Yi He, co-CEO and co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has been included in the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women 2026 list. The company noted that she is the first representative from the crypto industry to make it onto this prestigious list.
We’re incredibly proud to see @heyibinance recognized in @FortuneMagazine’s Most Powerful Women in Business list. 👏
Yi’s vision and leadership have helped shape Binance, and her inclusion marks the first time a crypto-native executive has been named to this iconic list.
— Binance (@binance) May 27, 2026
The Fortune Most Powerful Women list has been published since 1998 and features the 100 most influential women in global business.
“I am proud of this recognition, and it strengthens my commitment to the 310 million people who trust Binance every day, including a son in Nairobi sending his salary to his mother and a woman in a small Indian town opening her first account at 50. Finance has never been equally accessible to everyone,” said Binance co-founder Yi He.
Born in 1986 in Yibin, Sichuan Province, China, to a family of teachers, Yi He co-founded the cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin (now OKX) with Star Xu in March 2014. That same year, after meeting Changpeng Zhao (CZ) at a local conference, she invited him to become the CTO of OKCoin. Both Yi and CZ left OKCoin in 2015.
In 2017, CZ invited her to join the new cryptocurrency exchange Binance as a consultant. At that time, Yi was working at Yizhibo and initially helped draft the white paper for Binance's $15 million ICO. She officially joined the company on August 8 of that year.
In 2023, Bloomberg named her the most influential woman in the crypto industry.
In December 2025, Yi He was appointed co-CEO alongside Richard Teng. This dual leadership model combines her product and marketing expertise with Teng's regulatory experience.
Previously, Binance held a global online conference, Binance Online, where Yi He and Richard Teng discussed the exchange's scaling strategy.