CZ and binance struggle
Early Childhood and Immigration
Born in 1977 in Jiangsu, China, CZ’s early life was deeply affected by the political climate. His father was a university professor who was labeled a "pro-bourgeois intellectual" and temporarily exiled to the countryside.
The Escape: In 1989, following the Tiananmen Square protests, his family moved to Vancouver, Canada, to join his father. The wait for a visa was so long that CZ has recalled lines outside the Canadian embassy lasting three days.
Humble Beginnings: Life in Canada was a financial struggle. His father lived on a modest stipend of about $1,000 per month. To help cover household expenses, a teenage CZ worked several part-time jobs:
McDonald's: He worked as a cook, flipping burgers.
Gas Station: He worked overnight shifts to maximize his earnings.
Despite these hardships, he excelled in school and later studied Computer Science at McGill University in Montreal, which provided the technical foundation for his future career.
The Struggle for Binance
Before founding Binance, CZ spent years building high-frequency trading systems for the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Bloomberg. However, his "all-in" moment came in 2013 during a poker game where he first heard about Bitcoin.
1. The "All-In" Gamble
In 2014, CZ made a move that many thought was reckless: he sold his house in Shanghai and put the entire proceeds (nearly $1 million) into Bitcoin. Soon after, the price of BTC crashed from $600 to $200. He held through the losses for two years, demonstrating the "HODL" conviction he is known for today.
2. The Birth of Binance (2017)
In July 2017, CZ launched Binance through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), raising $15 million.
The Regulatory Wall: Just weeks after the launch, the Chinese government banned ICOs and cryptocurrency exchanges. This forced Binance to move its servers and headquarters out of China almost overnight, eventually becoming a "nomadic" company with no fixed headquarters.
Relentless Growth: Despite the chaos, CZ focused