Many people have already earned (or lost) millions of euros with crypto trading. With a market capitalization of around $1 trillion, there are more than enough ways to make money on crypto. The number of crypto billionaires in 2022 is 19. A year before that, there were just 7.

But the story behind billionaire Changpeng Zhao (also known as “CZ”) is particularly remarkable.

CZ is currently the CEO of the crypto exchange Binance, the exchange with the largest trading volume in the world. The Dubai-based Binance founder is a self-made billionaire who had a difficult start in China.

CZ was born in Jiangsu, the son of a professor. His father was considered a pro-bourgeois intellectual and was exiled after CZ’s birth. This led to Zhao’s family settling in Canada.

Changpeng Zhao: From China to Dubai

When CZ immigrated to Canada with his parents, he was twelve years old. In Vancouver, he experienced his teenage years, accompanied by friends from different backgrounds and from different cultures.

This was also one of the reasons why CZ chose Dubai as its new home. Zhao has been living in the country since the end of 2021. According to CZ, the crypto space is very international and diversified, and Dubai is a real hub for innovation, with extremely multifaceted and creative people.

After studying computer science in Canada, CZ was engaged in the development of market-oriented trading software. These included an internship at the Tokyo Stock Exchange and a four-year full-time position at the international financial data specialist Bloomberg.

While at Bloomberg, Zhao developed trading software for Wall Street. This software assisted investors in the purchase and sale of contracts with which an asset can be traded at a predetermined price.

Subsequently, Zhao founded his first company, Fusion Systems, which developed trading systems for brokers.

Prior to founding Binance, he was involved in several crypto companies, including as Head of Technology at Blockchain.com . It was there that CZ became increasingly interested in Bitcoin, the world’s largest digital currency.

Despite his background from the traditional financial industry, CZ was inspired by cryptocurrency. He liked the fact that Bitcoin offers solutions for so many financial-related issues such as limited supply, freedom of trade and low fees.

Binance Becomes the largest crypto exchange in the world

Inspired by the ideas behind Bitcoin, CZ created in less than eight months Binance. The crypto exchange came on the market in July 2017. The Binance Coin (BNB) appeared a little later in the same year.

In April 2018, Binance was already worth $4.5 billion. Since then, the value of the crypto company has continued to increase.

Binance is now active in numerous regions of the world. For example, the company plans to gain further market share in the United Arab Emirates For this, the crypto exchange secured approval to operate in Abu Dhabi in April 2022. Binance also worked on the acquisition of further licenses in Germany and Europe.

There are currently about 120 million Binance users. The daily trading volume of the platform is around $ 50 billion.

Zhao is the 34th richest person in the world with an estimated fortune of 34.5 billion US dollars (as of August 2022). CZ also owns almost exclusively cryptocurrencies, according to its own statements.

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