It’s been a turbulent two years for Binance — the world’s largest crypto exchange — a period marked by leadership changes, regulatory flashpoints, and a race to remodel its reputation before the market’s next bull cycle takes off. Now, the company is rewriting its own power structure. On Thursday, Binance announced that its co-founder Yi He will step into the role of co-CEO, sharing leadership duties with current chief executive Richard Teng.
For a company that’s built its empire on both speed and defiance, this might be its most measured move yet.
The comeback of a quiet architect
If Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was the public face of Binance’s rise—the hoodie-sporting general who powered through every crackdown—Yi He was the architect working behind the scenes. Along with CZ, she helped build Binance from a startup sprinting through regulatory minefields into a multinational platform turning over billions in daily trading volume. Her influence, though, was rarely broadcast.
Those within Binance have long referred to Yi He as the company’s “centre of gravity.” Early employees describe her as the one who kept the company’s narrative coherent when its founder’s charisma often outpaced regulatory patience. A former TV host turned entrepreneur, she originally met CZ at OKCoin before co-founding Binance in 2017. While CZ took the spotlight, Yi ran product strategy, branding, and later, Binance Labs — the company’s venture arm that became one of the largest Web3 investors in the world.
Her appointment as co-CEO feels like more than a title change. It cements her as a stabilising force for a company still balancing between innovation and compliance—a balance that often defines whether an exchange survives its adolescence.
A divided command or a strengthened core?
Dual leadership structures can look elegant on paper, but they’re rarely simple in practice. Binance, however, isn’t introducing this model as an experiment; it’s responding to context.
Richard Teng, who took over after CZ’s high-profile resignation in late 2023 amid a U.S. Department of Justice settlement, has spent much of his tenure steadying the ship. Where CZ embodied crypto’s “move fast, ask forgiveness later” ethos, Teng is a former regulator himself, known for restraint, diplomacy, and the careful art of winning back institutional trust.
Yi He brings the counterweight — product vision, brand instinct, and a deep understanding of crypto’s native culture. Together, it’s a calculated pairing: one foot in TradFi decorum, the other in the ungoverned creativity of Web3.
Still, shared power leaves questions hanging. Who decides Binance’s next regulatory strategy? How do decisions split when innovation clashes with compliance? A senior executive who spoke on condition of anonymity called the move “an intentional balancing act — making sure Binance doesn’t lose its edge while rebuilding its credibility.”
Reading between the lines
There’s also timing baked into this announcement. The market has turned. Spot Bitcoin ETFs, renewed institutional inflows, and resurgent DeFi volumes have pulled crypto back into the mainstream. Binance, though still dominant, hasn’t escaped unscathed: trading volumes have diversified across exchanges like OKX, Bybit, and Coinbase International. Internally, there’s recognition that the next growth phase will depend not just on liquidity, but legitimacy.
Appointing Yi He as co-CEO sends multiple signals. To regulators, it says Binance is reaffirming governance oversight and distributing leadership beyond one personality cult. To employees and long-time users, it restores continuity — a reminder that the original DNA still runs through the company’s veins.
“She understands the users more than anyone else at Binance,” said a venture investor who has worked with the exchange since its early token listings. “Crypto is cultural before it’s financial — and Yi gets that.”
Navigating a maturing market
Yi He’s influence will likely cut deeper than mere boardroom optics. As head of Binance Labs, her venture arm invested in early-stage infrastructure projects like LayerZero and Aptos, many of which have since matured into foundational pieces of the next-cycle ecosystem. Integrating that venture horizon into Binance’s trading, staking, and custody products could create a tighter feedback loop between builders and the trading hubs that sustain them.
But perhaps her toughest test will be internal. Binance has grown into a sprawling, semi-decentralised organisation — thousands of employees across regions, each operating under local jurisdiction pressures. Aligning that machine under a clear strategic identity might require not just structure, but restraint.
“She’s walking a line between keeping Binance daring and making it durable,” noted one Hong Kong-based crypto policy analyst. “That’s a hard trick to pull when every regulator is watching.”
More than symbolism
Yi He’s appointment could also mark a cultural recalibration for crypto’s most influential exchange. Binance’s early ethos was entrepreneurial anarchy — disrupt first, settle later. The new structure signals pragmatic continuity: still bold, but tempered by a recognition that permanence requires predictability.
There’s a quiet irony here. Yi He, once known for working out of the spotlight, now becomes one of the industry’s most visible women in leadership — taking the reins at a time when crypto companies are desperately trying to look less like startups and more like global institutions.
Still, don’t expect her to start courting headlines. Those who’ve worked with Yi know she prefers progress reports written in product launches and user retention metrics, not stage keynotes or social media blitzes. Binance, in her mind, isn’t a brand so much as an organism — one that needs to adapt faster than its predators evolve.
The co-CEO structure, for now, feels less like a division and more like a pragmatic duet: Teng handling the choreography with regulators, Yi conducting the rhythm of innovation underneath.
In crypto’s wild, ever-mutating theatre, that might be the only way to stay both in tune — and in business.
