She will share the title with Richard Teng, who succeeded Zhao as CEO of the world’s largest crypto trading venue in November 2023. Zhao, who resigned after pleading guilty to anti-money-laundering and sanctions violations, and He have children together.
“The impression is that: now with the pardon, let’s scale up the business,” Ben Charoenwong, associate professor of finance at INSEAD, said of He’s appointment. “We had taken a defensive stance as a firm because of potential regulatory pressure, but now we’re gonna be more clearly active at the helm.”

On her social media profile, He until now describes herself as Binance’s chief customer service officer. She has less of a public persona than Zhao, who spent the past year criss-crossing the globe meeting with public officials, regularly speaks at crypto conferences and is a prolific poster on X.
