Changpeng “CZ” Zhao says his path to crypto wealth began removed from buying and selling flooring or VC circuits in a Shanghai poker sport the place a pal informed him to take Bitcoin significantly, and a second pal urged him to guess a significant slice of his web value on it.
Binance Founder On His Bitcoin Origin Story
By Zhao’s account in an interview with the All-In podcast, he first encountered Bitcoin in mid-2013, whereas he was nonetheless a junior accomplice at a Shanghai-based software program and companies agency. “One in all my buddies tells me, ‘Look, you bought to take a look at this factor known as Bitcoin,’” Zhao mentioned. “It took me about roughly six months to totally perceive it… again then there was the Bitcoin speak discussion board after which that’s just about it.”
That pal, the Binance founder mentioned, was Ron Tao, then a enterprise capitalist in China, who introduced the subject up throughout a recurring, small-stakes poker sport between entrepreneurs and traders. The pitch gained weight rapidly when Zhao met Bobby Lee, who was getting ready to depart Walmart and be part of BTC China (BTCC) as CEO.
Bobby, Zhao recalled, didn’t body it as a hobbyist curiosity. He framed it like a portfolio resolution. Zhao mentioned Lee informed him to place 10% of his web value into Bitcoin: “There’s a small probability you’ll go to zero then you definately lose 10%. There’s a a lot increased probability you’ll go 10x and also you’ll double your web value.” Zhao mentioned that was the second he began digging into the white paper “extra rigorously.”
By the point Zhao felt he “totally perceive[s] it,” he additionally felt he’d missed it. Bitcoin had run from roughly $70 in mid-2013 to round $1,000 by the tip of 2013, he mentioned. “I used to be like, I’m too late,” Zhao recalled. “As a result of everybody you speak to… has purchased earlier than you.”
JUST IN: ASIA’S RICHEST MAN TALKS ABOUT HOW HE MADE OVER $80,000,000,000 ON #BITCOIN AND CRYPTO
“YOU WILL ALWAYS FEEL LATE TO BTC.” 🚀 pic.twitter.com/GqilPyC6xI
— The Bitcoin Historian (@pete_rizzo_) February 10, 2026
Nonetheless, he determined he wasn’t going to take a seat the subsequent main expertise wave out. “For me it was very clear I acquired to do one thing on this trade,” Zhao mentioned, describing Bitcoin because the second foundational expertise of his working life after the web. “I used to be 35, 36 — I wasn’t going to overlook it. The subsequent factor that’s going to return alongside goes to be 10, 15 years later… and that’s AI.”
That conviction translated into an unusually blunt commerce: The Binance founder mentioned he offered his Shanghai residence to purchase Bitcoin. “I mentioned look I’m going to promote my residence in Shanghai after which purchase Bitcoin,” he informed Chamath Palihapitiya. The sale, he mentioned, got here in tranches and he purchased every time money hit, even because the market slid. “I offered the residence… for roughly $900,000… The primary trench at $800 after which Bitcoin is dropping $600, $400. Type of averaged to about $600.”
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He additionally described the social proof that mattered to him in that period: the early builders and miners he met whereas making an attempt to pressure-test his personal understanding, and a small Bitcoin convention in Las Vegas in December 2013 that contrasted sharply with the “drug lords” narrative dominating headlines after the Silk Street arrest. “If you go to the convention it was like a bunch of children, a bunch of geeks… and so they’re very good folks,” Zhao mentioned, name-checking attendees like Vitalik Buterin and Charlie Lee.
Zhao’s account of “getting wealthy” isn’t a single lightning strike a lot as a sequence: shopping for Bitcoin after liquidating property, then taking working roles at early crypto corporations (together with Blockchain.data and OKCoin), and later constructing change infrastructure that grew to become the inspiration for Binance and its token-driven progress story.
At present, the precise dimension of the Binance founder’s fortune relies on who’s counting and the way they worth non-public stakes and token holdings. Forbes’ real-time tracker listed Zhao at $78.8 billion as of Feb. 10, 2026, inserting him among the many world’s richest people. Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, which makes use of its personal day by day methodology, confirmed a materially decrease determine for Zhao about $52.2 billion on its international wealthy checklist across the similar time.
At press time, Binance Coin (BNB) traded at $592.44.
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