On Tuesday, Changpeng Zhao (46), founder and ex-CEO of Binance - one of the world's most prolific crypto firms - pled guilty to criminal charges for failing anti-money laundering regulations and US sanctions violations, including allowing transactions with terrorist groups.
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Zhao, or "CZ" as his fans call him, agreed to step down as CEO and pay a $50 million as a personal fine. His company is set to pay over $4 billion but the deal assures that the firm will continue normal operations and Zhao keeps most of his purported multi-billion-dollar wealth intact.
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Known to be the richest man in crypto, Zhao's fall from grace was as swift as his colleagues' in the industry - most famous of them being Sam Bankman Fried (SBF).
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Born in China, Zhao moved to Vancouver when he was 12 and became a Canadian citizen. With a computer science degree from McGill University, he began a career building trading systems, including a stint at Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
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After working at crypto firms Blockchain.info and OKCoin, he started Binance in 2017 using a $15 million crowdsale, together with Chief Marketing Officer Yi He, with whom he has children.
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Within just a few years, Zhao became the richest and most influential person in crypto. Favoring a buzz cut and black polo shirts featuring Binance's logo, he became a fixture on the crypto conference circuit, spending 580 hours on airplanes in 2022 by his own estimate.
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Zhao played a key role in bringing cryptocurrencies into the mainstream. He built Binance into a juggernaut that at one point controlled almost two-thirds of spot trading over centralized exchanges - attracting scrutiny from regulators and law enforcement agencies around the world along the way
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Binance rose to the top because crypto investors loved its speed of execution and new products. While its market share has slipped this year, it still accounts for about half of global crypto trading volumes, according to research firm CCData.
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The departure of crypto's perhaps most iconic remaining executive comes as the industry tries to put its reputation for scandals, scams and other illicit activities behind it. Several entrepreneurs associated with that era, from Bankman-Fried (pictured above) to Do Kwon and Alex Mashinsky, are either in jail or have been charged with alleged crimes that led to multibillion-dollar losses
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Investors pulled about $956 million from crypto exchange Binance over 24 hours, market data showed, after its chief, Changpeng Zhao, stepped down and faced prison time.
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The former CEO faces as many as 10 years in prison but is expected to get no more than 18 months under a plea deal that appears to have saved him from the harsh penalties that other prominent crypto criminals have faced.
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Richard Teng succeeded Zhao as Binance CEO. Teng, a civil servant-turned-crypto executive, had become the frontrunner to take over as CEO as regulatory scrutiny of Binance and Zhao intensified. Zhao in late May appointed him as head of all regional markets outside the US.
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