CZ is the Chinese-Canadian billionaire founder and CEO of Binance. (He only claims his Canadian citizenship.)
Early years
Born in China, CZ moved to Vancouver BC when he was 12 years old.
As a teen, he worked at McDonalds.
He attended McGill University and majored in computer science.
After graduation, CZ worked in both Tokyo and Shanghai, eventually becoming the CTO at OKCoin.
He first learned about crypto during a poker game in 2013.
Founding Binance
The trials and tribulations of Binance’s explosive growth include several controversies and intrigues, mostly related to the unclear regulations surrounding crypto, and its unclear status between different countries.
They had to leave their headquarters in China before the crypto ban went into effect in 2017, and they have operated in a decentralized manner without a physical address since.
When directly questioned about the lack of an HQ in the past, he responded, “Where is Bitcoin’s headquarters?”
(Though their are currently based in Malta?)
Despite struggling to adhere to crypto’s decentralized anonymous principles, Binance initiated adoption of the Know Your Customer protocols, much to the chagrin of the crypto-using masses. They now have several branches of the company beginning to insert themselves into business spheres that are not strictly-traditional crypto spaces, such as obtaining a 200 million dollar stake in Forbes for example.
Feud with SBF?
What started as a more-or-less friendly rivalry between two major exchanges eventually soured in 2019.
At one time, Binance was even an investor in FTX.
Per reports, SBF was in favor of increased governmental regulations while CZ was opposed to further government oversight.
Binance extracted their equity and support as investors from FTX in 2021. Then on November 6th, 2022, CZ tweeted that Binance would sell all of their remaining FTT tokens.
Caroline Ellison of FTX/Alameda then tweeted that they would be happy to purchase these shares.
And the FTX collapse ensued.
Despite the apparent bad blood between SBF and CZ, Binance offered to buy FTX in the immediate wake of its’ collapse… but after 24 hours of due diligence, they concluded FTX was not salvageable.
CZ did not hold back on his criticisms of SBF in wake of the FTX/Alameda collapse.
Personal life
He admires the Marvel character Tony Stark. He has said, “Tony Stark is very resourceful. He builds a lot of things… that he uses to do good things.”
He revealed his first tattoo, a Binance logo, while onstage giving a presentation at Forbes Asia in 2018. He explained his thought process regarding the tattoo on his Medium page, which boiled down to, “Are you committed enough to this project that you are willing to get a tattoo?”
In an interview with the Associate Press, CZ states that he plans to give away 99% of his wealth. “I don’t need a lot of money.”
CZ philosophy
CZ’s overarching mantra is, “Be fair, be ethical, and don’t do crazy shit.”
For every Binance plug he posts on Twitter, he balances it with general words of support for the community, education about crypto in general, and glorious photos of himself +/- world leaders (or in various comical, slightly compromising, situations).
