Written by: Clow

On November 21, 2023, Zhao Changpeng walked into the Seattle Federal Court in a suit, admitting to violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act.

He is not a Wall Street financial criminal, not a Ponzi scheme operator, nor has he embezzled even a penny of client assets. But he did not complete registration in the U.S. while knowing that Binance served U.S. users. For this, he became the first person in U.S. history to go to jail for a BSA registration violation.

Four months in prison. A fine of $4.3 billion. Resignation as CEO of Binance.

Now, he has published a book called "Binance Life." The subtitle is "Memoir of Luck, Resilience, and Protecting Users." Ray Dalio wrote a recommendation, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said the book "shares the key concepts that shape life paths," and even the King of Bhutan came to support him.

The scale is not small. A memoir written by the party involved certainly carries his perspective and stance. What does it talk about, and what does it selectively skip over?

We opened the book, attempting to sort out some elements from CZ's narration. Through his filter, but not lacking in genuine details.

01 From Well Water to Wall Street: The Standard Script of an Immigrant

CZ was born in Qingkou Town, Ganyu County, Jiangsu Province. There was no running water, and the nearest well was three hundred meters away; his mother carried a yoke back and forth several times a day. There was no electricity, and in the lower grades of elementary school, he did his homework under a kerosene lamp at night. When he was five, the adults in the village hung light bulbs, and he felt he saw magic.

These details are written very restrained in the book, without deliberate embellishment. But objectively, they do construct a clear narrative starting point: I come from the most basic level.

At the age of twelve, he immigrated to Canada with his family. His father spent 400 Canadian dollars on a Datsun that could fall apart at any time. His mother worked as a seamstress in a garment factory, leaving at seven in the morning and returning at seven in the evening. On his fourteenth birthday, CZ applied for a job at McDonald's with an hourly wage of 4.5 Canadian dollars. At sixteen, he worked a night shift at a gas station for twelve dollars an hour.

Later, he graduated from McGill University with a degree in computer science and joined Bloomberg to develop futures trading systems. By twenty-five, he led a team of sixty people. When he left in 2005, his total bonus and salary amounted to 390,000 dollars. For a twenty-eight-year-old, that was already quite a decent income.

Then he went to Shanghai and co-founded a fintech company with five foreigners. The book describes quite a few details about doing business in China: securing deals through drinking, his foreign partners getting so drunk they vomit, renting the most expensive office at Hang Lung Plaza but not making any money. These segments indeed show a spirit of self-deprecation.

This experience is not particularly special. A smart immigrant boy changes his fate through studying and working, earns money on Wall Street, and then ventures into emerging markets. There are thousands of such stories in Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

What truly deviated CZ’s life trajectory from the norm was a meal in the summer of 2013.

02 Sell House to Buy Coins: Madness or Foresight?

In July 2013, at a card game with friends in Shanghai, investor Cao Darong casually mentioned, "There's a new thing called Bitcoin; you should take a look."

A few days later, CZ had dinner with angel investor Li Qiyuan. Li’s advice was straightforward: "Convert 10% of your assets into Bitcoin. There’s a small chance it’ll go to zero and you'll lose 10%. But there’s a high chance it’ll grow tenfold, and you’ll double your worth."

CZ took it to heart. But what he did was much more aggressive than "10%."

He first left the company he ran for eight years, Fuxin. CEO and largest shareholder Mike Alfant gave him a choice: leave but give up all equity. Eight years of accumulation, down to zero.

Then he began selling his apartment in Pudong, Shanghai. In January 2014, after receiving the funds from the sale, he started buying Bitcoin in substantial amounts, at an average price of about 600 dollars.

Within a month, Mt. Gox collapsed, and Bitcoin plunged to 200 dollars. The money he had just sold his house for shrank by two-thirds.

The book mentions his mother often scolding him: "Why can't you do a respectable job like your sister? You were doing well in a big company, why do you have to go start a business and get into Bitcoin?"

CZ uses this experience to illustrate his unique understanding of risk: "Not participating is the greater risk—potentially missing the biggest opportunity in my personal effective era."

This logic indeed holds up in hindsight. But it’s worth mentioning: most people who sold their homes and went all-in in 2014 did not become CZ. Survivor bias is a natural blind spot of memoirs, and this book is no exception.

03 Five Months as the World’s Number One: Luck or Skill?

At noon on July 14, 2017, Binance launched.

CZ described a vividly visual scene in the book: as the countdown ended, the screen was filled with sell orders but no buy orders. The price of BNB continued to drop. The excitement in the office instantly turned into silence.

The next three weeks were filled with criticism. The price of BNB continued to fall, and people in the community were daily cursing CZ and his ancestors. His response was to persist in broadcasting live every day, where he was constantly insulted in the comments but did not hide. "I just wanted the community to see: I am here, we are here, and we are working on building."

Five months later, Binance became the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume in the world.

This speed is indeed astonishing. But it’s essential to note the background: the second half of 2017 was the peak of the ICO frenzy, and the entire market was crazily expanding. Binance seized a historic window of opportunity.

