[ Vulcan Post ] Binance CEO worked at McDonald’s, now he’s a crypto billionaire and one of Singapore’s richest
Most recently, Binance founder and CEO Zhao Changpeng (also known as “CZ”) was a new entrant to Forbes’ Singapore’s 50 Richest 2021 list, where he took the 22nd spot.
The 45-year-old amassed a net worth of US$1.9 billion (as of 10 August 2021), thanks in part to an estimated 30 per cent stake in his company.
He is also ranked fifth on Forbes’ Crypto Rich 2021 list and 1664th on Forbes’ Billionaires 2021 list. He was also listed in Forbes’ China Rich List in 2018, but later dropped off in 2019
In July 2017, Zhao raised US$15 million in initial coin offerings just when the market was getting hot and within six months, it became the largest crypto exchange in the world.
The following year, it attained six million users.
The dramatic rise in bank balance and rapid success brought lots of publicity, the peak being the front cover of Forbes magazine. It was a remarkable rise from flipping burgers to being a crypto billionaire.
Fast forward to 2020, Binance has booked more than US$800 million in revenue and reached US$2 trillion in total trading volume.
Last year, Binance also acquired CoinMarketCap in April and launched their own cryptocurrency debit card.
As Binance expands its business in different areas, Zhao admits that the Binance Card is actually losing money for the company but he doesn’t mind it because he wanted to get that product out.
“We’re doing a number of new businesses that are burning money. It’s still too early to say what our profits or revenues will be this year,” he told Bloomberg Markets.
Zhao, who currently resides in Singapore, first learnt about Bitcoin from Bobby Lee, who was the CEO of BTC China and his investor at a poker game.
They advised him to convert 10 per cent of his net worth into bitcoin, saying that there’s a high chance that it will multiply 10-fold, which essentially means doubling his net worth.
That piqued his interest, but because there was a lack of educational content on Bitcoin back then, he researched on it by downloading a white paper online and scrolling through the forum bitcointalk.org.
Having come from a tech background, he understood the concept fairly quickly and liked the idea of Bitcoin because it is borderless and maintained by the network.
Despite Binance’s strong growth, regulations in China have somewhat stifled its progress after the government banned trading in 2017. Yet, Binance responded by moving overseas and expanding to varying locations around the world.
In the U.K., the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) banned Binance’s British unit from undertaking any regulated activity. According to the FCA, Binance was one of many crypto firms that withdrew their applications to the U.K.’s temporary licensing regime due to failing to meet anti-money laundering requirements.
Regulators in Japan, Canada and Italy have also clamped down on the firm, warning that it is not authorised to operate in the countries.
Following this string of clampdowns, Zhao expressed his intention to cooperate with global regulators and be “fully compliant” to protect its users and the crypto industry.
“We need to be a licensed financial institution everywhere that we operate,” Zhao said during a press conference held in July.
He added that if regulators expect Binance to have a headquarters, then Binance will establish regional headquarters around the world. This will give them a “very easy to understand structure.”
In an interview with CNBC, Zhao also said he’s willing to step down from his CEO role as the company seeks to become a regulated financial institution.
For now, Binance aims to set up a number of regional headquarters around the world and will seek licenses wherever they are available.
Most recently, Binance also announced that they are embarking on a hiring spree to add compliance teams to beef up its 1,600 to 1,700-strong company. Zhao stressed that his top priority is to hire people with compliance and regulatory experience.
Binance is also ramping up hiring in Singapore, with more than 50 job openings ranging from business development to finance and operations, available on its career page.
And while crypto companies like Coinbase are exploring IPOs, Zhao remains firm that they are not looking to go down that same route.
“We are cash-sufficient, so we’re able to grow ourselves. We don’t need a huge amount of money, we are profitable, and we are growing,” he said.
DPA Notes: Didn’t know he is now Singaporean and he is based here in Singapore.
We predict given the vision he have for Binance as a financial regulated institution, Binance is likely to grow further and faster in the future.