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This Friday’s economic portrait is that of Changpeng Zhao, the creator of the BINANCE cryptocurrency exchange platform, the undisputed world leader in the sector. Changpeng ZHAO has become in a few years, the most influential personality in the world of cryptocurrencies.
In five years, he made Binance the biggest and richest of all cryptocurrency exchanges. One hundred and twenty million users, at the very least, who sell and buy cryptocurrencies thanks to him. It is 35 to 40% of the total clientele on the planet. In 2021, financial transactions on Binance, therefore flows, represented 34 trillion dollars.
Despite this success, Changpeng Zhao constantly displays unfailing modesty. He is interviewed here by the online media Cointelegraphe. ” I am actually a very bad trader. I don’t know how to trade. On the other hand, I know how to make trading tools. And I see myself a bit like a blacksmith who forges swords for Kung Fu masters. »
The blacksmith trained in Canada. Changpeng Zhao, known to his admirers only by his initials, “CZ”, was born in China in 1977, but after the crackdown in Tiananmen Square his parents, both teachers, fled to Canada. CZ is then twelve years old. He grew up in Vancouver, studied computer science in Montreal, went to work in Tokyo and New York where he developed stock trading software. Finally, he joined several cryptocurrency exchange platforms before deciding to create his own in 2017.
And from the start the tone is set, as explained by journalist Raphaël Bloch, co-founder of the site The big Whale which closely follows CZ’s career. ” Binance immediately saw itself as a global company, also because cryptocurrencies convey an ideology that transcends borders. We are talking about financial inclusion on a global level. It resonates. »
This international dimension is also due to his profile as an exile. Because CZ tried to return to work in China, his country of origin. But Beijing is wary of a man who embodies freedom, even monetary libertarianism. ” He has not set foot in China for three or four yearscontinues Raphaël Bloch. There is really a relationship that is not simple between billionaires like him and the Beijing regime. So there is both his personal trajectory and the context that makes you on a global industry and in addition you have an actor of Chinese origin who had no choice but to go to the conquest of the wide world. »
The conqueror CZ understood before anyone else that it was necessary to offer a platform that was both simple for the general public and expert for seasoned financiers. In addition, Binance has arrived on the market at the right time, ie when cryptos are exploding on the planet.
So, a question arises: are we in the presence of a genius or a little clever? ” He is not a genius inventor, nor a great financier, on the other hand I think he is a visionary, someone who understood that everything that is crypto web3 was going to have a considerable impact, concludes Raphaël Bloch. But Binance, – at the risk of being mistaken – will not leave the same mark in history as Apple, or even Ford for the car. »
This visionary with the air of an eternal teenager is also an exceptional communicator. He does not hesitate to travel the planet to sell Binance to political leaders who often listen to him like an oracle. CZ knows perfectly how to reassure them about this somewhat destabilizing universe for cryptocurrency states. He is reshuffling the cards of global finance. He is not the wolf of Wall Street but rather a geek who has perfectly understood how to give value to a largely speculative market.