CZ Says He Would Not Have Started Binance Had He Bought ETH Early

Now that the eighth anniversary of the Ethereum launch has arrived, the head of Binance Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has shared a rare photo where he and Vitalik Buterin can be seen together in the company of others.

CZ admits that not buying Ethereum back then motivated him to undertake the biggest task of his lifetime — building and launching the Binance exchange.

Not buying Ethereum early — “miss of a lifetime,” CZ says

The photo shared by CZ where he is standing next to Buterin in his own flat in Tokyo was taken on May 2, 2015, per the tweet. CZ wrote that, back then, Buterin was staying at his place during the trip to Japan and “was already working on and talking about ETH non-stop.”

Changpeng Zhao confessed that he did not buy Ethereum when it launched and called it the “miss of a lifetime.” However, this presented him with a great opportunity and the motivation to create Binance, which later turned into a crypto trading platform with the largest trading volume in the world.

On this 8th birthday of #Ethereum, a little throw back to May 2, 2015, in Tokyo🇯🇵, just before #ETH was officially born. @VitalikButerin stayed in my apartment in Tokyo during this trip. He was already working on and talking about ETH non-stop. And I still missed (didn’t buy)… pic.twitter.com/84B6KN73Qf

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) July 30, 2023

“Binance would not exist without Ethereum”

It sounded as if CZ hinted that if he had bought ETH at an early stage, he would be a billionaire now without having to create Binance, which was launched in 2017 — two years after the Ethereum ICO — and it was based on the Ethereum blockchain too, as were many other platforms back then.

According to a response from CZ to a Twitter user under his post, he has known Buterin since 2013: “Coming up to 10 years in Dec, I think.”

In an earlier tweet, on Sunday, CZ sent congratulations on the birth of Ethereum to Buterin. He stressed that Ethereum made possible ICOs and, if it had not been for that, Binance would never have been born.

Happy Birthday #Ethereum! @VitalikButerin

Among many things, Ethereum made ICOs possible, which in turn, made many other projects possible, including Binance. 🙏

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) July 30, 2023

SHIB’s birthday just one day away from Ethereum’s

On July 31, another popular cryptocurrency celebrates its birthday; popular meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB) emerged into the market on July 31, 2020, created by the pseudonymous Ryoshi and Shytoshi Kusama (the latter remains the project’s lead developer).

The initial price of the coin was $0.000000001009, according to CoinMarketCap. Per the video shared by Lucie, the marketing specialist of SHIB, there were Shiba Inu tokens owned by the founders initially by default, and Ryoshi bought all his SHIB from the free market to stress the principle of equality on which, among others (such as decentralization), SHIB was founded. The video also claims that zero funds were spent on the creation and promotion of Shiba Inu into the crypto community by Ryoshi.

Happy Birthday, $Shib! 🎉🎂

Wishing you a fantastic day filled with joy and wonderful memories.

Now, let’s watch this exciting video about the journey to decentralization! 🚀📽️ Enjoy!https://t.co/kBsrrPIHUL

— 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐄 | Summer of Shibarium (@LucieSHIB) July 31, 2023

Shiba Inu was also launched on the Ethereum chain. At the end of May 2022, Ryoshi deleted all of his social media accounts and went under the radar, similar to the move made by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto in 2010.

Shytoshi Kusama now remains at the head of the SHIB team, which is about to launch the Layer 2 network Shibarium. After that, according to his recent tweets, Shytoshi will also step down from his role of the leader as SHIB will be totally run by the community.