Tao Zhu, Golden Finance

Abstract

On April 8, 2026, Binance founder CZ posted on social media that his autobiographical memoir "Freedom of Money" has been released online in some countries. The first draft of the book was written in prison on a broken laptop over four months, and the overall editing time was even longer, nearly half a year.

1. Introduction to the main contents of "Binance Life"

Amazon fully describes the content of the autobiographical memoir on the product page:

In "Binance Life", Changpeng Zhao (CZ) - a well-known entrepreneur - tells his extraordinary life story in a combination of memoir and manifesto: from his childhood in rural China, living in a house with dirt floors and no running water, to After immigrating to Canada as a teenager, he co-founded Binance with a few friends in 2017, growing it from a small company to a platform with 300 million users, and eventually becoming the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with a valuation expected to reach $100 billion by 2026.

This book takes readers behind the scenes of the explosive growth of cryptocurrencies, documenting the high-stakes challenges CZ experienced as the industry faced volatility, scandals, and increasing geopolitical pressure. CZ provides a first-person perspective on the key decisions and guiding principles that propel Binance beyond its competitors. He also shared his unique insights on attracting top talent, inspiring highly engaged employees, and driving continuous innovation, emphasizing the importance of transparency and prioritizing client interests, especially in a market that many believe exchanges are saturated. He provides an in-depth look at the workings of Binance and the cryptocurrency industry, and shares his thoughts on the critical role cryptocurrencies play in expanding access to financial services around the world, especially for the many people in developing countries who lack access to traditional banking services.
He has faced controversies—including the collapse of FTX and its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as the increasing politicization of industry regulatory scrutiny—with an unabashed account of how he has been investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other U.S. federal regulators. In early 2023, he was accused of violating the Bank Secrecy Act by not completing the necessary paperwork when Binance allowed U.S. users to use its platform in the early days, and whether one of Binance's compliance programs was valid under U.S. law. It is often overlooked that Binance did not actually operate within the United States at the time, and other countries believed that the United States violated international law by trying to regulate the activities of non-U.S. citizens abroad, such as in the cryptocurrency space. No allegations of fraud or money laundering were made.

After his lawyer assured him that no one had ever been criminally prosecuted for violating the act and that he would not be jailed, he voluntarily flew to the United States to plead guilty. Binance eventually paid a $4.3 billion fine, and Changpeng Zhao was personally fined $150 million and sentenced to four months in prison. Most of the book was written in prison. After his release from prison, he was detained by the Department of Homeland Security for overstaying his visa, despite the fact that he had overstayed because he was ordered to remain in the United States, despite his own objections, and was incarcerated. His experience is both shocking and fascinating...

2. Eight turning events that affect CZ’s life direction

Owned an x286 computer at the age of 1.13

When I was thirteen years old, my father took me to a computer store and bought an x286 computer for $7,000 Canadian dollars. This is equivalent to seven full months of his income. Now that I think about it, my father is very good at planning expenses. It was the most expensive computer my father and I had ever bought in our lives, but looking back now, it was money well spent. Without that computer, I might not be where I am today.

CZ changed his major from biology to computer science in college. Data insertion, sorting, search algorithms, efficiency analysis, etc. help CZ better understand engineers. It also paved the way for CZ’s future career to take off.

2. Leave Bloomberg and return to Shanghai

On November 6, 2005, just four years after I took office, I officially resigned from Bloomberg after receiving my year-end bonus. That year, my bonus was as high as $140,000, and with annual salary, my total income was $390,000. In 2005, that was high for a 28-year-old.

On November 20, 2005, I arrived in Shanghai, preparing to found a financial technology company with five foreigners. (Fuxun Shanghai)

When he first returned to Shanghai, CZ hoped to work with foreigners to develop a trading system for the Chinese financial market and sell it to local securities firms, but was rejected by Chinese securities firms and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. As a result, the company transformed into a comprehensive IT service provider and successively served companies such as Shanghai General Motors, Shanghai Volkswagen, and Shanghai FAW.

After the business stabilized, branches were established in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and San Francisco. And returned to its previous core business in overseas markets, developing low-latency trading systems for securities firms. These development experiences laid a solid foundation for subsequent entry into the field of cryptocurrency exchanges.

3. Selling a house and buying coins

In 2007, I scraped together my last savings and bought a three-bedroom apartment in Pudong, Shanghai. The down payment for a 150-square-meter house not only used up all the savings, but also borrowed money from relatives and took out a loan.

