Early Life
Changpeng Zhao was born in 1977 in Jiangsu, China. His father was a professor. His family had a tough time when he was young because of some political problems. Changpeng Zhao moved to Vancouver, Canada with his family when he was twelve years old.
They were looking for a life. It was not easy for Changpeng Zhao at first so he had to work part-time jobs like flipping burgers at McDonalds and working at gas stations to help his family. These tough times taught Changpeng Zhao to work and never give up which helped him a lot later in his life.
General Information
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | September 10, 1977 |
| Age | 48–49 years |
| Screen Name / Nick Name | CZ |
| First Name | Changpeng |
| Full Name | Changpeng Zhao (赵长鹏) |
| Gender | Male |
| Father | Zhao Shengkai |
| Mother | Schoolteacher |
| Siblings | At least one sister |
| Religion | Not Known / Will update Soon |
| Birth Place | Jiangsu Province, China |
| Residence | Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
| Nationality | Canada, UAE, China |
| Profession | Business Man, Entrepreneur, Billionaire, Divorced, More Then 2 Relationships, Dual Nationality |
| Education | McGill University; University-Hill Secondary School |
| Spouse | Yang Weiqing (2003–2005) |
| Partner | Yi He (2014–present) |
| No. of Children | 5 |
| No of relationships | 3 |
| Relationships | Yang Weiqing 2003–2005; Yi He 2014–Till |
| Awards | Will update Soon |
| Zodiac Sign | Virgo |
| Chinese Zodiac Sign | Snake |
| Weight | ~70 kg |
| Height | 5 feet 7 inches |
| Eye Color | Brown |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Appearance | Simple & professional |
| Net Worth | $50–110+ Billion |
| Category | Business Man, Entrepreneur, Billionaire, Divorced, More Then 2 Relationships, Dual Nationality |
| Known For | Founder of Binance |
Social Media & Online Profiles
| Platform | Details |
|---|---|
| @changpengzhao 470K+ followers | |
| Facebook Page | Facebook Page 1K+ followers |
| Twitter (X) | @cz_binance 12.4M+ followers |
Online Profiles & Databases
| Platform / Database | Details |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Changpeng Zhao |
| Grokipedia | Changpeng Zhao |
Personal Life
Changpeng Zhao is a citizen of Canada and the United Arab Emirates. He was born in China in 1977. Changpeng Zhao moved to Canada with his family in 1989. He became a citizen around 1992. In 2005 Changpeng Zhao moved back to China. Bought an apartment in Shanghai. In 2015 he sold this apartment to buy Bitcoin.
Changpeng Zhao stayed in China until the government banned crypto exchanges in 2017. Now he lives in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Changpeng Zhao got married to Yang Weiqing in 2003. They had two kids together.. They got divorced around 2005. Since 2014 Changpeng Zhao has been with He Yi. She is also a co-founder of Binance. They have three kids together.
Who is Changpeng Zhao?
Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ is a Canadian entrepreneur. He is one of the important people in the global cryptocurrency industry. Changpeng Zhao is best known for starting Binance the worlds cryptocurrency exchange.
CZ is widely respected for building a crypto empire in a very short time. He also played a role in the global adoption of blockchain technology and digital assets.
Early Life and Education
Changpeng Zhao was born in Lianyungang, a city in Chinas Jiangsu province. When he was twelve years old his family moved to Canada. They settled in Vancouver, British Columbia. His parents were both teachers in China. His father was a university instructor.
During his years in Canada Changpeng Zhao worked to help his family. He had jobs like working at a McDonalds and a gas station. Changpeng Zhao later went to McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. He studied computer science there.
Starting His Career
After finishing university Changpeng Zhao had an internship in Tokyo. He worked for a company that helped the Tokyo Stock Exchange. He developed software for matching trade orders. Later he worked time for four years at Bloomberg Tradebook. There he developed software for trading futures.
Business Ventures
In 2005 Changpeng Zhao moved to Shanghai to start his businesses. He created his technology company, Fusion Systems. This company was known for building fast trading platforms. These platforms helped stockbrokers trade quickly.
Changpeng Zhao first learned about Bitcoin in 2013. He was playing poker with Bobby Lee, who later founded BTCC. Lee suggested Changpeng Zhao invest some money in Bitcoin. Changpeng Zhao decided to invest all his money.
He sold his apartment in Shanghai to buy Bitcoin. In 2013 Changpeng Zhao was part of the team that created Blockchain.info.He also worked as the Chief Technology Officer for OKCoin. In 2022 Changpeng Zhao invested $500 million through Binance. This investment helped finance Elon Musks purchase of Twitter.
