Binance Names Co-Founder Yi He as Co-CEO of Crypto Exchange — Update
By Fabiana Negrin Ochoa and Dominic ChoppingBinance, the world's largest crypto exchange, has named co-founder Yi He as its co-chief executive.Yi, who led the strategy to develop Binance from a crypto-to-crypto trading platform into a global blockchain ecosystem, will take the helm of the company alongside CEO Richard Teng.She currently serves as the company's chief customer services officer."This appointment is a natural progression and she will continue to guide the organization from strength to strength," Teng said in a statement Wednesday.In a post on social-media platform X, Binance said Yi will guide the company through its next phase of development as it aims to reach 1 billion users. It has close to 300 million users currently, according to the company.When Changpeng Zhao launched Binance in 2017, Yi joined him as a co-founder and chief marketing officer. She was already well known in China's crypto community having previously helped to found a Chinese crypto exchange known as OKCoin, with the national press dubbing her the crypto world's "first sister."The couple are longtime romantic partners and have three children together.Zhao stepped down in 2023 when Binance pleaded guilty to violating U.S. anti-money-laundering requirements. The company was fined $4.3 billion and Zhao served four months in prison after pleading guilty to a related charge.Zhao, also known as CZ, was pardoned by President Trump in October, a move that could clear the path for the crypto exchange to return to the U.S.Yi, who has been Zhao's chief lieutenant in running the company since its beginning, was unaffected by the upheaval created by the U.S. government's case.Zhao wrote on X Wednesday that Yi should have been CEO from day one and distanced himself from a return to leadership of the company. "Gotta move forward in life. I am retired," he said in a post when asked if he would return.Binance, the biggest digital asset exchange by trading volume and users, handles $65 billion in average daily volumes. Earlier this year the company received a $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi fund MGX for a minority stake. The investment was paid entirely with cryptocurrency.Write to Fabiana Negrin Ochoa at [email protected] and Dominic Chopping at [email protected]