That house holds so many memories: teaching the children roller skating, learning to swim, and holding birthday parties. From an investment perspective, this house has doubled in five years, so it is indeed worth it. But then I encountered the "thousand-mile horse" of Bitcoin, so I decisively sold my house and invested everything in it.

In December 2013, I officially left Fuxin and started selling houses in Pudong. At this time, the price of Bitcoin had soared to US$1,000, more than ten times higher than when Li Qiyuan and I were having dinner. Here’s the thing: I haven’t even started buying Bitcoin yet. I just bought some tentatively, but it was still far from his recommended "allocate 10% of assets".

In February 2014, Mt. Gox collapsed, and Bitcoin plummeted to $200, where it remained sideways for a year and a half. I just sold my house for the equivalent of two-thirds less money.

Buying Bitcoin opened up CZ’s legendary Binance life.

After leaving Fuxin, CZ began to officially look for opportunities in the Bitcoin industry. I experienced KNC mining machines, tried the Bitcoin cash machine market, and declined Bitcoin China’s invitation.

CZ finally chose to join Blockchain Info - the company became the leader in Bitcoin browser and wallet services before it had a business license.

Later on, I had the experience of joining OKCoin as requested by He Yi and working as an exchange system supplier.

4. The Yubi Card trading platform is banned and Binance rises

Around April 2015, Yang Linke, the co-founder of Bitcoin China, contacted me from Shanghai and said that he wanted to build a stamp and currency card trading platform, specializing in trading stamps, physical coins and collectible cards. At that time, China's postal and currency cards were booming, and the daily transaction volume of the largest platform had exceeded US$200 million. It was a new trend.

Between 2015 and 2017, we signed more than 30 exchange customers. Everyone pays a monthly service fee, and the business is stable and thriving. But in March 2017, the Chinese government issued a ban requiring the closure of all postal and currency card exchanges. In March, we signed up six new customers; by April, we had no new customers; by May, most of our existing customers had stopped paying, and our business was in crisis.

After the stamp card was banned, CZ officially started its crypto exchange journey. Finally, Binance, a landmark super platform, was built.

On June 1, 2017, Yang Linke brought the concept of ICO to CZ. On June 17, the CZ team completed the first draft of the ICO white paper in Chinese and English. On June 23, the first round of ICO started, and the server crashed instantly.

After the success of the ICO, even though the price of BNB plummeted 60%, He Yi still chose to join Binance.

On July 14, Binance was launched as scheduled.

On August 8, Binance announced that He Yi officially joined the team. The price of BNB quickly stopped falling and recovered, and rebounded strongly by 40% from the low point in the early morning of the next day, returning to above the issue price. On August 29, BNB hit a maximum of $2.9, which was 29 times the ICO price.

5. China ban

On Sunday, September 3, 2017, as usual, we were busy in the office all day and didn’t leave until around 11pm. On the way home, I heard rumors that there would be a "major overhaul" the next day. He Yiye just left the office, called me in the middle of the night, and confirmed the rumors of rectification from different channels.

At 12:30 in the morning, we convened the core team for a conference call. After sorting out the information from all parties, it was decided that He Yi, Heina, and I would go abroad first, while the others would stay in Shanghai temporarily.

The Chinese ban allowed Binance to embark on an overseas journey, laying the foundation for its growth into a huge crypto empire spanning Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States in the following years.

After the domestic ban was issued, CZ decided to move the entire team to Tokyo. By the end of September 2017, Binance was already among the top ten exchanges in the world. On December 17 of the same year, Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

On March 23, 2018, Binance received a warning from the Japan Financial Services Agency: Binance does not have an operating license in Japan.

What is extremely dramatic is that two hours after receiving the warning, the Prime Minister of Malta tweeted: Welcome Binance to Malta.

Since then, CZ has promoted cryptocurrency in Togo, Uganda, Bermuda, Liechtenstein and other places.

6.Dubai Visa

I arrived in Dubai on the evening of Friday, September 30, 2021. A meeting was arranged that day, and I was going to meet with His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy of the United Arab Emirates. In Islamic culture, Friday and Saturday are weekends. So the minister took the time to see me on Friday night, which made me admire his professionalism. On the same day, he offered to help me apply for a Dubai Golden Visa.

Since then, CZ can enter and exit the UAE freely. In March 2022, Binance received in-principle approval for exchange registration in the United Arab Emirates, which is the first step in obtaining a license. In the same month, Binance obtained a Bahrain exchange license.

