Freed From Prison, Binance Founder CZ Gets Ovation in Dubai and Talks New Educational Venture

Changpeng Zhou, who stepped down as the crypto exchange's CEO last year amid a multi-billion-dollar settlement with the U.S., spoke at a conference in front of a standing-room-only crowd.

Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhou made his first public appearance since his release from a U.S. prison at Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai on Thursday.

His return to crypto was met with a standing-room-only crowd and ovation.

Zhou stepped down as Binance's CEO last year amid the exchange's multi-billion-dollar settlement with the U.S. over allegations it failed to register with the government and violated the Bank Secrecy Act. He pleaded guilty to the charges and served a four-month sentence.

Now, he's spending at least half his time on an educational platform called Giggle Academy, an initiative he first announced last year.

“Today there's about 700 to 800 million adults who are illiterate, and two-thirds of them are women. And on top of that, there's about, depending on which report you read, there's about 300 million to 500 million kids who don't go to school,” he said.

“When you look at educational apps, educational projects, they're all in places where … they're all supplementing the existing education system."

Zhou's successor, current Binance CEO Richard Teng, attended the first day of the conference, taking photos with attendees both before and after his opening remarks.

During the opening remarks on Wednesday, Teng said the theme for the upcoming year is "momentum" in the crypto industry, pointing to approvals of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the U.S. as an example of forward progress for the industry.

Around 4,000 people are in attendance, with 1 million more streaming the panels online, a spokesperson for Binance said.

The above is the detailed content of Freed From Prison, Binance Founder CZ Gets Ovation in Dubai and Talks New Educational Venture. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!