New York Times reporter David Yaffe-Bellany meets Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in Abu Dhabi and interviews him at his residence
New York Times reporter David Yaffe-Bellany met Binance founder Changpeng Zhao multiple times in Abu Dhabi this year and interviewed him at his residence. The report was published on October 1, with photography by Laura Boushnak.
On a June morning, Zhao picked up the reporter in a white Nissan SUV, with a phone mounted on the windshield. He sat in the driver's seat, calling the car "my Lamborghini," and drove the reporter around the city. The estimated billionaire, with a net worth of $114 billion, presented himself as an "ordinary person" that day.
The residence is a $5 million villa on Saadiyat Island, featuring nine bedrooms, four bodyguards, and a chef, with a yacht named Da Moon. He told the reporter that a nearby house is listed for $150 million. Due to chronic pain, he often works lying down. Earlier this year, when Iran launched missiles at the UAE, he was working in bed and went to the balcony to see the smoke before returning to work.
The villa is shared with his partner He Yi, with their parents and siblings taking turns to stay. He Yi, a former market executive, has been Zhao's partner since 2014, and they have three young children. After separating from his ex-wife, who took their older children to Tokyo, the older children now attend university in the U.S. He Yi is one of the two co-CEOs after Zhao stepped down, and footage includes her holding meetings at the residence.
Zhao remains the majority shareholder of Binance. In 2023, he pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, with the company paying a $4.3 billion fine, and he served four months in prison, returning to Abu Dhabi by private jet after leaving Lombok in August 2024. He was pardoned by Trump last October. Binance established a business relationship with Trump's family’s World Liberty Financial last year, which generated $799 million for Trump.
In market mechanisms, the buyers are not villa visitors but users still trading on Binance and sovereign capital entering the Middle East. Fees and equity remain in his name, while management roles have shifted to He Yi. The events are driven by the pardon and the establishment in Abu Dhabi, not a new round of financing. Beneficiaries are the founder retaining control and the trading platform tied to him, while regulators and competitors face pressure to price the exchange according to U.S. compliance standards.
Source: Public information
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Zhao sold his three-bedroom apartment in Shanghai in 2013 and invested all $900,000 into Bitcoin. In 2017, he co-founded Binance with He Yi, allowing accounts without basic identity verification for the first four years, relying on margin trading commissions. According to his self-published memoir "Freedom of Money," the company's profits quickly reached $1 billion. Prosecutors quoted his original words in the case file: it is better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission, and he instructed subordinates not to leave written records.
Money did not exit after the guilty plea. He resigned as CEO, leaving the equity intact. He Yi took over as co-CEO and oversees the investment platform originally known as Binance Labs, now called YZi Labs. The UAE path was earlier: on a Saturday in October 2021, he obtained a ten-year golden visa within hours of arriving in Dubai. Around late 2022 to early 2023, the royal family asked him at a dinner if he wanted citizenship, and later a messenger delivered passports for the whole family to their home. The absence of an extradition treaty with the U.S. was one of the conditions for choosing this location.
This is different from Sam Bankman-Fried, who lost his company and personal freedom after conviction. Zhao exchanged the $4.3 billion company fine and four months of imprisonment for a management title, retaining control. The industry position is one of control rather than expansion: the trading share is already established, and the current action is to bind legal residence, family management, and political entry in the same city.
Structurally, this is capital concentration following regulatory changes. The U.S. criminal case removed operational control from him but did not take away cash flow ownership. Abu Dhabi offers tax benefits, security, and residency status, while the Trump administration provided the pardon. The mechanism is jurisdictional arbitrage: the platform charges users, while legal risks are managed through fines, short sentences, and political entry, with control remaining with the family and majority equity.