On December 8, 2025, Binance announced that it had obtained a full regulatory license from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), and its global platform will officially operate under the international regulatory framework of ADGM.

7.FTX goes bankrupt

On November 2, 2022, CoinDesk reported that FTX may go bankrupt, the market began to panic, and FTT prices began to fall.

SBF sent me a message: "Is our relationship so bad that we don't even talk?" I said we can talk. He called and talked in a roundabout way, saying he needed "billions of dollars." He went around and around for a long time, and finally said that FTX had a "liquidity crisis" and was willing to sell it entirely to Binance.

After FTX went bankrupt, the Binance team made a 100% reserve certificate. In December of that year, users began to withdraw money from Binance. On December 10, a single-day net withdrawal amount of US$1 billion was recorded; on the 14th, it was US$7 billion. In just one week, 14 billion US dollars of assets were withdrawn, and Binance withstood this large-scale run. It proves the strength of Binance to everyone and enhances user trust.

8. Binance was sued by the US SEC

On February 13, 2023, the U.S. SEC sued Binance, believing that BUSD is a security.

On June 5, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the Biden administration took Binance Main Station, Binance US, and myself to court. They listed 13 charges at once. It is claimed that BNB, BUSD, financial management, BNB Vault, and staking are all securities, and it also accuses Binance US of misappropriating customers' money like FTX. This is pure nonsense, they prosecuted without any evidence.

Exactly two years later, on May 30, 2025, the SEC withdrew all previous charges and stated "with prejudice". That is to say, the SEC cannot sue Binance and myself for the same reason again, because the original accusation has been proved to be untenable.

Although the lawsuit was withdrawn two years later, our business and users have suffered huge losses in the past two years.

Back in 2023, on June 6, the day after they sued, the SEC applied to the court for a temporary injunction, requesting the freezing of all assets of Binance US and myself, on the grounds that it was to protect users. But in fact, once frozen, all users’ money will not be able to be withdrawn within a few years, which is a harm to users. And they just don't care.

We disagree with these allegations. Their goal is clear: kill Binance US.

This lawsuit has a huge impact on Binance’s U.S. and global business. Banks have stopped cooperating with Binance. Binance's US trading volume dropped from 35% of Coinbase's global trading volume (about half of its US trading volume) to 1% within a month, and it has not slowed down until now (2026). Binance’s U.S. headcount dropped from 500 to 50.

Later, CZ flew to the United States to voluntarily plead guilty on November 20, 2023, resigned as Binance CEO, personally paid a fine of US$150 million, and served four months in federal prison; Binance paid a fine of US$4.3 billion and underwent three years of independent supervision.

Subsequently, CZ thought about what could have the greatest positive impact? In the end, he decided to create a free education platform that could be used around the world.

CZ was issued three detention orders by ICE during his four-month incarceration. In the last 14 days, my visa expired because I was serving a sentence in the United States. ICE took three months to deny an extension application.

On the day he was released from prison, it only took 26 minutes from the time he walked out of the detention center to the time the plane took off. It wasn't until he flew out of U.S. airspace that CZ finally relaxed a little.

The plane finally landed in the United Arab Emirates. This was the first time in 11 months that I was truly free. The moment I held my children and my family again, I felt true happiness.

What I really miss is people. I miss my family and friends. I realized that the people around me are the most important.

Now that I'm free, I won't miss them anymore.

On May 29, 2025, the U.S. SEC officially dropped all lawsuits against Binance Global, Binance America, and myself. This ended years of hostile oversight during the Gary Gensler era.

The SEC’s lawsuit originally had 13 items two years ago, including fraud charges, securities violations, and temporary injunctions to freeze assets. Later, it was changed to securities issues with only 8 tokens left, and then it was changed to charges that only BNB was a security, until finally, all were dropped.

Conclusion

From rural China to the CEO of the world's largest crypto exchange; from voluntarily pleading guilty and serving a sentence in the United States to writing a memoir behind bars, CZ's life seems to have no upper limit and no end.

"Binance Life" is not only a personal review, but also a true record of the era, technology and the boundaries of power.

On one side is the extreme freedom that advocates in the encrypted world, and on the other side is the ruthless squeeze from central power.

CZ was once "guilty" and "not guilty" again. Freedom and wealth can be fleeting, but a firm belief is always a real asset that cannot be taken away.