Original author: Chen Teng
Original editor: Zhou Jinyu
Original source: Mirror Studio
Editor’s Note:
With Binance founder Zhao Changpeng resigning and going to jail, the world has begun to turn its attention to another long-neglected co-founder, He Yi.
In 2017, just five months after its founding, Binance grew from a humble grassroots company to become the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and has maintained its number one position in the industry to date.
In these 7 years, which are perhaps the most legendary for Chinese entrepreneurs, He Yi has been behind the scenes for a long time. She was born in a humble family, saw highs and lows, and the great divisions of the world, and has the ambition to change the world; she once wandered around in confusion, but now she is worth tens of billions.
She has the typical diligence, flexibility and shrewdness of Chinese entrepreneurs, which is a crucial part of Binances success; it also profoundly affects Binances culture: result-oriented. This corporate culture has obviously contributed to Binances world-shaking rise, but it has not won Binance much respect beyond the secular world. When she promotes her ideal of changing the world, people feel a lack of true idealism.
A woman who survived a crisis
Xiaozhuang, Empress Lü, and Empress Wu Zetian, people are eager to use all the words of political strong women in history to describe He Yi, a 38-year-old Chinese woman and co-founder of Binance, the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange.
In less exaggerated terms, people would say she was delicate, decisive, stunningly beautiful, or Look, she has a big mole on her chin, in a very good position. From a physiognomic point of view, she will have a great future, so she will never have it removed by cosmetic surgery.
This is how people in the Chinese community portray this woman in a completely unrecognizable way. She has successfully created an admiration and trust that makes her a bridge between Binance and the Chinese world, which is one of Binance’s largest markets.
But to the global market, He Yi is an unfamiliar name and role: what exactly did she do at Binance, what kind of influence did she exert, and how great her contribution was. Her introduction is always, I am the chief customer service of Binance.
In contrast to such a low profile, it is a fact that cannot be ignored: she owns about 10% of Binances shares, which makes her one of the richest women in the world and the most influential woman in the global cryptocurrency circle. What is even more difficult to ignore is that in the past year and a half, when Binance was caught in the darkest moment of US regulation, fined 4.3 billion US dollars for money laundering and other crimes, and founder Zhao Changpeng resigned and went to prison, He Yi, as the largest shareholder in office, increased the number of Binance users from 130 million to 200 million. She hopes to push the number of users to 1 billion.
Not only that, people were surprised that He Yi could get away with it in such a legal storm. Court documents show that He Yi was involved in planning strategies to evade regulation. The media quoted anonymous sources as saying that the US Department of Justice also wanted He Yi to leave in early settlement negotiations, but ultimately did not hold He Yi accountable for unknown reasons. He Yis name did not appear in the plea agreement for unknown reasons. However, the court will arrange for an independent monitor to stay in Binance for 3-5 years, and He Yi has the power to participate in the selection of the monitor. The media described: The US authorities overthrew the king of cryptocurrency, but the queen still stands.
● In 2023, Zhao Changpeng left the court in Seattle, USA. At the end of April this year, he was sentenced to four months in prison for money laundering. Source: Visual China
Among the many unclear points, people finally understood from the court documents released this year: Zhao Changpeng was not divorced, He Yi was his extramarital partner whom he had known for 10 years, and they had three children together. For a long time, the unclear relationship with Zhao Changpeng has also triggered the outside worlds stereotypes about whether she is just a vase, whether she is dependent on men, and how she caught the heart of Zhao Changpeng, the richest Chinese, and so on.
Faced with the suspicion caused by low exposure and long-term behind-the-scenes work, He Yi occasionally clarified: I am the one who brought Zhao Changpeng into the cryptocurrency circle, Zhao Changpeng brought me to Binance based on my achievements. I entered the market running and brought my own food. And there were even rumors within the company that He Yi has the final say.
If there is anything clear in these deliberate ambiguities, it is that He Yi has never concealed her ambition to change the world, and believes that women should never be ashamed of this. I am not just starting a business, I am making history.
