Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, founder of Binance, said that his charitable efforts since October 2024 have reached tens of thousands across Sudan, Kenya, Thailand, and Myanmar. The statement was made on X.
"These are some of my personal charity efforts since Oct 2024, after my 4-month jail time in the US," said Zhao. "Over 69,360 lives impacted in Sudan, Kenya, Thailand, and Myanmar. I made a few other donations too."
According to czcharity.com, between October 2024 and June 2025, Zhao's charitable initiatives impacted almost 70,000 lives across these countries by delivering essential meals, food baskets, and critical medical support. In Sudan’s war-torn South Kordofan region, 10 community-led Emergency Response Rooms served over 33,200 beneficiaries with food and care. In Kenya, funding to Nyumbani Children’s Home helped every child living with HIV reach undetectable viral levels and zero deaths. Aid also reached displaced refugees in Myanmar and supported healthcare for nearly 19,000 beneficiaries in Thai refugee camps through life-saving surgeries and essential treatments facilitated by Zhao.
In March 2024, Zhao launched Giggle Academy, a free online education platform designed to serve grades 1 through 12 worldwide. According to Cointelegraph, he announced at Token2049 Dubai in April 2025 his goal to provide free education to "100 million or 1 billion kids," utilizing generative AI to scale globally. Giggle Academy is intentionally nonprofit with no revenue model or crypto tokens and aims to make quality education accessible to all.
Zhao was born in China in 1977 and raised in Canada. He holds a degree in Computer Science from McGill University and began his career developing high-frequency trading systems. He founded Binance in 2017 and rapidly grew it into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume before stepping down as CEO in late 2023. Recently, Zhao has taken on advisory roles for global crypto policy while focusing much of his energy on education and charity initiatives.