An interview with Binance co-founder Yi He on growing up poor in China, the challenges she faced during Binance's year of crisis when CZ was in prison, and more
a blow that would sink most companies Two years later, Binance is still on top. Cofounder Yi He is a big reason In a rare interview, Yi He tells her story: https://fortune.com/... LinkedIn: Fortune : When Yi He was a girl in the 1980s, she walked to the well for water and relied on kerosene lamps at times to light the house. Things are different now. …
Context & Ripple Effects
Yi He had already emerged in coverage as a consequential but comparatively low-profile Binance leader: a 2023 interview examined her views on regulators and compliance, while profiles described her broad influence over the company’s marketing and investment operations. This rare interview adds a personal account of how that leadership role functioned through Binance’s crisis.
The story also sits alongside accounts of Changpeng Zhao’s forced separation from the company after his incarceration. By centering Yi He’s role in Binance’s continuity, it shifts attention from a founder-led narrative toward the executives who kept the business operating.
First-order effects
- Yi He gains a more public role as a steward of Binance’s resilience, reinforcing her standing with users, employees, and business partners during a period when CZ was absent from the company.
- The interview gives Binance a vehicle to frame its crisis as a test of operating continuity rather than solely a story about its former CEO, following CZ’s account of his separation from Binance.
Second-order effects
- Binance’s leadership bench faces greater scrutiny: Yi He’s public prominence makes the division of responsibility between her and CEO Richard Teng more material to how stakeholders assess the exchange.
- Competitors and counterparties may treat visible continuity among senior operators as a differentiator in crypto markets where founder risk can quickly become business risk.
Third-order effects
- If leadership visibility continues to broaden beyond founders, major crypto platforms may increasingly be judged on whether they can demonstrate institutional management rather than personal control by a single executive.
- The episode points to a gradual normalization of succession and governance narratives in crypto, though an interview alone does not establish a durable change in Binance’s formal structure.
The trend: Crypto companies are being pushed to show that their operations and leadership can endure beyond the founders who built them.