Title: Jordan, PAnews

Partial reference: The New York Times

On April 30th local time, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington held a hearing, where Judge Richard Jones announced a four-month imprisonment for Zhao Changpeng, the former CEO of Binance—thus, the long-awaited case of Zhao Changpeng, which has attracted great attention from both inside and outside the cryptocurrency industry, finally came to a conclusion.

Why did Zhao Changpeng receive such a lenient sentence?

In fact, Zhao Changpeng is very different from FTX founder SBF, as Binance and its founder Zhao Changpeng did not embezzle customer funds. Furthermore, compared to SBF, who did not surrender to the court and chose to conduct a foolish defense trial, Zhao Changpeng reached a plea agreement early on, agreeing to pay a fine of up to $4.3 billion and expressing remorse.

During the 2.5-hour sentencing hearing, the 47-year-old billionaire Zhao Changpeng was no longer just an ordinary criminal defendant, but a philanthropist, a doer of good deeds, a first-time offender, and a family man. He surrendered and accepted everything that might happen. Zhao Changpeng's "good guy" reputation influenced the judge's final ruling. In contrast to the U.S. Department of Justice's strong recommendation of a three-year sentence for Zhao Changpeng, the judge ultimately handed down an extremely light sentence of four months.

Judge Richard Jones stated that he had read all 161 letters submitted, emphasizing the importance of understanding who Zhao Changpeng is. He also mentioned that he had never seen so many letters, not only from family members but also from people who had known Zhao Changpeng for a long time. Richard Jones pointed out that these letters depicted a figure driven by drive, passion, and determination. Zhao Changpeng risked all of his net worth just to make Binance successful. The letters clearly showed that Zhao Changpeng is dedicated to his family and cited examples of Binance's charitable work.

Ultimately, Judge Richard Jones rejected the U.S. Department of Justice's recommendation of a 36-month sentence and announced a four-month imprisonment for Zhao Changpeng. The U.S. Probation Office will confirm the start date of Zhao Changpeng's sentence, and Zhao Changpeng stated in court that he would accept any day as the start of his sentence.

Compared to FTX founder SBF, Zhao Changpeng's fate is obviously much better. SBF was convicted of fraud for allegedly misusing $8 billion of customer funds and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March this year. In response, former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission official John Reed Stark stated that a brief four-month imprisonment is only a small price for a billionaire like Zhao Changpeng.

Has Zhao Changpeng already started planning for life after prison?

With a four-month prison sentence, it may just be a minor episode in Zhao Changpeng's life story. Even before the verdict was announced, Zhao Changpeng had already begun building a network of contacts across the United States to plan his next move.

After admitting to money laundering in November 2023, Zhao Changpeng did not sit idly by. Although he cannot return to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, he can still freely travel in the United States, allowing him ample time to travel across the country, establish connections with local entrepreneurs, and lay the groundwork for his next move.

According to disclosed information, Zhao Changpeng had a casual dinner with a former U.S. senator in Montana in November, and also visited the town of Telluride in Colorado and a vacation resort in Utah. More importantly, Zhao Changpeng also met with Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI.

Last month, Zhao Changpeng announced that he would launch a new project to promote online education. He also expressed interest in investing in artificial intelligence and biotechnology. Two sources revealed that Zhao Changpeng had exchanged contact information with Sam Altman as early as the end of last year and discussed adjustments when expanding globally in a startup company.

Insiders revealed that Zhao Changpeng met with Sam Altman about a year ago and was in contact with him during the leadership transition period at OpenAI in November 2023. A month later, in December 2023, Zhao Changpeng had hot pot with Gu Ronghui, a professor in the computer science department at Columbia University and co-founder of CertiK, in Los Angeles. Gu Ronghui confirmed in an interview that Zhao Changpeng had been in touch with Sam Altman and both believed that artificial intelligence would greatly help in the development of technology and human knowledge (CertiK is a Web3 security company funded by Binance). Zhao Changpeng also revealed that he is currently "looking for opportunities" to invest in and support large-scale data centers for AI applications.

As of now, Zhao Changpeng and representatives from OpenAI have declined to comment on their meeting with Sam Altman.

On the other hand, in a letter submitted to the court, Zhao Changpeng revealed that he had been in talks with some biotechnology startups in recent months and planned to focus on disease prevention as the next chapter of his life's work. Zhao Changpeng said, "I want to help fund small research labs with the aim of curing diseases once and for all, and using blockchain technology to provide medical services to billions of people around the world."

In March of this year, Zhao Changpeng announced on X platform that he is launching a project called Giggle Academy, a free online learning platform for children. A seven-page "concept document" has been released on the Giggle Academy website, stating that the platform will involve artificial intelligence, automation, and NFT digital collectibles. It is reported that Giggle Academy is not for profit, and Zhao Changpeng is recruiting a small team to work directly with him—this means that once Zhao Changpeng is released from prison, he is likely to be involved in this work, and may even achieve it within a year.

How did the market react to Zhao Changpeng's four-month sentence?

During Zhao Changpeng's hearing, BNB saw an increase and is currently maintaining around $580, with the 24-hour decline narrowing to 2.8% at the time of writing.

 
On the other hand, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance itself does not seem to have been affected by Zhao Changpeng's trial. According to Coingecko data, at the time of writing, Binance is still the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with a trading volume of over $23 billion in the past 24 hours, about 4.6 times the trading volume of the second-place Bybit at about $5 billion. In addition, Binance's platform has a monthly visit volume of 101 million, about 2.5 times the 39.1 million platform visits of Bybit.

 
With the "boot dropping" of the verdict, Zhao Changpeng's case finally came to a close. Perhaps due to a fondness for the number "4," the four-month sentence seems to be a result that both Zhao Changpeng and the broader crypto community can accept, and it can even be said to be a "good result."

After the verdict, Zhao Changpeng's wife, He Yi, replied with just two words on social media: "Got it." Perhaps everyone understands.

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