Binance is a popular cryptocurrency exchange that was founded in China in 2017. Since then, it has grown into one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, offering trading in over 100 cryptocurrencies with a daily trading volume of billions of dollars. As Binance has grown, so too has the interest in who owns the company.
Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, who goes by the nickname CZ. CZ is a well-known figure in the cryptocurrency community, having previously worked as a software developer at blockchain.info and as the CTO of OKCoin, another cryptocurrency exchange. CZ is originally from China, but he has lived and worked in Canada and the United States, as well as in China.
CZ is the CEO of Binance, and he owns a significant portion of the company. However, Binance is a privately held company, and so it is difficult to know exactly how much CZ owns or how much the other shareholders own. In 2018, CZ stated that he owned about 20% of the company, but it is possible that this has changed since then.
Binance has raised money from a variety of investors over the years. In 2017, the company raised $15 million in an initial coin offering (ICO), which allowed investors to purchase Binance Coin (BNB), a cryptocurrency that can be used to pay trading fees on the Binance platform. Since then, Binance has raised additional funding from venture capital firms, including Sequoia Capital, IDG Capital, and Vertex Ventures.
It is unclear exactly how much of Binance each of these investors owns, as the company has not disclosed this information publicly. However, it is likely that these investors own a significant portion of the company, given the amount of funding that Binance has raised.
In addition to CZ and the other investors, there are also likely to be other employees and early backers of the company who own a stake in Binance. However, because Binance is a privately held company, it is difficult to know exactly who these people are or how much they own.
Overall, while the ownership structure of Binance is not completely transparent, it is clear that CZ and a group of investors own a significant portion of the company. As Binance continues to grow and expand its services, it will be interesting to see how the ownership structure of the company evolves over time.
