Editor's Note: Fortune recently interviewed He Yi, co-founder of Binance, covering her efforts in crypto, the situations He Yi faced with CZ at Binance and after leaving Binance. Odaily is republishing the original article.

In the 1980s, when He Yi was a little girl, she had to fetch water from a well and sometimes relied on kerosene lamps for lighting. Now, He Yi has become a celebrity for millions of Chinese people and a billionaire with a 10% stake in the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance. As a co-founder and executive, she wields enormous influence at Binance. However, her life has not been easy.

CZ, another Binance co-founder, was imprisoned in the US last year after a $4.3 billion plea agreement. This situation posed significant business challenges for Binance and He Yi, and for He Yi personally, CZ's imprisonment was a painful experience, as CZ was not only the company's CEO but also the father of her young child.

Today, Binance has overcome its difficulties. CZ has completed his sentence. CZ's plea could have paralyzed most companies, but Binance remains the world's largest crypto exchange. He Yi played a crucial role in Binance's development, and after wielding power behind the scenes for years, she is now stepping forward to publicly manage Binance.

In this rare interview, He Yi told Fortune about her journey from a poor rural girl to a crypto billionaire, the trials she experienced during the Binance crisis, and shared her vision for an industry rapidly transforming global finance.

Chief Customer Service, Down-to-Earth He Yi

In her life and career, He Yi overcame many obstacles, one of which was learning English. She only started learning English in her early thirties, four years ago. During a long Zoom interview, she performed well, only seeking help from her translator when struggling to explain a Chinese idiom or proverb.

He Yi understands the power of communication. At Binance, she is known for her exceptional marketing and customer service skills, which helped Binance become the world's largest trading platform in less than a year. To this day, she takes pride in listening to customers on Telegram, X, WeChat, and any other platform where Binance customers might be found, and insists that other Binance employees do the same. She is known for requiring everyone who joins Binance to work in customer service for several weeks.

In the interview, He Yi discussed a recent incident involving a college student who mistakenly sent $500 worth of crypto to the wrong wallet—a common error in the crypto world that usually means funds cannot be recovered. However, He Yi took the time to track and recover the mistakenly sent funds. She recalled the student telling her: "These funds are nothing to you, but they are everything to me."

He Yi stated that, given her experience growing up in a poor family in Sichuan Province, she could empathize with such experiences. She lost her father at 9 and would spend long hours selling soft drinks outside supermarkets at 16. Although she eventually went to college (pausing to recall the joy of first entering a library) and became a TV host, she said her background means she can still resonate with many of Binance's lower-income customers.

He Yi's story is reminiscent of Jennifer Lopez's song "Jenny From the Block," which tells of a beautiful woman who remains down-to-earth even after achieving success—a narrative Americans are fond of.

However, Trust Wallet CEO Eowyn Chen (who previously worked with He Yi at Binance) says this is not the case in China. Eowyn Chen believes Chinese people are less likely to support the underdog and more likely to mock those who rise above their status. He Yi is often the subject of articles and social media ridicule attempting to belittle and mock her, but her response is to return negative comments to those spreading them.

She tells people: "Of course, I came from a poor background, but I'm successful. Why can't you do the same?"

Described by Bloomberg as the "most influential woman in crypto," He Yi has risen to the pinnacle of the blockchain world through her intelligence, fighting spirit, and confident personality—qualities she shares with co-founder and partner CZ.

Creating Binance

When CZ created Binance in 2017, he established a distinct public image under the name "CZ," now known to most people. CZ shaped the "CZ myth" by taking massive risks (like selling his Shanghai house in 2014 to buy more Bitcoin) and enthusiastically participating in the daily banter of the online community known as "Crypto Twitter".

CZ initially invited He Yi to join Binance, but He Yi had previously recruited CZ, convincing him to join OKCoin (now OKX) as CTO in 2014. Both were passionate about cryptocurrency but shared other commonalities. CZ and He Yi both spent early years in unheated rural school buildings, with CZ's situation improving only after his father immigrated to Canada, working minimum wage jobs at Chevron and McDonald's in high school. CZ also tends to clap back at those mocking his background, even sharing MEME images of himself in fast-food uniforms on Twitter.

It was during their time at OKCoin that they became a couple and accumulated experience in large crypto business operations. Today, this unmarried but romantically involved pair work closely together as both parents and business partners. The Wall Street Journal reported that He Yi and CZ jointly own Binance's venture capital arm, YZi Labs, and hold at least 10% of the parent company's shares.

Regarding her relationship with CZ, He Yi requested anonymity and provided a written statement: "My personal life is separate from my professional life. As a co-founder, my achievements and abilities are often questioned because of my personal life," she wrote, while also emphasizing Binance's 2.8 billion users.

Regardless of their personal relationship, their professional partnership has proven highly effective. He Yi's role at Binance is roughly equivalent to Sheryl Sandberg's at Facebook. Sandberg helped establish the company in its early stages while supporting the then-inexperienced CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

In practice, this means CZ plays the role of Binance's legendary spokesperson and product visionary, while He Yi drove significant growth through aggressive promotional activities, including giving away cars. Her approach appealed to overseas Chinese communities and domestic Chinese. In China, where cryptocurrency is partially banned, it remains popular, partly because it's an easily transferable asset not bound by government regulations.

An unnamed Binance employee described He Yi as a strict boss who also supports employees and speaks up for those around her. Discussing Binance's daily operations, He Yi stated that the company's core principle is "founder culture," a tech industry term describing companies that maintain their early startup spirit.

For Binance, its early development benefited from its willingness to quickly circumvent regulations and frequently move between countries under government scrutiny. While this strategy drove Binance's remarkable growth, it sometimes became the company's greatest weakness—the very reason it lost its most outstanding founder.