Binance: A Crypto Exchange
Binance was launched in July 2017. It raised $15 million in its coin offering. Trading on the exchange began eleven days later. In than eight months Changpeng Zhao grew Binance into the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange.
This was measured by the amount of trading happening on it. Changpeng Zhao also launched Binance Coin in 2017. This is a token that gives users benefits like discounts on trading fees.
In April 2019 Binance launched Binance Smart Chain. This platform allows for contracts. It is a competitor to Ethereum. In February 2018 Forbes listed Changpeng Zhao as one of the people in cryptocurrency. In 2019 Changpeng Zhao launched Binance.US, a version of Binance for the United States.
Views on Cryptocurrency
Changpeng Zhao believes that people are interested in crypto because they see it growing. They trade it to make money. He has said that the market will always adjust itself. In April 2021 Changpeng Zhao shared that all his personal wealth was in cryptocurrency.
In April 2025 Changpeng Zhao was appointed as an advisor. He joined the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC). This group helps oversee and promote blockchain technology and digital assets in Pakistan.
Changpeng Zhao prefers to keep his family life private. While it is known that he is married and has children he rarely shares details in public.
Entry into Cryptocurrency
CZ was introduced to Bitcoin around 2013. Fascinated by the concept of finance he quickly shifted his focus to cryptocurrency. He joined Blockchain.info ( Blockchain.com) as Head of Development and later worked at OKCoin as CTO. These roles helped him gain experience in the crypto ecosystem.
Founding of Binance
- In 2017 CZ founded Binance through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO).
- Within a few months Binance became the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.
- Its success was driven by fast transaction speeds, low trading fees and a user-friendly interface.
- CZ also launched BNB (Binance Coin) which became one of the cryptocurrencies globally.
Rapid Growth & Global Influence
Under CZs leadership Binance expanded rapidly across countries and introduced spot trading, futures trading, crypto staking and an NFT marketplace. He became one of the powerful voices in the crypto world and played a key role in mainstream crypto adoption.
Legal. Resignation (2023–2024)
- In 2023 CZ and Binance faced legal issues in the United States related to regulatory compliance.
- CZ pleaded guilty to compliance violations. Binance agreed to pay a multi-billion-dollar settlement.
- CZ stepped down as CEO of Binance. In 2024 he was sentenced in the U.S.. Served a short prison term.
- Despite this he remained a figure in the crypto industry.
Developments (2025–2026)
Reports in 2026 suggested his net worth surged significantly making him one of the richest people globally. He publicly questioned these estimates stating they may not reflect market conditions.
He secured a win when a U.S. Court dismissed a major lawsuit against him and Binance. CZ is now focusing on the future of AI and crypto integration predicting that AI will dominate crypto transactions. He is also exploring banking partnerships to expand crypto adoption further.
Changpeng Zhao Controversy
- CZs career has not been free from controversy. He faced investigations in multiple countries.
- There was a 2023 U.S. Case related to compliance issues. He paid billions in settlement. Served prison time in 2024.
- Despite these challenges he continues to remain influential in the crypto space.
- Interesting Facts about Changpeng Zhao
- He worked at McDonalds before becoming a billionaire.
- He sold his house to invest in Bitcoin early.
- He founded Binance in a few months.
- He is known for his Funds are SAFU” statement.
- He prefers a lifestyle despite huge wealth.
- He is one of the followed personalities in crypto.
- He believes strongly in the future of finance.
- He actively supports blockchain innovation worldwide.
Net Worth
Changpeng Zhao is a Canadian business executive with a net worth of $50 billion. Also known in the crypto world as “CZ ” Changpeng Zhao is best known for founding the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.
Changpeng served as the CEO until 2023. In November 2023 CZ agreed to step down from his role as CEO after pleading guilty to violating United States -money-laundering requirements. Per the terms of the deal Binance, the company will also plead guilty. Pay $4.3 billion in fines.
In 2018 it was first revealed that Binance had the trading volume of any crypto exchange beating out rivals like Coinbase and FTX. Changpengs rise to success is a rags-to-riches story. According to legend CZ went from owning no assets to having a net worth of over $100 billion in under one year. At his peak in January 2022 when his net worth approached $100 billion CZ was the richest crypto tycoon in the world the richest Canadian in the world AND one of the ten richest people in the world overall.