As Binance passes the apex of its multi-year regulatory crisis and Zhao Changpeng goes to jail, the eyes of the world are now on her, the woman who is said to be unknown to newcomers to the circle, but always the first to stand up when Binance encounters negative information and crises, a woman who has never been shy about admitting that she is a grassroots.
When there are no heroes, the little ones become famous
In all of He Yis public videos, you can always see this face: a pretty, gentle smile, even speech, and the ability to explain complex issues clearly and understandably. Her smile and words have a charm that makes people watch and listen intently, and they dont feel that they are too long.
This soft and delicate femininity is not rare. However, since its birth, the cryptocurrency industry has been a highly rational male country due to the obscure cryptographic terms. In early 2014, He Yi landed in this world of technology geeks, financial speculators, hackers and scammers. She immediately caught peoples attention.
At that time, she was also the host of Beijing New Discovery on Beijing Satellite TV, and also served as the location host of Beautiful Destinations and How Far to Go on Travel Satellite TV. When He Yi recalled it, she said: Yes, I am not famous. I am just an unqualified and stupid TV host.
Through a friends introduction, He Yi was invited to join OKCoin, a newly established Bitcoin exchange. Not only was she given the title of vice president and put in charge of marketing, she was also allowed to call herself the companys co-founder to make it easier for her to hold up the show and attend events for a company whose signboard was just a plastic board.
Everything was unprofessional, but that was the cryptocurrency industry 10 years ago. Not only was it called the Wild West, but even practitioners were often considered to be pyramid schemes, and He Yi, who became vice president, had never worked in the market for a day.
She came from a poor rural area in Sichuan, and her father died when she was 9. Most people in her hometown dropped out of school before the age of 16 to work in factories, but she also worked as a beverage promoter at the age of 16, with a monthly salary of 1,000 yuan; at the age of 18, she worked as a bedding store manager for two months; later she went to Beijing to work as an assistant psychotherapist, but at that time she judged that it would be difficult to have a market for psychological counseling in the short term in China, so she gave up; she also worked as a class teacher, kicking open the dormitory doors of truant male students and dragging them to class.
He Yi spent her early years wandering in confusion. She traded stocks a few times and felt that she was very strong because she could make money on everything she bought. In 2013, she saw the price of Bitcoin rise to more than $1,000, which gave her a great stimulus. She said that it was the first time she began to think: What is money? Although her parents told her that money is important since she was a child, she began to think: The thing you used to think of as money may not be money itself, so this incident directly made me choose to enter the cryptocurrency circle and determined to change the future of finance.
“I want to change the world.”
● He Yi at the age of 11. Source : Internet
But just after He Yi officially announced her joining OKCoin, Mentougou, the largest Bitcoin exchange at the time, collapsed and Bitcoin plummeted. He Yi described it as a disaster. But soon after, she met Zhao Changpeng, who was giving a speech at a blockchain event. At that time, Zhao Changpeng sold his house and invested all of it in Bitcoin. The drop in Bitcoin prices caused his assets to shrink significantly. He described himself at the time: he had failed in starting a business several times. But He Yi described: This did not dampen his obsession with blockchain technology. His speech was full of idealism about how blockchain technology can bring positive changes to the world, which greatly influenced and inspired me.
Not only that, Zhao Changpeng and He Yi have similar life backgrounds: they were born into a family of teachers and came from and grew up in a poor rural area in China.
He Yi began to persuade Zhao Changpeng, who was good at trading technology, to join OKCoin. This was their first time working together. It was also from this time that He Yi and Zhao Changpeng began to fall in love. At that time, Zhao Changpeng was already married and had two children.
Although she had never worked in marketing, He Yis marketing talent and insight into human nature soon became apparent. She brought her stupid but effective experience as a TV host to OKCoin and became a member of the BOSS team of a job-hunting program. She was interviewed by many magazines and successfully made OKCoin appear on Harpers Bazaar.
