Binance CEO Calls for Unconditional Release of Tigran Gambaryan from Nigeria
The Nigerian government has been holding Gambaryan for more than 70 days to compel Binance executives to pay hefty fines for deteriorating local currency.
Co-Founder of Binance.
Changpeng Zhao is a Chinese-Canadian business executive, who is the founder and former CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, as of April 2018. Zhao was previously a member of the team that developed Blockchain.info and also served as chief technology officer of OKCoin.
Zhao was born in Jiangsu province, China. In the late 1980s, he moved with his family to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His father was a professor in China before he was branded “pro-bourgeois intellect” and exiled from his country. In his teenage years, Zhao helped support his family by working a number of service industry jobs which included being a McDonald‘s employee.
Zhao attended McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he majored in computer science.
After college, Zhao began working for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, developing software for matching trade orders. He also worked at Bloomberg Tradebook where he was a developer of futures trading software.
In 2005, he moved to Shanghai where he founded Fusion Systems, known for “some of the fastest high-frequency trading systems for brokers.”
Beginning in 2013, he worked for various cryptocurrency projects including Blockchain.info and also served as chief technology officer of OKCoin.
In 2017, Zhao left OKCoin to start a cryptocurrency exchange called Binance. He launched the company in July 2017, following a $15 million funding raised during an initial coin offering. In less than eight months, Zhao grew Binance into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, as of April 2018. In February 2018, Forbes Magazine placed him third on their list of “The Richest People In Cryptocurrency”. As of September 2018, his net worth is estimated at $1.4 billion.
Binance
Feb 5th, 1977
Canadian
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Montreal McGill University, Computer Science
123
$15.0 B
Binance - Co-Founder & former CEO
OKCoin - CTO
Blockchain.info
Fusion Systems - Founder
The Nigerian government has been holding Gambaryan for more than 70 days to compel Binance executives to pay hefty fines for deteriorating local currency.
The recent Bitcoin price rise above $65K has carried with it the altcoin market led by Solana, Toncoin, and Avalanche, among others.
In a significant demonstration of community backing, over 30,000 on-chain users have voiced their support for Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder of Binance, through a decentralized opinion poll on AlphaorBeta.
Despite Zhao plea and the severity of the charges, Binance continues to thrive in the booming cryptocurrency market, with over 40 million new users in 2023, up 30% from the previous year.
One significant point in Zhao’s favor is his extraordinary acceptance of responsibility. According to the court document, the Probation Office has recognized his conduct as “remarkable” and “exceptional”.