Unfortunately over the few months of 2022 he saw $87 billion shaved from his net worth. His net worth dropped from a peak of $97 billion in January 2022 to $11 billion in May 2022. For a time that stood as the money ever lost by a human in history. That record was broken by Elon Musk.
Outside of his work with Binance Changpeng helped develop Blockchain.info and also served as the Chief Technology Officer of OKCoin.
Cryptocurrency and Binance
Changpeng first started getting involved with cryptocurrency in 2013. During the few years he worked on Blockchain.info and served as OKCoins Chief Technology Officer. In 2017 he left OKCoin. Founded his own cryptocurrency exchange called Binance.After raising $15 million in a coin offering the company grew rapidly. In eight months Binance became the worlds largest crypto exchange by trading volume.
Zhao also launched his blockchain network called Binance Smart Chain. Over the years he has continued to contribute in ways, to the decentralization of the finance industry.
Binance was first started in China. It did not stay there for long. The company moved its office and servers to Japan after China said it would ban people from trading cryptocurrency in 2017. Even though there are other companies doing the same thing Coinbase has been the biggest one since 2018.
In 2018 Binance started looking for a place to put its main office. This was because Japan and China were making rules that Binance had to follow. The person in charge of Binance, Zhao thought about putting the office in Malta. He even made a deal with the government of Bermuda.
Over time Binance has been getting bigger in Europe. It has its companies like Binance Jersey and it works with the Malta Stock Exchange. Binance Jersey lets people trade money for cryptocurrency. They can use pounds and euros to do it. In 2018 Binance worked with other big companies to make a new kind of cryptocurrency that would be more stable. They wanted to make a coin that would not go up and down in value much as Bitcoin does.
In 2019 Binance made a deal with a company called Simplex in Israel. This deal let people buy cryptocurrency with their debit and credit cards. People could buy coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin.. That year Binance had a big problem when someone hacked into its system and stole $40 million in Bitcoin. The company finished the year by offering a kind of contract that let people trade with more money than they actually had. Binance also bought a company called WazirX.
In 2020 the government of Malta said that Binance was not really based in Malta. They said that Binance was not allowed to operate in Malta and that it was not being regulated. That year Binance had problems when some documents were made public. These documents seemed to show that Binance was letting people in the United States trade on its platform even though it was not supposed to.
On paper Binance is not available to people in the United States. The company says it blocks anyone from the US who tries to use its platform.. Some people have questioned whether Binance is really stopping people in the US from trading. In 2021 it was reported that Binance was being investigated by the US government. They were looking into whether Binance was helping people launder money and avoid paying taxes.
In November 2023 Zhao and Binance agreed to plead guilty to breaking US rules about money laundering. As part of the deal Zhao had to step down from the company and Binance had to pay a $4.3 billion fine. Zhao and Binance are still in trouble with the US government. Could face more penalties.
Binance and another company called FTX used to be competitors. Binance had even invested money in FTX.. As time went on the two companies started to compete more and more. Binance asked FTX to buy back the stake it had in the company. FTX agreed to pay $2 billion for it.. Instead of paying with dollars or Bitcoin FTX paid with its own cryptocurrency.
In November 2022 Zhao posted a message on Twitter that made people question whether FTX was in financial shape. He said that Binance was going to sell a lot of FTXs cryptocurrency. This caused a lot of problems for FTX and the company ended up going bankrupt. The person in charge of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried was. Charged with fraud and money laundering.
Zhao has also been in the news for buying a house in Dubai. He said he did this to show that he supports Dubai and its friendly approach to cryptocurrency. Earlier he had said that he does not like to own things like houses or cars because they are hard to sell. It seems like Zhao buys property as a business decision than something he wants to do for fun.
FAQs
Q1. Who is Changpeng Zhao?
Changpeng Zhao is the person who started Binance and he is a name in the cryptocurrency world.
Q2. How old is Zhao?
As of 2026 he is around 49 years old.
Q3. What is Binance?
Binance is the platform in the world for trading cryptocurrency.
Q4. How money does Zhao have?
His net worth is estimated to be between $50 billion and $110 billion.
Q5. Is Zhao married?
Yes he is married. He keeps his family life private.
Q6. Why did Zhao step down as the head of Binance?
He stepped down because of problems and settlements with regulators in 2023.
Q7. Did Zhao go to jail?
Yes he went to jail for a time in 2024.
Q8. What is Zhao doing now?
He is working on ideas for cryptocurrency using artificial intelligence and expanding his business, around the world.