Imagine building the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange from scratch, surviving bans, lawsuits, and billions in fines – only to hand the keys to the person who’s been by your side the entire time, both in business and in life.
That’s exactly what just happened at Binance.
While most of the crypto world was still digesting the news that the former CEO received a full presidential pardon, the exchange quietly dropped a bombshell: Yi He, co-founder and long-time partner of Changpeng Zhao (CZ), is now co-CEO. She’ll share the top job with Richard Teng, the regulator-friendly face brought in two years ago to calm nervous governments.
In an industry full of loud personalities and 280-character manifestos, Yi He has always been the quiet force. And now, finally, she’s stepping into the spotlight – whether she wants to or not.
The Announcement That Surprised Almost Everyone
It was a regular Wednesday in December when Richard Teng went live from Dubai to share the news. No massive hype, no countdown tweets – just a straightforward statement: Yi He would become co-CEO effective immediately.
For anyone who has followed Binance closely, the move makes perfect sense. For everyone else, it probably felt like finding out your quiet co-worker actually owns half the company.
Because that’s essentially what Yi He has been all along.
Who Actually Is Yi He?
Let’s start with what we know – and what we don’t.
Yi He met CZ in 2014 at a blockchain meetup. She was already a known figure in Chinese crypto circles, having worked at one of the country’s largest exchanges. Within a few years she convinced CZ to join her team, then left with him to build something bigger.
Binance was born in 2017, and from day one Yi He was there. Officially, her title for years was Head of Customer Support. Unofficially? She oversaw marketing, branding, investments, and reportedly had final say on many of the exchange’s most important decisions.
“She has been there from the start, and she has been driving a lot of changes and driving the growth of Binance.”
Richard Teng, CEO of Binance
Those aren’t just polite words. People who worked at Binance during the early days describe Yi He as the person who understood users better than anyone else. While CZ became the public face tweeting in broken English and wearing hoodies, Yi He was shaping how hundreds of millions of people experienced crypto for the first time.
From TV Host to Crypto Queen
Her background is fascinating in its own right.
Before crypto, Yi He was a television host in China – the kind of job that teaches you how to read rooms, manage chaos, and keep smiling when everything is falling apart. Those skills turned out to be perfect for running a crypto exchange during bear markets, regulatory sieges.
She brings something rare to the top of Binance: genuine product intuition. In an industry full of finance bros and computer science PhDs, Yi He thinks like a user. That’s probably why Binance’s app has been downloaded more times than almost any other financial product in history.
A Very Personal Partnership
Of course, we can’t ignore the obvious.
Yi He and CZ are partners in every sense. They have three children together. When CZ faced sentencing last year, Yi He wrote a letter to the judge describing their life together with raw honesty. She didn’t hide their relationship – she leaned into it.
“As CZ’s life partner, I’ve known him for nearly ten years, so I understand a side of him that’s often overlooked.”
Excerpt from Yi He’s letter to the court, 2024
Some people will roll their eyes at the idea of a “power couple” running a multi-billion-dollar company. Others will see it as the ultimate trust signal – if you’re going to build an empire, why not with the person you trust most in the world?
Personally, I find it kind of refreshing. Crypto has spent years trying to look like traditional finance, complete with suits and compliance officers. Maybe it’s okay for the industry to remember it was built by rebels – and sometimes rebels fall in love.
Why Now?
The timing is impossible to ignore.
CZ’s pardon came just weeks ago. Suddenly the founder who stepped down amid criminal charges is a free man again, free to travel, free to advise, free to shape strategy from the shadows if he wants. Bringing Yi He to the top table now feels like closing the circle.
Richard Teng did exactly what he was hired to do: calm regulators, pay the fines, implement compliance programs, and keep the ship steady. But growth? Innovation? That was always going to need the original DNA.
And nobody carries more Binance DNA than Yi He.
- She understands emerging markets better than almost anyone in crypto
- She built the brand when Binance was banned in half the world
- She knows how to launch fifty products a year without breaking the platform
- She’s done it all while raising three young children
If that’s not executive material, I don’t know what is.
What This Means for Binance’s Future
The co-CEO structure is unusual, but it might be brilliant.
Teng brings regulatory relationships and operational discipline. Yi He brings product vision and the original hacker spirit. Together, they cover almost every weakness the company has faced in the last three years.
More importantly, this move signals confidence. After years of playing defense – settling with regulators, restricting products, delisting tokens – Binance is ready to go back on offense.
And having the co-founder who actually in the seat (instead of advising from WhatsApp) changes everything.
The Bigger Picture for Women in Crypto
Let’s not pretend this isn’t historic.
Name another multi-billion-dollar tech company run day-to-day by a mother of three who started as a TV presenter. I’ll wait.
Yi He’s rise comes at a moment when the industry desperately needs diverse voices at the top. Not for PR reasons – for survival reasons. The next billion users won’t look like the last million. Someone who intuitively understands China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America? That’s not nice-to-have. That’s table stakes.
Maybe the most interesting part is how little fanfare there’s been. No TED Talk, no Vogue profile, no “girlboss” branding. Just results.
In a way, that says everything you need to know about her.
Final Thoughts
Binance has always been more than a company – it’s been a movement, a bet that individuals should control their money in a digital age.
Having Yi He officially at the helm feels like the movement remembering where it came from. The regulators are calmer now. The fines are paid. The adults have had their turn fixing the books.
Now it’s time to build again.
And if anyone knows how to do that, it’s the woman who’s been doing it quietly for the last eight years.
Welcome to the main stage, Yi He. The crypto world is finally ready to see what you’ve got.
