Zhao Changpeng, founder and chief executive of Binance
Reuters

KEY POINTS

  • Binance CEO CZ revealed that Buterin once stayed in his apartment in Tokyo when the Ethereum network was not yet launched
  • CZ also said that the missed opportunity somehow fueled his drive to start Binance
  • As of 8:14 a.m. ET on Monday, Ether was trading at $1,867.44

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, the world's largest centralized crypto exchange platform by trading volume and more popularly known as CZ in the cryptocurrency world, seemingly regretted what he called the "miss of a lifetime" as he reminisced the time when Ethereum, the world's second-largest crypto asset by market capitalization was just a new player in the industry.

CZ appeared to be nostalgic over the weekend as Ethereum celebrates its 8th birthday this month when he posted a picture of himself and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and some members of the team behind the decentralized open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality.

The photo was apparently taken on May 2015, a few weeks shy before the team officially rolled out the blockchain network, when Buterin stayed at CZ's apartment in Tokyo.

The Binance CEO shared that at the time Buterin was "already working on and talking about ETH non-stop" and somehow regretted that he didn't buy Ether, saying it was "A miss of a lifetime."

But, instead of crying over spilled milk, CZ chose to look at what that missed opportunity has allowed him to achieve.

"But then again, if I had bought ETH then, I might not have had the need or drive to start Binance. Who knows," the crypto executive shared, before telling his followers, "I was 'in between jobs' (and shorts & flip flops). Life gives you not too many, but multiple chances," adding, "Work hard, don't miss the 2nd chances."

During its founding year, Ether (ETH) was mostly trading at around $1 and had CZ purchased $1,000 worth of ETH at the time, the value of his holdings would be around $1.88 million, showing a whopping over 187,000% gain.

As of 8:14 a.m. ET on Monday, Ether was trading at $1,867.44, with a 24-hour trading volume up by 84.93% at $4,808,452,443, representing a 0.48% decrease over the past 24 hours and an 0.85% increase over the past seven days.

Based on the latest data from CoinMarketCap, Ethereum's total circulating supply stands at 121,053,271 ET and its value has decreased by 0.41% with a market cap of $226,116,650,832.

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