From McDonald’s Clerk to One of the Richest in the World, Binance’s CZ Story
2 min read
With an estimated net worth of $96 billion, Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, is considered one of the richest men in the world. Furthermore, he is possibly the biggest millionaire in the cryptocurrency universe.
But even though he is now a billionaire, CZ started his career working as a McDonald’s server.
In addition, along his journey, he also passed through Bloomberg, where he developed futures trading software. He also helped launch a BTC futures platform for Chinese exchange OKCoin as technical director.
Later, in 2017, he launched one of the most successful initial coin offerings (ICOs) in the world with Binance Coin (BNB) – Binance’s native token worth $73 billion.
Today, as one of the most powerful influencers in the crypto world and controlling shareholder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, CZ is helping to shape the cryptocurrency industry.
Check out some of the key moments in CZ’s history.
CZ’s Career From Birth to Binance
- September 10, 1977: Changpeng Zhao is born in Jiangsu Province, China.
- 1989: Changpeng Zhao moves with his parents to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. While living in Canada as a teenager, he worked at McDonald’s.
- 1990s: CZ majors in Computer Science at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
- 2001-2005 : Changpeng Zhao serves as Head of Tradebook Futures Development at Bloomberg.
- November 2005: Changpeng Zhao founds Fusion Systems
- December 2013: Changpeng Zhao leaves Fusion Systems and joins Blockchain.info as Head of Development.
- 2014: Changpeng Zhao sells his home to invest in cryptocurrencies.
- 2014: Changpeng Zhao leaves his role at Blockchain.info and joins OKCoin as Technical Director.
- February 15, 2015: CZ leaves OKCoin and creates BijieTech.
- July 2017: Changpeng Zhao leaves BijieTech to found Binance.com
- July 8, 2017: Binance issues 100 million BNB tokens through btc9.com, RenRenICO and the Binance website.
- Aug 28, 2017: Binance opens beta testing for its mobile app.
- March 7, 2018: Hackers attempt to steal funds from Binance users with a phishing attack involving bogus Binance domains and unusual trading activities via the VIA/BTC trading pair.
- May 7, 2019: Binance discovers security breach in which 7,000 BTC is stolen from hot wallets. So, CZ says he will use his “SIFU” fund to cover losses in this security breach.
- 2021: Forbes lists Changpeng Zhao at 1664th on the World’s Billionaires List for 2021.
- Aug 21, 2021: CZ rises to 22nd place on Forbes’ “Singapore Richest 2021” list.
- March 31, 2022: CZ says his net worth is lower than Fortune’s estimate of $74 billion.
Here are 5 simple factors to help you figure out what cryptocurrencies to invest in
