For decades, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list has been the sanctuary of traditional corporate power. Leafing through its names is like peering into a mahogany-paneled boardroom: chairs of century-old banks, automotive giants, and pharmaceutical behemoths who pull the strings of the world with the solemnity of a shareholder agreement. That is why the inclusion of Yi He in 2024 is not a mere curiosity.
It is a symbolic desecration, a crack in the wall of the establishment that reveals just how much the cryptoeconomy — that rebellious creature born to unseat central banks — has been absorbed by the very system it promised to destroy. And she, as co-founder and chief marketing officer of Binance, is the high priestess of that contradiction.
Let us first get to know the character. Yi He is not a Harvard MBA or a Silicon Valley engineer. Before becoming the most powerful woman in the crypto ecosystem, she was a television host in China — a deliciously subversive biographical detail that she would later shrewdly apply to build an empire without spending almost a single dollar on traditional advertising. She joined forces with Changpeng Zhao in 2017 and, within months, transformed an unknown exchange into a Leviathan of over 200 million users.
She did it through sheer digital charisma, building a global community and a brand that breathed the countercultural spirit of the moment: no ties, no fixed headquarters, no asking for permission. While banks were spending millions on Super Bowl ads, Yi He understood that trust in the decentralized world was woven on Twitter, Telegram, and anonymous forums. That is how a giant was born.
That Fortune placed her at number 59 on its global list, rubbing shoulders with Mary Barra of General Motors and Jane Fraser of Citigroup, is a recognition of that de facto power. But the editorial decision is fascinating for what it implies: by consecrating her, Fortune legitimizes not just an executive but an entire industry that for years was considered a wild West of fraudsters and libertarians.
The magazine, a barometer of polite capitalism, is admitting that the future of money is not decided only on Wall Street, but on exchanges like Binance, which operate 24/7 under the philosophy of “move fast and break things.” Yi He is the friendly face of that disruption: a woman in a sector dominated by a “bro” culture that is often hostile to women, a leader who proves that crypto power is not measured only in lines of code but in the ability to seduce the masses.
However, to center her power on marketing alone would be a clumsy simplification. Yi He also runs Binance Labs, the exchange’s venture capital and incubation arm. This means she controls not only the message but also picks the prophets: hundreds of blockchain infrastructure projects, decentralized finance protocols, and gaming startups have passed through her filter. Her influence, therefore, is twofold and profoundly strategic.
On one hand, she shapes the narrative of what the masses understand as crypto; on the other, she silently decides which startups will receive the capital to build the next layer of the ecosystem. In a space where decentralization is the mantra, for a single person to concentrate so much communicative and financial power is a biting irony that Yi He embodies without apparent existential turmoil.
And then there is the personal dimension, the elephant in the room that the executive herself prefers to keep in the shadows. Yi He and Changpeng Zhao — CZ to the market — are romantic partners and parents of two children.
For years, while the world speculated about Binance’s leadership structure, she wielded formidable authority without being perceived merely as “the partner of.” She built a shielded, almost enigmatic professional identity that endowed her with her own legitimacy in a media environment prone to simplifying the role of women close to male power.
That is no small feat in an industry where 95 percent of the spotlights point to messianic figures like Vitalik Buterin or CZ himself. Yi He understood that real influence is more effective when it does not need to prove itself at full volume.
The true test of mettle, however, came in late 2023, when Binance pleaded guilty to violating anti-money-laundering laws in the United States, paid a record $4.3 billion fine, and CZ was forced to step down as CEO. The ship was taking on water and moral panic loomed over the exchange’s credibility.
In that critical moment, Yi He stepped forward. Without being the formal chief executive, she assumed the role of silent stabilizer: she intensified her presence on social media, got involved in renewing the internal culture, promoted regulatory compliance as a non-negotiable pillar, and participated in the strategic decisions that guided the company’s transformation.
While CZ retreated into forced ostracism, she became the face of resilience. It was not an act of romantic heroism; it was pure corporate survival executed with the same precision with which she had designed viral campaigns years earlier.
This behind-the-scenes leadership invites a more uncomfortable reflection: are we witnessing a genuine metamorphosis into a mature, regulated financial giant, or a masterful exercise in rebranding to preserve hegemony? Probably both. Yi He symbolizes the crypto sector’s ability to mimic the elites it once despised. Her presence on the Fortune list is the trophy of that metamorphosis, a complicit wink that says: “If you play by our rules — empowered women, boardrooms, compliance — we will open the doors of real power to you.“
But to applaud without reservation would be a mistake. That the crypto empire is represented by a brilliant executive cannot make us forget that Binance is the incarnation of a centralizing paradox: an entity that dominates more than 40 percent of global exchange volume in an ecosystem predicated on distrust of centralized entities.
Yi He is not the heroine of decentralization, but the architect of a narrative that has convinced millions to delegate their financial sovereignty to a platform whose decisions ultimately depend on a handful of people.
