Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Before founding Binance, which is headquartered in the crypto friendly nation of Malta, Zhao served as the Head of Development at Blockchain.info and the Chief Technology Officer at OKCoin. Born in Jiangsu province of China, Zhao and his family moved to Canada in the 1980s, later obtaining a degree in computer science from McGill University. 

Zhao has also worked as the Head of Tradebook Futures Development for Bloomberg and for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, developing software for trading for both entities. He had also founded BijieTech, an exchange systems provider, in 2015.

Changpeng Zhao is a prominent member of the cryptocommunity and is considered one of the most highly influential individuals in the space. Binance has quickly risen to prominence as an exchange that serves users on a global level, making a remarkable rise to world’s top cryptocurrency exchanges by trading volume in under a year.

Zhao is also popular among investors and cryptocurrency enthusiasts and his statements often make headlines. Not one to shy away from making an opinion, Zhao frequently offers updates and analyses on Twitter and in blog posts, words which are heeded quite closely by the crypto markets. This extraordinary saw Zhao become a billionaire in under a year, a story that has been repeatedly covered by media outlets. 

As Binance continues to implement more features and offer new services, and expand to new regions, such as America, the exchange is only predicted to grow even further.