The book mentions some even more interesting details. For example, the ICO white paper was rushed out in two weeks, and CZ had only been exposed to the concept of ICO for two weeks. Another example is the allocation of BNB tokens: 10% to angel investors, 50% for public sale, and 40% reserved for the team, which later evolved into a plan for buybacks as the business developed and transaction fees were sufficient for operations.

There was also a crucial decision: Binance only engages in cryptocurrency-to-cryptocurrency trading and does not touch fiat currency. This granted it great flexibility in the gray areas of global regulation but also sowed the seeds for all compliance issues later on.

In September 2017, when the ban came down from China, Binance moved to Japan. Later, it moved again, beginning its true "global wandering." No headquarters, no traditional bank accounts, salaries all paid in Bitcoin. The book describes this as "a pioneering model of light-asset operation," but critics say it represents a deliberate avoidance of regulation.

Both statements hold validity. Or rather, they describe two sides of the same thing.

04 FTX, Regulation, and $4.3 Billion

The section in the book about FTX is worth a close read.

CZ wrote that before FTX's collapse in 2022, he had stated in an internal management meeting: "If we save FTX, we are saving the industry and helping ourselves." However, he did not anticipate that the SBF team would leave one after another and that they would not even receive a complete balance sheet within 24 hours.

This narrative emphasizes that while he had the willingness to intervene, the objective conditions did not allow it. However, Binance previously publicly announced the sale of FTT on Twitter, which objectively accelerated FTX's crisis of trust, a detail that the book touches on lightly.

The Department of Justice negotiations in 2023 are the most tense part of the book. CZ describes a suffocating process:

Initially, the Department of Justice demanded a fine of $6.8 billion, along with additional charges of money laundering and financing terrorism. The legal team immediately requested evidence from the other side. The result? "They were unable to produce evidence from start to finish because I had not done what they accused me of."

During the negotiations, the Department of Justice issued multiple ultimatums: "If you do not agree, we will stop negotiations and file charges against you directly. You must appear in court; otherwise, we will issue a red notice."

The final fine settled at $4.3 billion. CZ personally was fined $50 million plus a $100 special criminal penalty. Four months of imprisonment.

Judge Richard Jones said a few words in court, which CZ quoted in full:

"I have reviewed all the materials submitted by both sides, and there is no evidence that the defendant was aware of any specific transaction or knew that someone was trading with illicit proceeds on Binance."

"There is no evidence showing that the defendant was informed or had any awareness that these funds might be from illegal activities."

"To be honest, I am very confident that your chances of re-offending are extremely low. The court will not impose any regulatory measures on you."

These words are indeed part of the public court records and can be verified. However, it is worth noting: the judge's positive remarks do not contradict CZ's admission of violation. He did indeed break registration rules; he just did not engage in more serious fraud or money laundering.

What’s even more intriguing is the contrast mentioned in the book: BNP Paribas had handled transactions worth billions of dollars for sanctioned countries, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and pleaded guilty to a fine of $8.9 billion. But in those cases, "the U.S. government never prosecuted any individuals."

CZ is the first. Smaller scale, lighter charges, but he went to jail. This is the unfairness he repeatedly emphasizes in the book. Whether it is reasonable or not, everyone can make their own judgment.

05 The CEO in Prison and the "Educator" After Release

CZ wrote the first draft of this book in prison. The computer he used couldn’t copy and paste; to adjust paragraphs, he had to retype everything, "just like an old typewriter." He also couldn’t connect to the internet and relied entirely on memory.

He said what he missed most in prison was people. "I didn’t miss work. I didn’t miss parties or any luxuries. What I truly missed were family and friends."

After being released, he started Giggle Academy, a free education platform. The goal is to digitize and freely provide all curricula from elementary to secondary school. The book states a set of data: globally, there are 800 million illiterate adults, of which two-thirds are women, and there are 300 to 500 million children who have not attended school.

"If I can help even 10% of these 1.3 billion people, it can improve the lives of 130 million."

On October 23, 2025, about a year after his release, President Trump granted him a full and unconditional pardon.

When the news was announced, CZ was on a flight to Kyrgyzstan and hastily wrote a few words expressing his gratitude on X.

This pardon does not refund the already paid $4.3 billion fine nor compensate for Binance's losses in the U.S. and global business. But CZ said, "This means a lot to me"—it restored his reputation.

06 Conclusion

This is the story CZ wanted to tell. From the countryside to the cryptocurrency empire, from the courtroom to prison, from admission of guilt to pardon. The narrative arc is nearly perfect: suffering, rise, fall, rebirth.

But a memoir is ultimately a memoir. In the book's disclaimer, he himself wrote: "The content is based on the author’s personal memory, understanding, and perspective. Given the passage of time and the subjectivity of memory, some details may be inaccurate."

He did not write much about Binance’s initial proactive choices regarding compliance—failing to register was not negligence but a strategy. He also did not elaborate on the decision-making process behind the tweet that triggered FTX. The description of He Yi is filled with warmth, but there is almost no discussion of the complex relationship between the two in terms of power division within Binance.

At 49, CZ says he is "not young, but not too old," with resources, influence, and time. He now focuses most of his energy on education.

His last sentence in the book is: "When you can do, you must do."

How to view this book, everyone will have their own answer. But this person who came from the rural area of Jiangsu has indeed accomplished quite a bit.

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