In 2015, He Yi led OKCoin to broadcast an advertisement on the main screen of Times Square in New York, USA, which made OKCoin famous overnight and occupied 60% of the domestic Bitcoin trading volume, establishing OKCoins position in the industry. In the same year, due to the conflict between Zhao Changpeng and OKCoin founder Xu Mingxing, He Yi and Zhao Changpeng both left OKCoin. However, from then on, He Yi began to be called the first sister of the currency circle and the koi of the exchange. And she herself commented: When there are no heroes, the young ones become famous.
Due to the non-compete agreement, He Yi, with excellent marketing experience, joined Yixia Technology as vice president to lead brand strategy and marketing operations. At that time, in the fierce competition, He Yi signed Song Zhongji, who was coveted by many platforms, and made his Yizhibo a leading live broadcast platform. By the end of 2016, Miaopai, a subsidiary of Yixia Technology, had a user penetration rate of 61.7%, with a daily coverage of 70 million users, and the peak daily playback volume of Miaopai and its Xiaokaxiu exceeded 2.5 billion times. He Yi described: I am a crucial part of the financing strategy that has driven the companys valuation to more than US$3 billion. The listing once became a topic of discussion among Yixia Technology employees.
He Yi recalled, Many people tried to poach me at that time, but it was just because of the name He Yi, not because of He Yis value. In the past two years, I was the one standing behind and making the layout. Lao Zhao understood the value of He Yi as a partner.
On August 8, 2017, she accepted Zhao Changpengs invitation to join Binance as a true co-founder. She said: I know I can run a good company in China, but I still want to try to run a global company.
Start before you turn 30
When returning to the cryptocurrency industry, He Yi published an article titled Starting Before Turning 30:
Some people die at the age of 30, while others like a life full of ups and downs. Whether it is love or work, youd better devote yourself to it without leaving any room for compromise. Only in this way can you enjoy your life to the fullest and not regret not moving forward when you are old and weak. Love when you should love, hate when you should hate, and live a life full of excitement...
This is one of the few times He Yi has openly and directly talked about love since entering the cryptocurrency industry. In 2019, the industry began to know that she and Zhao Changpeng had their first child.
In her description, her desire for a life of full commitment and enjoyment seemed to outweigh her desire for money. I chose to leave when Yixia Technology was preparing for its IPO. Everything went back to zero and I started from scratch.
“Ultimately, I think blockchain is what excites me the most because it’s the only thing that has this kind of explosive growth.”
Early Binance
The news of He Yi joining Binance was kept secret at first. But after it was announced, it immediately caused a sensation. According to reports at the time: It was said that Binance had a mysterious guest who was about to take up an important position, and was hailed as an important entrepreneur in the technology circle and the behind-the-scenes promoter of many well-known Internet products. On the evening of August 8, a voice suddenly came from the live broadcast room of investor Guo Hongcai, Welcome the beautiful He Yi back to the cryptocurrency circle.
In fact, Zhao Changpeng founded Binance as early as July 14. But in the 25 days before He Yi joined, Binances situation was terrible.
At that time, Binance Coin (BNB) had fallen below its issue price by 50%, which means that one coin was only worth 50 cents. Binance was badly criticized, and Zhao Changpeng was under so much pressure that he lost a full 10 kilograms in three weeks.
After the news of He Yis joining was released, Binances own BNB coin trading volume surged, ranking directly among the top 10 in the world. He Yi once said that this was based on investors trust in her.
After He Yi invested in the company, he had less than 1 million RMB left, which he bought all in BNB. My logic is that if you do something and you dont believe in it yourself, why would you let other investors buy it? Half a month later, BNB rose from $0.149 to $2.57, an increase of nearly 20 times.
● Bitcoin. In 2014, He Yi entered the world of tech geeks, financial speculators, hackers and scammers. She immediately caught peoples attention. Image source: Visual China
In the early days of Binance, He Yis other public image was approachable. She called herself Binances chief customer service from day one.
