How CZ Built Binance: From a Dirt Floor in China to the World's Largest Crypto Exchange

Changpeng Zhao — known everywhere as CZ — grew up in a home with a dirt floor and no running water in rural Jiangsu province, China. He went on to build Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, serving 300 million users with a peak valuation of $100 billion. The distance between those two points is the subject of his memoir Freedom of Money.

This is the story of how he got there.

Growing Up in Rural China

CZ's early life in Jiangsu province was shaped by scarcity. His family had very little — literally. The home had a dirt floor. There was no running water. His father was an academic whose career was disrupted during a politically turbulent period in China.

When CZ was a teenager, the family immigrated to Canada, settling in Vancouver. The transition required adaptation that most people who later became tech billionaires never experienced — navigating a new country, a new culture, and a new language while working to help support himself and his family.

He studied computer science at McGill University in Montreal, one of Canada's top research universities. It was the foundation on which everything else was built.

Traditional Finance to Bitcoin

After graduating, CZ built trading systems for the Tokyo Stock Exchange and worked at Bloomberg Tradebook in their financial software division. He was good at it — he understood not just how financial markets worked in theory but how their technical infrastructure actually operated. That would matter later.

Around 2013, CZ encountered Bitcoin. By his own account, he learned about it in depth at a poker game, went home that night and started researching, and quickly concluded it was something genuinely significant. His response was decisive in a way that defined everything that followed: he sold his apartment in Shanghai and used the proceeds to buy Bitcoin.

He joined Blockchain.info and later became CTO of OKCoin, one of the major Chinese crypto exchanges at the time. These roles gave him a close-up view of how crypto exchanges operated — and where the opportunities were.

Launching Binance in 2017

CZ founded Binance in 2017 with a small team. The exchange launched in July of that year, during a bull market for cryptocurrency. Within six months, Binance was the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume.

That speed was not luck. Several decisions drove it:

The BNB token. Binance launched its own exchange token, Binance Coin (BNB), which gave holders discounts on trading fees. This created immediate demand for BNB and built a community of users with financial alignment to the platform's success. It also gave Binance a revenue mechanism and a loyalty system in one.

Low fees. Binance launched with trading fees below most competitors. Combined with the BNB discount, it was economically superior for serious traders.

Global from day one. Binance was accessible internationally from launch. While competitors focused on specific markets, Binance captured growth across every market where crypto was accelerating simultaneously.

Extreme execution speed. CZ built a culture of shipping fast — new trading pairs, new features, new products. The pace kept users engaged and left competitors struggling to keep up.

Building to 300 Million Users

From 2018 through 2022, Binance expanded into nearly every area of crypto finance. It launched futures trading, the Binance Smart Chain blockchain (which became a major hub for decentralized finance), NFT marketplaces, staking products, a crypto debit card, and financial services that in scope rivalled traditional banks.

At its peak, Binance processed more daily trading volume than the New York Stock Exchange. It had approximately 300 million registered users and a valuation estimated at $100 billion. CZ had become one of the wealthiest people in the world.

The FTX Collapse

In November 2022, CZ publicly announced that Binance would sell its FTT token holdings — FTX's exchange token. The announcement triggered a bank run on FTX, which collapsed within days, revealing that Sam Bankman-Fried had allegedly been using customer funds improperly.

CZ's role in the FTX collapse — what he knew, what he intended, and what the consequences were — is one of the most discussed questions in the history of crypto. He addresses it directly in Freedom of Money.

The DOJ Case and What Came After

The U.S. Department of Justice investigation found that Binance's anti-money laundering compliance program had not kept pace with the company's growth. In November 2023, Binance agreed to a $4.3 billion settlement. CZ pleaded guilty to a Bank Secrecy Act compliance violation, paid a $150 million personal fine, stepped down as CEO, and served four months in U.S. federal prison.

No Binance customers lost funds. The charges were compliance failures, not fraud.

In October 2025, President Trump granted CZ a full presidential pardon, citing what he described as unfair treatment by the Biden administration.

The Book

CZ tells the full story — from that dirt-floor home in Jiangsu to the pardon — in Freedom of Money. The 366-page memoir was begun during his prison sentence, written on computer terminals in 15-minute sessions. Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates called it essential reading for entrepreneurs. The foreword is by Yi He, co-founder of Binance.

It is currently ranked #1 in Bitcoin & Cryptocurrencies on Amazon. CZ donates 100% of his author royalties to charity.