Yi He has become the first crypto-native executive to land on Fortune's Most Powerful Women in Business list, clocking in at No. 64 for 2026. The Binance co-CEO and co-founder joins a roster dominated by traditional finance and tech leaders — a recognition that signals the industry's growing mainstream clout.
The path to the list
Born in 1986 in a rural Sichuan village with no electricity or running water, Yi He lost her father at age nine and was working as a soft-drink promoter by 16. That background shaped a career that would eventually help build the world's largest crypto exchange.
In 2014, she recruited Changpeng Zhao — then a little-known developer — to join OKCoin as CTO. Three years later, the two co-founded Binance during the ICO boom. Today, the exchange employs thousands and processes billions in daily volume.
Co-CEO and the $10 billion family office
Yi He was formally named Binance co-CEO in December 2025, following the company's $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. regulators in 2023. She holds about 10% of Binance through a holding company; CZ reportedly owns nearly 90%.
Beyond the exchange, she runs YZi Labs, a family office managing over $10 billion across 300-plus portfolio companies in Web3, AI, and biotech. The scope is unusual for a crypto executive — more akin to a multistrategy investment firm.
User-first philosophy, baked into hiring
One quirk of Yi He's management: every new Binance employee, regardless of seniority, must work a stint in customer support. It's a direct outgrowth of her user-first ethos, and a reminder that the exchange has faced its share of service hiccups as it scaled.
The Fortune nod caps a long arc from rural Sichuan to the top of global business. What comes next for Binance under her co-leadership isn't spelled out in the ranking — but the list itself makes clear that crypto's C-suite is no longer an outlier.