In the eyes of laymen, decentralization, Web3, DEFI, Ethereum, blockchain, ICO, IEO, these new words full of futuristic and technological sense are very difficult for the public to understand, but at that time people described: He Yi personally went out to answer customer questions. She always hangs out in the community, chatting with everyone, and asking customers: Do you have any opinions? Do you think our products need to be changed? Do you think our products are easy to use? People recalled: The first sister of the currency circle was still in the group teaching users how to charge money to buy coins in the early morning, and handling complaints as soon as possible.
When asked what her advantages are in the male-dominated blockchain industry, He Yi said: Mens thinking is very linear, and I know better how to make users feel respected. Womens delicacy is irreplaceable.
But she has always been much more than just customer service.
Binance was established just over a month ago when He Yi brought in Sequoia China, which she had participated in investing in while working at Yixia Technology, to sign a letter of intent for investment with Binance. At that time, Sequoia valued Binance at US$80 million.
She also brought her live streaming experience to Binance. Not only did she broadcast live coin distribution and lucky draws on various platforms, she also gave away Lamborghini, Porsche, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, virtual coins worth tens of thousands of dollars, iPhone X and other products during live broadcasts. Once, He Yi set a record of 500 million TRON coins being sold out in 53 seconds.
As a big spender, she often appears in various WeChat groups and sends out red envelopes. Someone described that year, A group was originally quiet, but He Yiyi came in and it immediately became lively. She not only launched a social invitation rebate activity, but also listed coins for free, allowing the issuers to put their own coins on the Binance platform for free. These actions quickly opened up the market for Binance.
At that time, the industry leader Coinbase had 100,000 new users per day, while Binance had 250,000. The explosive growth caused excessive pressure on the server, and it had to temporarily close new user registrations and switch to limited registrations from time to time. At the same time, He Yi recruited volunteers from all over the world - Binance Angels, to guide new users into the cryptocurrency field, organize meetups, and provide support to the Binance community.
She said that Zhao Changpeng was in charge of direction and strategy, while she was not very involved in products and technology, but was responsible for helping the company make more money. On December 18, 2017, Binances daily trading volume exceeded 3 billion US dollars, and Binance successfully topped the list of the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange. By January 10, 2018, the daily trading volume exceeded 10 billion US dollars. Zhao Changpeng described the development of Binance in its early years as an unexpected and extreme exponential growth. He Yi is deservedly called the best marketer in the cryptocurrency circle.
Even today, with a net worth of tens of billions, she is still active in the front line. Sometimes she would say: I read every reply to everyones suggestions.
Beneath this seemingly humble and hardworking surface are: Customer Service is the largest department within Binance; User First is Binances core strategy; He Yi once issued a strict order requiring that all Binance employees must be customer service staff; she trained the entire marketing department, requiring every new mid-level and senior manager to receive customer service training, and to spend 2-6 hours every quarter rotating in the customer service department to understand user feedback and conduct strategic thinking.
To this day, she describes her life as boring: getting up early to exercise, attending 4 meetings, feeding, attending 5 more meetings, accompanying the baby, attending 2 more meetings, reading, and sleeping. She said that this day-to-day repetition and monotony may be the reason why she can always make clear decisions.
Backstage
However, in this wildly growing emerging market, with cryptocurrencies circulating around the world and difficult to regulate, Binance has never been able to obtain a legal operating license, let alone set up a headquarters. He Yi recently admitted that she is a person with a strong sense of crisis, and regulation is the biggest crisis Binance has faced over the years.
After Binance became the worlds largest exchange, He Yi gradually retreated behind the scenes as regulation became increasingly tight. It was from here that people began to lose sight of where He Yi played what role. Almost all news about Binance revolves around Zhao Changpeng, and occasionally there are some scraps about He Yi: He Yi made a big iteration on the solutions provided by suppliers, reducing costs by tens of millions of dollars every month; He Yi began to take charge of Binances venture capital institution Binance Lab, which has a market value of 10 billion US dollars and has invested in about 250 companies. It is the largest venture capital company in the virtual currency industry; the establishment of Binance Smart Chain is also attributed to He Yi; He Yi is responsible for the listing business; He Yi builds the structure for the companys 8,000-person team; He Yi led the team to create a business strategy that turned Binance Butterfly into a global blockchain ecosystem, etc.
