# CZ's Untold Story: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Binance's Founder Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQwXgxJxwnw Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/vQwXgxJxwnw Generated: 2026-02-10T12:32:54.201+00:00 --- ## Quick Overview CZ's early life involved immigrating from China to Canada around 1989 after a lengthy passport and visa process, where his parents struggled financially, leading him to work jobs like flipping burgers at McDonald's starting at age 15, before pivoting through early programming roles, licensing exchange software in Japan, and eventually co-founding Binance in 2017 after pivoting away from a planned exchange venture in Tokyo due to regulatory shifts in China. **Key Points:** - CZ immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, in 1989 at age 12 after his parents, both professors in China, secured exchange and transfer programs, noting that visa processes became easier immediately after they left. - His mother, a math and history teacher in China, worked minimum wage sewing clothes for 7-10 years upon arrival because she could not secure comparable employment due to limited English. - CZ financed his education at McGill (where he switched from biology to computer science) through summer and part-time work, graduating without student debt, unlike his co-host who accumulated $30,000 in debt. - He worked as a coder in Tokyo for Fusion Systems, writing order execution software, which was similar to the software that drives Binance today, focusing on low-latency efficiency. - After working four years as a senior developer and manager at Bloomberg in New York following 9/11, he moved to Shanghai in 2005 to start a fintech company with partners, which pivoted to general IT work for hire after discovering Chinese brokers could not work with their foreign-owned enterprise. - In 2013, after six months of learning about Bitcoin, CZ sold his Shanghai apartment for roughly $900,000, bought Bitcoin in trenches averaging around $600, and joined Blockchain.info as VP of Engineering for six to seven months. - He left OKCoin in early 2015 due to cultural disagreements, and in 2017, after his software licensing business for exchanges collapsed due to Chinese government shutdowns, he pivoted the 20-person team to create an exchange via an ICO, leading to Binance. **Context:** This transcript captures an in-depth interview on the All-In podcast where CZ, the founder of Binance, details his extensive and non-linear early career journey leading up to the founding of the cryptocurrency exchange. The discussion begins with his family's immigration from China to Canada around 1989, detailing the economic hardships they faced, his subsequent education in Canada, his early career in high-frequency trading software development in Tokyo and New York, and his initial entrepreneurial attempts in Shanghai before dedicating himself entirely to the burgeoning Bitcoin industry in 2013. ## Detailed Analysis CZ recounted his formative years, moving to Canada at age 12, where his highly educated parents took low-wage jobs, necessitating his own employment starting young. He studied computer science at McGill, self-funding his education, and then pursued a career in low-latency order execution software, first in Tokyo and later at Bloomberg in New York. This technical background proved crucial when he encountered Bitcoin in 2013; after taking six months to fully grasp the technology, he sold his Shanghai apartment for nearly $900,000 to acquire a Bitcoin position averaging $600 per coin. He briefly worked for Blockchain.info and OKCoin in China before leaving due to cultural conflicts. In 2015, he co-founded a company licensing exchange technology, which was successful until Chinese regulatory shutdowns in March 2017 eliminated their client base. This forced another pivot, and inspired by the success of an ongoing ICO, CZ and his team decided to launch their own crypto-to-crypto exchange, which became Binance, utilizing their existing exchange technology infrastructure and launching an ICO in mid-June 2017. ### Early Life and Immigration - Parents immigrated from China around 1989 after securing visas; father was a professor, mother worked minimum wage sewing clothes for years in Canada - CZ worked at McDonald's from age 15, studied at McGill, and graduated debt-free. ### Early Tech Career and Tokyo Experience - Worked at Fusion Systems in Tokyo writing order execution software, which required high efficiency and low latency, setting the technical foundation for future work - Company sold for $52 million before 2000. ### Post-Tokyo Career Moves - Worked four years at Bloomberg in New York starting in late 2001 as a senior developer, eventually managing a team of 80 people before transitioning away from coding. ### First Entrepreneurial Venture in China - Moved to Shanghai in 2005 with partners to bring Wall Street trading tech to China, but pivoted to general IT work for hire because Chinese institutions could not work with their foreign-owned enterprise (WOFIE). - The company remained successful, employing up to 200 people, and CZ left in 2013. ### The Bitcoin Revelation - Became convinced of Bitcoin's potential after six months of study in mid-2013, following advice from Ron Tao and Bobby Lee to invest 10% of net worth; sold Shanghai apartment for ~$900k to buy BTC averaging $600. ### Entry into Crypto Industry - Briefly served as VP of Engineering at Blockchain.info for six months, learning about remote work and guerrilla marketing, before joining OKCoin as CTO in China, which ended after about eight months due to cultural clashes. ### The Founding of Binance - After the Chinese government shut down his software licensing clients in 2017, CZ pivoted his 20-person team to build a crypto-to-crypto exchange; inspired by a successful ICO, the team decided to raise funds via their own ICO, launching in mid-June 2017.