Amid ongoing backlash over its function in October 10’s liquidations and a weird chart of transactions from Saturday, critics of Binance are questioning founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) over his repeated claims that he’s not an lively crypto dealer.
Sharing reminders about CZ’s possession of market-makers Advantage Peak Restricted and Sigma Chain (which have each traded on Binance) critics decried a tether (USDT)-denominated ether (ETH) chart from Binance’s trade on Saturday, alleging that CZ one way or the other was concerned.
Binance intraday ETH/USDT chart, 5 second periodicity, Feb. 7, 2026. Supply: TradingView, Binance
Nonetheless, probably the most repeated assurances from CZ is that he’s not an lively crypto dealer.
Certainly, in numerous interviews, he tells a narrative of his temporary try at lively buying and selling a couple of decade in the past, concluding that he was solely unskilled at that endeavor.
’I don’t commerce in any respect’
For years, CZ has claimed, he’s not been an lively crypto dealer. Though he makes rare, long-term purchases, he reiterates that he’s “not a trader. I buy and hold.”
CZ labored at Bloomberg and constructed high-frequency buying and selling platforms for stockbrokers, so he had loads of expertise with lively merchants earlier than his profession at crypto companies Blockchain.data, OKCoin, and Binance.
In line with CZ’s model of his biography, he needed to turn into a dealer in the course of the early years of his crypto profession, didn’t succeed, and as a substitute determined to deal with constructing Binance.
Relatively than commerce alongside the way in which, he’s centered on long-term investments: bitcoin (BTC), the Binance Coin (BNB) he based, and most of all, fairness in Binance itself.
“I don’t trade at all, I just hold bitcoins,” CZ mentioned in a consultant interview. “I hold BNB, and I don’t do daytrading.”
CZ: No One within the World Is Loopy Sufficient to Manipulate Bitcoin
On January 31, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao acknowledged in an AMA that the October 10 market crash was triggered by a tariff announcement, not Binance system error or value manipulation. He emphasised neither he nor… pic.twitter.com/ZFPtdGEkU0
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) February 4, 2026
CZ doesn’t have to commerce to make billions from Binance
Bloomberg analysts agree that CZ’s long-held fairness in Binance, for what it’s price, accounts for the overwhelming majority of his estimated $50 billion web price.
Even with none digital asset holdings, CZ may simply be price tens of billions of {dollars} merely because the founding shareholder of his worthwhile firm.
Nonetheless, critics on social media have not too long ago turn into skeptical of CZ, alleging or insinuating that he’s involved with manipulating Binance buying and selling pairs.
A extremely suspicious whipsaw in ETH renewed their anger.
Simply because trades happen on Binance, nevertheless, doesn’t imply that CZ or Binance are taking part in these markets past its customary commissions for matching third-party orders.
Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy referred to as Saturday’s buying and selling motion “a market-maker bot blowing up to the tune of tens of millions,” defending his personal market-making firm from an accusation about scamming on Binance, for instance.
For his half, CZ barely acknowledged the social media controversy. He summarized it as one other instance of FUD and posted recaps of his snowboarding journey, as a substitute.
