“gm,” after serving a 119-day sentence, Zhao Changpeng announced his freedom to the world with a simple morning greeting on X. In May of this year, Zhao Changpeng agreed to serve his sentence after accepting charges from the U.S. Department of Justice regarding violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-sanctions programs led by him at Binance, and he began his four-month imprisonment after traveling from Dubai to the U.S.
Zhao Changpeng's first tweet after his release garnered 13.88 million views, 190,000 likes, and 50,000 comments, with members of the crypto community congratulating the Binance founder on his return to the free world.
No matter how much people hope he can continue to lead Binance, according to the settlement agreement between Binance and the U.S. Department of Justice, CZ (Zhao Changpeng's nickname in the industry) can no longer directly participate in the company's operations. However, as the largest shareholder of Binance, his influence on major company decisions remains. According to his previous plans, his future focus will be on the education sector.
During the 10 months that Zhao Changpeng stepped down as CEO, the world witnessed one thing: Binance operated as usual without CZ. This also indicates that the organizational structure, operational mechanisms, and business logic that Zhao Changpeng established at Binance over the past seven years did not become ineffective due to his departure, and Binance's 200 million users and assets were not threatened by his exit.
For a modern company, diminishing the founder's influence and leveraging organizational mechanisms is a long-term strategy; for a crypto asset company, this is also the safest approach.
CZ Returns to Evaluate Binance: Doing Great Without Me
“Being able to eat more than one serving of fruit every day” is probably Zhao Changpeng's most direct and specific feeling of freedom. In his morning greeting tweet the day after his release, another line left a deep impression: Binance seems to be doing well without me at the helm, which is great. This is every founder's dream!
This high praise from the founder is likely enough to uplift and reassure the entire Binance team.
In November 2023, due to the settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Binance was forced to change leadership, which was a hardcore test for both Zhao Changpeng and the company he passionately founded, testing user trust and the ability to operate continuously.
At that time, Binance's ecosystem asset BNB instantly dropped by 13%, excessive funds flowed out of Binance, and the market share of the world's largest crypto asset trading platform fell below 50% in the following month.
However, they all passed the test; the intense and brief turbulence did not affect Binance's operation along its established path. Over a longer period, under the efforts of the new CEO Richard Teng and co-founder He Yi, the world's largest crypto asset trading platform regained its vitality, with market share returning to around 50%, and in June of this year, it achieved a new milestone of "over 200 million registered users."
Q2 2024, Binance maintains leading market share
In fact, for any great company, the maximization of the founder's influence is only in the early stages. To maintain long-term development, the sustainable organizational mechanisms, corporate culture, and goals established by the founder during the company's growth are the continuous driving forces.
This is true for Microsoft and Apple; although one was proactive and the other was reactive, both companies did not lose their core competitiveness due to changes in founders or CEOs and maintained their dominant positions in their respective fields.
The effective principles and methodologies that Zhao Changpeng brought to Binance have continued to exert a profound influence, helping them smoothly navigate challenges. It is the organizational mechanisms, operational principles, and corporate culture that the true and false founders designed, validated, and consistently executed for Binance over seven years, along with the successors' clarity and advancement of stage goals.
Organizational Mechanisms Safeguard Binance from Personal Influence
After the collapse of the well-known crypto asset trading platform FTX in 2022, Zhao Changpeng foresightedly proposed six principles for the healthy development of centralized trading platforms, which Binance was the first to implement, including:
The principle of "never trading and investing user assets" to avoid user fund risks, the principle of not using native tokens as collateral, the principle of sharing real-time proof of assets, maintaining strong reserves, avoiding excessive leverage, and strengthening and enforcing security protocols.
The "user first" principle that Binance often emphasizes in public is actually guaranteed by the specific implementation of these principles.
Even though Zhao Changpeng had to resign as CEO due to regulatory reasons, Binance never stopped deposits, withdrawals, and trading until he went to the U.S. to serve his sentence. It is worth noting that in the crypto asset market, there are numerous cases where exchanges have ceased operations or even gone bankrupt due to the boss being arrested or going missing for various reasons, resulting in countless users losing their assets. However, such a situation did not occur at Binance.
Binance's 100% proof of reserves (PoR) has been publicly disclosed since November 2022 and has been strengthened through the Markel Tree movement in the exchange industry via the MT framework. Since then, Binance has had a dedicated page for users to check the status of reserves in real-time.
