By Jeff John Roberts, Fortune Magazine

Compiled by Saoirse, Foresight News

As a young girl in the 1980s, He Yi walked to a well to fetch water, and her family sometimes relied on kerosene lamps for lighting. Things are different now: as the co-founder and executive of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, she holds a roughly 10% stake, is worth billions of dollars, and has millions of followers in China. But even so, her path hasn't been easy.

Binance's other flamboyant co-founder, Changpeng Zhao, was jailed in the US last year after a $4 billion plea deal. This was a major blow to Binance and a double blow to He Yi, as Zhao was not only the company's CEO but also the father of her young child.

Now that the crisis has passed and Zhao Changpeng has completed his prison sentence, Binance, despite suffering a blow that would have crippled most businesses, remains the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. He Yi played a key role in this crisis, and after years of behind-the-scenes control, she is stepping forward to take a more public role in Binance's operations.

He Yi tells Fortune about her transformation from impoverished village girl to cryptocurrency billionaire, recounting the trials she endured during Binance's crisis year and her outlook on an industry that is rapidly reshaping the global financial landscape.

Unchanging people-friendly background

He Yi has overcome numerous obstacles in her life and career—one of them being English. She only began studying the language in her mid-30s, a mere four years ago. Yet, during a lengthy Zoom interview, she navigated the language with ease, requiring the assistance of a translator only to explain Chinese idioms and proverbs.

He Yi deeply understands the power of communication. At Binance, she was renowned for her exceptional marketing and customer service skills, propelling the exchange to global prominence in less than a year. To this day, she continues to listen to user feedback on platforms like Telegram, X, and WeChat, and requires her entire team to follow suit. Her well-known rule is that all new Binance employees must first spend several weeks on the front lines of customer service.

He Yi recounted a recent incident in which a university student mistakenly transferred $500 worth of cryptocurrency to the wrong wallet. This type of mistake is common and usually results in the complete loss of funds. However, He Yi took the time to track down the funds and eventually recovered them. She recalls the student saying, "This money may seem small to you, but it's everything to me."

He Yi's empathy stems from her own experience. She grew up in an impoverished rural village in Sichuan, lost her father at age nine, and spent long hours selling beverages outside a supermarket at 16. Though she later went on to university (she laughs as she recalls the joy of entering a library for the first time) and worked as a television host, her humble beginnings have always made her empathize with the plight of many ordinary Binance users.

Her story is reminiscent of Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny From the Block," a popular American story about a woman who achieves success while remaining relatable.

But Eowyn Chen, CEO of the cryptocurrency company Trust Wallet (formerly at Binance), said this approach doesn't work in China: "Chinese people are less likely to cheer for those who make a comeback, and instead are more likely to mock those who 'climb too high.'" Eowyn Chen said that He Yi is often the target of attacks in articles and on social media, but He Yi responds by hitting back at the attackers with these negative comments.

“She would say to them, ‘Yeah, I came from a poor background, but I made it big. Why can’t you?’”

Bloomberg has dubbed He Yi the "most powerful woman in cryptocurrency." She has risen to the top of the blockchain industry through intelligence, drive, and determination—qualities she shares with her co-founder and partner.

Building the Binance Empire Together

By the time Changpeng Zhao founded Binance in 2017, he had already cultivated a distinct public image under the moniker "CZ." He built the "CZ myth" through bold risk-taking (such as selling his Shanghai apartment to buy Bitcoin in 2014) and active engagement in the cryptocurrency Twitter community.

Changpeng Zhao invited He Yi to join Binance during its early days, but it was He Yi who first extended an olive branch to him years before. In 2014, it was she who urged Changpeng Zhao to join the OKCoin (now OKX) exchange, where he worked alongside her as CTO. The pair not only shared a passion for cryptocurrency but also many other traits. Like He Yi, Zhao Changpeng spent his early years in an unheated rural schoolhouse. His father later immigrated to Canada, and during high school, he worked odd jobs at Chevron and McDonald's, earning minimum wage. Zhao Changpeng has always been outspoken in his response to those who mock his background, even reposting memes of himself in a McDonald's uniform to mock himself.