In addition to the technical part, she exerts influence in all departments of Binance, and she has never been shy about describing her management style as: very strict.
According to media reports, in 2022, Binance signed football star Cristiano Ronaldo for $60 million. However, after the marketing campaign began, He Yi complained to the marketing team that the campaign did not meet expectations, and the vice president of global marketing in charge of the project subsequently resigned. He Yi once produced a reality show called Building Blockchain. She served as a guest judge for the premiere show, but only received 4,400 YouTube views. The producer in charge of the show was subsequently laid off.
This is not difficult to understand, because He Yi and Zhao Changpeng have emphasized on various occasions that Binance’s culture is: results-oriented.
In 2019, when the market was sluggish, Binance chose to return to the Chinese community in a big way and entered the high-risk contract business that it had previously avoided. At that time, He Yi said: We used to pay too much attention to compliance. Now our competitors are not afraid, so we are even less afraid. We should follow their example.
Binances return has led to fierce competition among domestic exchanges, and He Yi has frequently appeared in the Chinese community again. After her competitor and former employer OKCoin named her as a third party and auntie in a WeChat group, she posted a recruitment notice on Weibo: The criteria are beauty, big breasts, experience as an online anchor, post-00s, and good at chatting. Those who meet all three are also welcome. Job content: online chatting.
Soon, she announced that she had hired a beautiful Binance account manager born in 1998, with fair skin and good looks, and gave her the nickname: Binance Liuliu. Soon, a set of photos of Liuliu with long legs and big breasts were circulated in her circle of friends.
OKCoin attacked He Yi: pushing an excellent girl to the public in this way. On the first day of work, Liu Lius WeChat was flooded with thousands of friend requests. She said that she received a lot of offensive and abusive words that were unbearable. Someone even photoshopped Liu Lius picture into a text Come to Binance to deposit 20 bitcoins and get Liu Liu a night or Buy bitcoins and get Liu Liu underwear and started to spread it in the group. Liu Liu finally couldnt hold it in and burst into tears, The second day of entering the cryptocurrency circle, this is probably the cruelest Colosseum I have ever seen in my short life. The part about competition made me see the ugly side of human nature.
He Yi was praised as the exchange turned into a club: This high-profile club-style marketing was successful for Binance, but disastrous for the entire industry. In fact, as early as when He Yi was still working at OKCoin, for market promotion, she took a set of swimsuit photos of herself, priced at 0.5 bitcoins per set. At that time, she reposted on Weibo: I was playing so hard that I broke myself.
When netizens used dirty words to greet Liulius mother, they suggested that she should reply: My mother is very busy, you can talk to me.
He Yi said: I am not sure I can calmly answer My mom is busy, but I still insist that we can handle it more professionally. She said: There is a saying of Steve Jobs that I really admire, First-class talents do not need to take care of their self-esteem, so I like first-class talents. So when I manage people, I dont tend to take care of their self-esteem.
While returning to the Chinese community, Binance also decided to make efforts in the United States. The United States is not only the worlds largest cryptocurrency market, but also mainly driven by large institutional transactions. In 2019, Binance established the US site. At that time, He Yi led the marketing strategy of Binance US, claiming that it was completely independent from the main site and would comply with US laws and fulfill compliance.
However, court documents show that in June 2019, Zhao Changpeng said at an internal meeting: He Yi is right, we dont have to choose one of the three. We can support three options at the same time, and users can choose for themselves. At that time, Zhao Changpeng was discussing how to help American users evade regulation and help them move to the Binance main site.
