonald’s job is a significant part of the CZ mythos - the fast-food chain is something of a meme in the crypto world, a symbol of the fate that awaits failed day traders. Zhao had a number of part-time jobs as a teenager, including, most famously, a two-year stint at McDonald’s, where he’s said he made $4.5 Canadian dollars an hour. He and his family reportedly left the rural area for the city of Hefei before emigrating to Vancouver when Zhao was 12, two months after the Tiananmen Square massacre. WHAT WE DO KNOW IS THAT Zhao was born in the Chinese town of Qing Kou, in Jiangsu Province, in the late ’70s. “ just a regular guy doing what needs to get done,” CZ wrote in a 2018 blog post. So, who is CZ? And what has he been hiding? A lot of people could lose a lot of money.” So I worry about the potential for it to go down. “We just went through the SVB collapse, and that was a regulated bank, at least there was some review process,” Van Hollen says. “It’s hard to put a finger on where operating, what they’re doing.”Īnd that matters as concerns about the stability of where we park our money are higher than ever. Chris Van Hollen, one of the lawmakers who has expressed concern about Binance in the past, told me. “Clearly CZ has been lurking in the shadows,” Sen.

The elusive CZ has always been the real crypto kingpin - and the mystery is not an accident. But if you don’t follow crypto, you’ve likely never heard of CZ (like Bankman-Fried, Zhao goes by his initials), even though his business empire and personal wealth outmatched SBF’s.

#Binance ceo changpeng zhao theinformation tv

An expanding constellation of books, TV shows, and movies about the FTX fiasco will no doubt cement SBF’s place in the culture for years to come. SBF, the rumpled Silicon Valley wunderkind, the dutiful son of two Stanford legal scholars, has become one of the most notorious alleged criminals in the history of finance. Binance canceled the very next day, citing “issues are beyond our control or ability to help.” On November 11, FTX collapsed, taking about a trillion dollars off the estimated global value of all cryptocurrencies and forever staining the industry’s reputation. Then, as quickly as the deal was announced, it evaporated. Not only was Bankman-Fried giving up on his once-ascendant businesses - he was actually bending the knee, selling whatever was left of the apparently ailing FTX for scrap. It looked like a world-historic chess move. The news was sudden and definitive: Binance, Zhao’s international trading post, announced plans to buy its biggest rival, FTX, led by the young American Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF. There was a moment, late last fall, when Changpeng Zhao seemed like the smartest guy in crypto.