Binance co-founder and co-CEO Yi He has been named No. 64 on Fortune’s 2026 Most Powerful Women in Business list, giving one of crypto’s most influential executives a place among global leaders from finance, technology, retail, media and industry.
The recognition arrives during a wider leadership reset at Binance, where Yi now shares the top executive role with Richard Teng. Binance’s leadership profile lists her as co-CEO and co-founder, with responsibility across several major business units, including HR, marketing, global communications, customer support and product lines such as Binance Earn, Binance Square and Binance Academy.
Yi’s rise matters because Binance is not a niche crypto startup anymore. It remains one of the largest exchange brands in digital assets, with global spot and derivatives liquidity, retail distribution, institutional flows, Web3 products and a large education footprint. That gives its leadership decisions a wider market impact than internal corporate appointments at smaller platforms.
Fortune’s ranking also reflects how crypto leadership is moving into mainstream business recognition. For years, the sector’s public face was dominated by founders, traders, venture investors and regulatory clashes. Yi’s inclusion puts exchange operations, user growth, brand strategy and product execution into the same leadership conversation as traditional finance and big tech.
Binance Leadership Enters A More Institutional Phase
Yi became co-CEO in December 2025, when Binance formalized a dual leadership structure alongside Teng. The move gave Binance a more visible split between regulatory-facing management and the user-focused product culture that helped the exchange scale.
That balance remains important. Binance has spent the past two years operating under heavier regulatory expectations after its U.S. settlement and Changpeng Zhao’s exit from the CEO role. The company’s current strategy depends on keeping liquidity deep while proving that compliance, governance and local market access can improve without weakening its global trading franchise.
The same tension is already visible in regional expansion. Binance’s recent Philippines comeback through BlockShoals showed how the exchange is using regulated local partnerships rather than simply reopening direct access in sensitive markets. That model fits a broader shift across major crypto exchanges as they move from fast global growth toward licensing, sandbox approvals and jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction compliance.
Yi’s Fortune ranking does not change Binance’s regulatory position on its own, but it strengthens the company’s mainstream leadership profile at a time when crypto exchanges are competing for institutional trust. For the industry, the listing is another sign that crypto executives are no longer being measured only by token cycles or trading volume. They are being judged by governance, user scale, compliance resilience and the ability to keep global platforms operating through political and regulatory pressure.
Be the first to comment