Binance reserves page
In July 2018, Binance established an "emergency fund" mechanism and created the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), promising to allocate a certain percentage of trading fee income each year and continuously expand the growth of this fund. This money has always been stored on-chain and is visible to everyone through a public address.
The Binance SAFU address shows that the value stored in this fund currently reaches $1 billion, and during the tenure of the new CEO Richard Teng, it is entirely preserved in compliant USD stablecoin USDC.
Another reason why Zhao Changpeng's departure did not affect Binance's internal operations is the company's organizational structure: flat and distributed, which to some extent has achieved "de-authoritarianization" and maximized the habit of members to actively collaborate, ensuring the operational efficiency of Binance.
Rohit, who took office as Binance's CTO in 2022, was surprised after working for a month: "Everything is on time." If someone scheduled a meeting for 8 a.m., the call would ring at 8:00:00 sharp, not a second late. Rohit believes that Binance's culture of "doing things in an orderly manner" comes from the founder and then-CEO Zhao Changpeng, "his working style set the tone."
Zhao Changpeng has publicly disclosed the principles he adheres to in life and work, including the importance of the team, which he believes should be prioritized over the individual; to prevent the organization from becoming outdated, the team must be frequently mobilized to provide growth opportunities for new leaders; in the chaotic early industry, the team must strictly implement safety, compliance, ethical, and neutral principles while operating in a regulated environment…
These principles that he has always followed and executed have indeed played a role in ensuring Binance's smooth operation.
Current CEO Richard Teng also understands his established mission very well; he aims to lead Binance towards directions that align with public interests and regulatory requirements, leveraging his extensive experience in compliance.
Under his leadership, Binance has hired over 1,000 new employees this year, and former Senior Vice President of Compliance Steve Christie has returned as Deputy Chief Compliance Officer (DCCO), working alongside Chief Compliance Officer Noah Perlman to strengthen Binance's global compliance program, including collaborating with regulators, industry organizations, and business leaders to promote the company's commitment to user protection and best practices, achieving strict regulatory compliance.
Since Richard Teng took office, Binance's institutional users have increased by 36% this year, which he sees as a reflection of Binance's increasingly mature compliance.
Engaging in Education, Investment, and Writing: Free Man CZ Chooses Many Paths
Zhao Changpeng, unbound from Binance, will not leave the crypto field; instead, he has gained more time to immerse himself in the world outside of crypto.
In his tweet after his release, Zhao Changpeng briefly disclosed his recent plans, stating that the online education platform Giggle Academy, which he had been preparing before his imprisonment, will be an important part of his future life; he will continue to invest in blockchain/decentralized technology, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology.
Additionally, he will engage in charity and writing, revealing that his book is about two-thirds complete, "Writing is much more laborious than I expected, but I will persist in finishing it."
This entrepreneur, who does not like to waste time, established Giggle Academy this year, and by March, there was already a 10-person team dedicated to creating free, fun, and easily accessible learning tools for children around the world. Zhao Changpeng's initial idea was to create the platform for Android, as this might be the hardware that target families can access with low barriers, and the touch screen of mobile phones allows children to interact easily with the platform.
The logo of Giggle Academy is also filled with elements from Binance—two yellow squares rotating and overlapping to form a sunflower face, with a black brush marking a playful expression of winking and sticking out the tongue. Crypto users know that the black and yellow combination is the official color of Binance's logo.
Zhao Changpeng specifically chose this logo, saying it is to "honor Binance."
Giggle Academy's logo pays tribute to Binance
Zhao Changpeng has positioned the Giggle Academy project as an "important part of his future life," highlighting his emphasis on this new initiative. Giggle Academy may also become a new project in Binance's charitable endeavors in the future, as charity is also part of Zhao's future plans.
Currently, Giggle Academy is a Web2 project, and Zhao Changpeng's investment vision also extends to areas outside the crypto space, such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology. This will better enable him to track changes in the world beyond Web3, allowing him, as the largest shareholder of Binance, to influence Binance in bridging gaps and becoming a platform serving one billion users, thereby guiding the crypto finance industry toward a more mainstream audience.
However, he still prioritizes blockchain investments but emphasizes, "I am a long-term investor, concerned with impact rather than returns."
Undoubtedly, the choices of free man CZ have increased, and the experience of creating Binance subtly influences his future endeavors, while his impact on Binance and the crypto industry will never fade.
(Disclaimer: Readers are advised to strictly comply with local laws and regulations; this article does not constitute any investment advice.)
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