TL;DR:
- Wei Zhou served as Binance’s first CFO in 2018, offering institutional credibility after main IPOs on the NYSE and NASDAQ.
- In his guide “Freedom of Cash,” Changpeng Zhao (CZ) describes him as a disloyal subordinate and an antagonist following his departure.
- At present, Zhou leads Cash.ph and is recognized by CZ as a part of a bunch of former staff essential of the platform.
A good portion of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao’s (CZ) current autobiography is devoted to analyzing the determine of Wei Zhou, who served as the corporate’s first Chief Monetary Officer.
Regardless of the character’s historic weight, the autobiography portrays the chief as one of the vital continuously talked about figures, matching the narrative relevance of controversial personalities corresponding to Sam Bankman-Fried and others.
Throughout his tenure as CFO, which started in 2018, Wei Zhou was the architect of strategic strikes, together with Binance’s controversial preliminary funding within the FTX platform in 2019.
The Battle within the Philippines and the Rift with Binance
The guide signifies that the skilled relationship between the 2 executives fractured completely after Wei Zhou’s departure in 2021, remodeling right into a rivalry that CZ describes with notable bitterness in his memoirs.
CZ accuses Zhou of utilizing his present place as CEO of Cash.ph to hinder Binance’s growth within the Philippines by sending warning letters to native regulators.
Alternatively, experiences from media retailers like Reuters counsel that, throughout his three years in workplace, Zhou by no means had full entry to the trade’s precise monetary accounts.
This lack of transparency was reportedly a figuring out issue within the disconnect between the technical management and the centralized management that CZ exercised over all world operations.
After leaving the corporate, Wei Zhou allegedly fashioned a bunch dubbed the “Binance Avengers,” consisting of disgruntled former executives who query the corporate’s practices.
In abstract, the determine of Wei Zhou represents Binance’s complicated transition from an agile startup to an entity underneath the scrutiny of its personal founders and former leaders.
