With an estimated net worth of US$ 1.9 billion and considered by Forbes one of the world’s top billionaires, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says he does not use fiat currencies, only crypto in his day-to-day life.
According to him, this is possible using the Binance Card, which can be used as a means of payment at any point of sale that accepts cards. Zhao (or CZ, as he is known) stated on his Twitter account that when he needs to use fiat currency, he “converts only that amount needed for that particular transaction”. Before this post, he had also told Bloomberg that “probably 100% of his assets are allocated to cryptoassets”. Although he does not detail the investment, bitcoin and Binance Coin (BNB) are the main ones.
“I sold my apartment to buy bitcoin.”
The quote comes from CZ, who says he sold a property valued at US$ 1 million and quit his job after learning about bitcoin in 2013 – four years before he created Binance. Then, he worked at Blockchain.info, where he learned more about the market and gathered knowledge.
Zhao told Decrypt that at the time the apartment was sold, bitcoin was worth US$ 600. Thus, the transaction resulted in approximately 1,667 bitcoin, an amount he has not touched to this day.
He created Binance in 2017 and, in less than eight months, the company became the largest cryptoasset exchange in the world.
CZ highlights succession plan at Binance at a press conference
In September, during a press conference, CZ claimed to have a succession plan for Binance. The exchange seeks to become a regulated financial institution, and the executive said he is willing to resign.
Binance is being subjected to regulatory reviews in several places, according to an article in Valor. For example, in the United Kingdom, the financial regulator prohibited the company from carrying out any regulated activity. Authorities in Canada, Italy, and Japan have also restricted Binance’s activities.
Who is Changpeng “CZ” Zhao?
Born in Jiangsu, China, CZ moved with his family to Canada in the early 1980s. His father, who was a teacher, was exiled from the country.
He grew up in Vancouver and went through various jobs (such as gas station networks and McDonald’s units) to help support his family.
CZ studied computer science at McGillUniversity in Montreal. When he graduated, he went to work at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. After this experience, he joined Bloomberg, developing software for futures trading. Then, in 2005, he moved to Shanghai, where he founded a trading system for brokers, Fusion Systems. A few years later, in 2013, he got acquainted with bitcoin and has been working only with the crypto universe ever since.