From 2017 to 2022, more than 1 million U.S. retail investors conducted 20 million deposit and withdrawal transactions on Binance, worth $65 billion. These users conducted more than 900 million spot transactions, worth more than $550 billion. At the same time, because of the deliberate failure to implement an effective anti-money laundering program, Binance earned considerable fees from U.S. users, especially from transactions between U.S. users and customers subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions. And the transactions processed by Binance involve proceeds from illegal activities, which can involve drugs, terrorism, child abuse, etc.
Zhao Changpengs plea agreement states: These strategies helped Binance grow into the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange.
In addition, according to media reports, in 2022, Binance launched the Palau electronic ID plan: users can spend US$248 to obtain the electronic identity of this small Pacific country to bypass regulation and log in to Binance trading. The report said that executives once reminded He Yi of the legal risks of doing so, but He Yi still insisted on pushing forward. It was not until the media exposed the matter that Binance finally stopped accepting Palau identities.
It is precisely these measures that have enabled Binance to maintain its position as the worlds largest exchange for nearly seven years.
Rich but not expensive
Perhaps He Yi’s real opponent is the FTX exchange, which was established in May 2019 and quickly became popular, and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). The Chinese community calls him French Fries Brother.
He Yi admitted that going overseas was a challenge for her in terms of language and culture. Although her English was improving, cultural adaptation was bound to be more difficult.
In the Chinese community, He Yi used low transaction fees, luxury cars, benefits, and beautiful customer service to quickly attract users; in the United States, French Fries Brother spent hundreds of millions of dollars to name stadiums, run Super Bowl ads, and get celebrity endorsements. And from the beginning, French Fries Brother focused on promoting himself as a genius of effective altruism. His marketing strategy is more like a moral game with aristocratic spirit. Talking about French Fries Brother, He Yi said: He graduated from an Ivy League school, came from a political family, and is a Wall Street blue blood. She always said: We are grassroots, and we always have been.
In 2022, when the industry was experiencing another cold winter, Fries Brother took out $1 billion within 14 days to rescue the troubled projects. This was a shocking amount for Fries Brother, who was valued at $10 billion at the time. He gained industry influence as a philanthropist who is kind and generous and truly protects the industry when it needs it most. (For more information about FTX and Fries Brother, please see the Opponents section of the article CZ, the Richest Chinese Man: Prisoner of Power )
At that time, Bloomberg interviewed He Yi about the move by the French Fry Brother: What is Binances method?
Our style is pragmatic and calm. We dont need to increase our market value or tell a story by buying for the sake of buying. We need results. He Yi answered. In fact, Binance Ventures profit rate is 2100%, which is already far ahead in the industry.
● In 2023, in New York, the United States, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrived at the court. Perhaps his moral marketing method made He Yi realize that the image of being rich but not expensive cannot be popular. After all, what people want to look up to is a noble spirit. Image source: Visual China
Although the French Fry Brother was convicted of fraud and misappropriation of client assets by the court last year , perhaps his ethical marketing method also made He Yi realize that the image of being rich but not expensive is not popular, and what people ultimately want to look up to is a noble spirit. As a successful woman and mother of three children, He Yi started a new marketing angle: womens rights.
On this years International Womens Day, Binance launched a high-end luxury perfume, Crypto, claiming that the perfume combines finance and fragrance. This marketing campaign, which exudes the scent of money, aims to attract more women into the cryptocurrency industry, empower women in cryptocurrency, and ensure that no woman is forgotten in this financial revolution.
However, the technology blog TechCrunch questioned whether this marketing campaign would create a gendered stereotype that women are only interested in feminine material goods. Binance responded: The last thing I want to do is to interpret this in a condescending manner. What I want is a playful approach.
In addition, unlike the recruitment content of long legs and big breasts in the early years, Binance began to publicize the companys efforts in womens rights, such as how Binance deals with the situation of women facing fertility and career difficulties. He Yi said: Our organization provides a very supportive environment for the success of female executives and employees, including promotion opportunities after maternity leave. Many women in Binance have experienced this and have been promoted. But there is a prerequisite: As long as their ability and output are strong, they can successfully lead a team.