The two fell in love while working at OKCoin, where they gained experience running large-scale cryptocurrency businesses. Today, the couple, who never married, maintain a close relationship, raising their children together and collaborating closely in business. According to the Wall Street Journal, He Yi and Changpeng Zhao jointly own YZi Labs, the family office transformed from Binance's venture capital arm, and she also holds at least a 10% stake in Binance's parent company.

When asked about her relationship with Changpeng Zhao, He Yi declined to comment publicly, providing only a written statement: "My personal life and professional identity are completely separate. People always focus on my personal life but ignore my achievements and abilities as a co-founder." She also mentioned that Binance now has 280 million users.

Regardless of their personal relationship, their work ties are incredibly effective. He Yi's role at Binance is roughly equivalent to Sheryl Sandberg's at Facebook—not only did the executive help Facebook grow during its early days, but she also provided a steady hand for then-rookie CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

In practice, Zhao Changpeng serves as Binance's influential leader and product visionary, while He Yi fuels the platform's explosive growth through aggressive promotional tactics, including car giveaways. Her strategy has been widely embraced not only within the overseas Chinese community but also within China. Despite being officially banned in mainland China, cryptocurrencies have a large audience, in part because they are easily transferable assets that circumvent government capital controls.

A Binance employee, who requested anonymity to discuss company executives, described He Yi as a demanding boss who consistently supports her employees and is willing to speak up for those around her. When discussing Binance's daily operations, He Yi mentioned the company's core tenet as "founder culture," a concept from the tech world that refers to companies that maintain the original drive of their early days.

Binance's early development was characterized by its strategic flexibility in navigating regulatory issues, moving between countries whenever it encountered government scrutiny. While this strategy fueled Binance's explosive growth, it also repeatedly became a fatal flaw—a vulnerability that ultimately led to the loss of its most core founders.

After CZ, He Yi takes the lead

By early 2023, Binance's survival space was becoming increasingly constricted. Following the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX exchange the previous year, the Biden administration had intensified its efforts to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, targeting Binance, the industry leader. For years, Binance's legal team had been battling the Department of Justice over various allegations, and now, the time had finally come for a deal.

In September 2023, the Department of Justice announced a blockbuster settlement: Binance paid a $4.3 billion fine (the largest such fine in corporate history), Zhao Changpeng resigned as CEO, and pleaded guilty to charges of inadequate anti-money laundering practices. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, citing anonymous sources, reported that the Justice Department had also requested He Yi's resignation. (A Binance spokesperson stated, "Plea agreements with US regulators are public record.")

Despite the significant financial and leadership losses, two years later, under the leadership of Changpeng Zhao's successor, Richard Teng, Binance remains the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. This former senior Singaporean regulator has driven a series of compliance measures, recasting the company as a company that has moved beyond its early, extensive model. In January 2025, Binance took another crucial step: introducing its first formal board of directors, comprised of seven members, including Teng, including three independent directors.

Despite this, a former Binance employee revealed to Fortune that the company's power remains firmly in the hands of Changpeng Zhao, He Yi, and two other early executives, Roger Wang and Sonny Zhou. The person, who requested anonymity to speak frankly, added that He Yi has the final say on all personnel matters and has a crucial voice in decisions related to customer experience. However, a Binance spokesperson denied this claim, stating that the company culture has always encouraged a high degree of employee autonomy.

Meanwhile, the founder of a venture capital firm described Binance as a company managed with an "iron fist," showing no sign of weakening its market dominance despite facing new legal constraints and the operational challenges of a sprawling global business. This assessment appears to be supported by recent data from Coingecko: even as new competitors emerge, Binance continues to command the lion's share of trading activity, accounting for 39% of all trading volume on centralized exchanges in June.

For He Yi, Binance's continued leadership is both a testament to her customer-first approach and a testament to the company's founder's unwavering commitment to cryptocurrency. She sees this technology as transformative, comparable in impact to the internet's impact on traditional media and television.

He Yi predicts that cryptocurrencies will accelerate their penetration into the traditional financial system with the help of stablecoins and other blockchain technologies; in the next five to ten years, the two major areas will be fully integrated.

For her personally, the popularization of cryptocurrency seems like another technological revolution she has personally experienced - just like her childhood life without water and electricity, and her journey step by step to today.

As for the trials along the way, He Yi quoted Xi Murong: "Since you've said it's good, don't say it hurts."