His rivalry with Sam Bankman-Fried nearly saw Binance save FTX from bankruptcy. Parents often want to save for their kids but make the wrong decisions, adversely affecting the savings. Centralized exchanges also set the price, pick the selection of assets on offer and make money from transaction fees. So what else do we know about Zhao and how exactly did he make his fortune? The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., also alleged that Binance and Zhao secretly control customers’ assets, allowing them to commingle and divert customer funds, and that Binance created separate U.S. The defendants showed a "blatant disregard" for federal law, they said the SEC alleged. Binance executives reportedly transferred hundreds of millions from this account to a trading platform, Merit Peak. The manager of Merit Peak was none other than Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance and great rival of Sam Bankman-Fried.