But the results are about business, not people.
Although Binance is very successful in marketing, its media relations have not been as good as expected. According to media reports, she once told her subordinates: We must persist in fighting back against any negative reports. She described Binances style as fighting against everything and even repeatedly emphasized on multiple occasions that the mainstream media was demonizing Binance.
However, Binance, which is “results-oriented”, always attracts such comments: Binance only cares about its own interests, user growth, and empire consolidation. As a commercial organization, this may be understandable. But Bitcoin has been carrying an indelible idealistic brilliance since its birth - using blockchain technology to eliminate power, restore individual freedom, and build a decentralized future.
In addition to Bitcoin, in the crypto community, people often look to Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, the worlds second largest blockchain. From the information related to Ethereum and Buterin, people can easily see his thoughts on caring for vulnerable groups, thinking about rights and democracy, yearning for blockchain-driven innovation, and overall thinking about the direction of the world. It is easy to give people a sense of respect for life and individual values, and it is a kind of financial freedom that is not empty. This is how Binance officials describe their vision: Let money flow freely around the world. Binance believes that spreading this freedom can make the world a better place.
But it seems hard to see these from the results-oriented Binance. Once upon a time, in the highly rational male community of the cryptocurrency community, people were so attracted by He Yis sensual, delicate, and soft feminine qualities, and were so looking forward to her potential to change the world.
“I have seen the mountains and the valleys”
When Zhao Changpeng faced an uncertain prison sentence, He Yi wrote a petition letter to the judge, which was widely circulated in the cryptocurrency community. In this letter, there is no results-oriented core value of Binance, and Zhao Changpeng is not a hardworking and flexible machine chasing results. Instead, He Yi tried to restore Zhao Changpengs qualities as a respectable person: He is not a person who makes money as the ultimate goal, He is kind and has a humanitarian spirit.
Zhao Changpengs wife Yang Weiqing, who is still married to him, also wrote a letter of grievance. The concise and short text, although full of the silent sadness of marriage, also revealed another side of Zhao Changpengs personality:
Hello. My name is Yang Weiqing. I met Mr. Zhao Changpeng in 1999 and got married in 2003. After I got married, I have been a full-time wife and have never worked. Changpeng has always been responsible for all the expenses of the family. Before the success of Binance, Changpeng had several failed entrepreneurial experiences. But when the entrepreneurial failure was the most difficult, he still maintained the family expenses for me and the children. Changpeng has also taken care of my family for many years. He helped my parents buy a house in Tokyo. He also helped my nephew find a job.
In 161 letters to the judge, Zhao Changpengs children, sister, and volleyball friends from his youth spoke heartfeltly about how Zhao Changpeng treated them responsibly. If there is anything missing from these letters, it is Zhao Changpengs responsibility to He Yi, the co-founder who built Binance into the worlds largest exchange and the mother of his three children.
● He Yi and Zhao Changpeng. Image source: Internet
It may be difficult for the public to judge whether Zhao Changpeng deliberately kept He Yi behind the scenes to help her avoid regulatory attention during the years of high regulatory risks. In her letter, she quoted Zhao Changpengs old words: No one wants to be a hero, because no one is born to rush to the front to block the arrows. Heroes are just in that position and have to protect their families, communities, ethnic groups, and homeland to do the right thing, and have to become heroes in the process.
In response to the speculation, He Yi explained: I didnt make a public appearance because my English is not good. But if I did, people would think it was a Chinese company, right?
In any case, the final result is that Zhao Changpeng went to jail for 4 months, while He Yi got away with it legally. Regardless of whether people think this is a Chinese company or not, these may be the most legendary 7 years for Chinese entrepreneurs. And He Yi is crucial in it.
She once said: I was born in poverty. I have seen high mountains, low valleys, and the great divisions in the world. Therefore, I instinctively want to do something for the world when I have greater abilities. I want to try to see what I can leave for the world.
