From the perspective of word frequency in "The Life of Binance": What he cares most about is all here.

Written & organized by: KarenZ, Foresight News

In a book, word frequency serves as an honest heatmap. What is mentioned repeatedly is what truly matters.

The author used Claude to conduct word frequency statistics on the entire book of about 160,000 words, removing meaningless function words, conjunctions, and invalid words, merging synonyms, abbreviations and full names, and supplemented by manual adjustments, ultimately selecting 10 groups of keywords that truly carry narrative weight.

Binance: 509 times (seven years of endeavor)

Including the English term Binance, "币安" appeared a total of 509 times, almost throughout every page of the book.

CZ spent seven years transforming Binance from an ICO project into the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Yet, at the peak of his career, he resigned as CEO, flew to the United States to plead guilty, and spent four months behind bars. The first draft of "The Life of Binance" was typed out line by line on a computer in his cell that couldn't copy and paste, and subsequent editing took nearly six months to refine and perfect.

In CZ's narrative, "币安" represents a synonym for responsibility, a reason to persist in extreme circumstances, and is also what he refers to as "a six-year-old baby."

The book does not heap up market share and trading volume but instead presents fragments like "escaping from Shanghai to Tokyo in the dead of night," "CTO Roger developed an eye condition from long nights," and "the entire team took turns guarding the screens during a system crash for 32 hours," piecing together the fundamental color of Binance.

There is a passage in the book about the collapse of Terra/LUNA that further highlights Binance's original intention: in 2022, the value of Binance's LUNA holdings surged from $3 million to $1.6 billion, and while the team suggested selling to cash out, CZ refused. He gave three reasons: selling during market panic would worsen the stampede, the position was too large to exit quickly, and he did not want to be seen as "running away before retail investors." A few days later, the $1.6 billion position shrank to a few thousand dollars, and he wrote: "We believe that our mission is more important than short-term profits."

Bitcoin / Cryptocurrency / Blockchain: 478 times (light of faith)

Bitcoin, BTC, cryptocurrency, and blockchain appeared a total of 478 times, stretching from that pivotal game in 2013 that changed CZ's life trajectory all the way to the pardon in 2025.

CZ first heard about Bitcoin at a game. A month later, he downloaded a Bitcoin wallet, studied the Bitcoin whitepaper, and spent the whole day diving into the bitcointalk forum. With his technical background and experience on Wall Street, he quickly determined that this was worth a significant investment and sold his house in Shanghai to buy Bitcoin. Little did he expect that shortly after, Mt. Gox would collapse and Bitcoin's price would plummet, greatly reducing his personal assets, yet even so, he never wavered in his resolve to hold onto Bitcoin.

The logic behind his decision was not "this will make money," but rather "this thing makes sense"—decentralized, finite in supply, and not controlled by any government. This is the framework of a believer, not that of a speculator.

Family / Friends: 373 times (deep concerns, personal networks)

Merging the keywords "friends," "family," "father," "mother," "sister," "children," and others totals 373 times.

His father appeared 63 times in CZ's book, making him the most frequently mentioned family member. His father was the first college student from his village, but during the Cultural Revolution, he was sent down to the countryside. After the Cultural Revolution, he self-studied and passed the entrance exam for the graduate program in physics at the University of Science and Technology of China, later becoming a lecturer and then going to the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver for his PhD. His father used his PhD stipend to bring the entire family to Canada. When CZ was 13, his father spent his entire seven-month salary—7,000 Canadian dollars—to buy him an x286 computer. That computer directly led CZ into the world of programming. In the book, he wrote: "If it weren't for that computer, there might not be today's me."

After moving to Canada, his mother put down her teaching identity and worked for many years as a seamstress in a garment factory, "silently paving the way for her two children in her prime, never complaining."

His sister appeared 49 times and was the one who referred him to his first good job, having supported him with 3,000 Canadian dollars during college. Before the sentencing hearing, the probation officer specifically requested to meet with his sister, talking for over four hours, and later it was said, "his sister cried at one point, and both probation officers shed tears as well."

The companionship and support of friends were equally indispensable: Cao Darong casually mentioned Bitcoin at the card table, opening the door to a new world for him; Sean unhesitatingly bet the maximum amount in KTV, firmly supporting his entrepreneurial journey; old friend Ted called him right after seeing his ICO blog, saying, "Can I join?" and submitted his resignation letter the next day; while Eric's remark "you're wasting your life" during a meal awakened CZ, leading him to decisively give up poker games and focus on deepening his involvement in the crypto field.

In prison, CZ wrote: "What I truly care about are people. I miss my family and friends. I realize that the people around me are the most important."

Team / Employees: 363 times (fighting alongside each other)

CZ explicitly stated in the book: "For me, the biggest contribution to Binance is attracting a group of talented, passionate people and enabling them to collaborate efficiently."

CZ portrayed his founding team in great detail. In the early days, founding CTO Roger Ver (an angel investor in Blockchain Info) led the team through continuous battles, and long nights deprived Roger of sleep, leading to an eye condition from which he still can't be without eye drops; product manager Allan often stayed up until the early hours, and the trading interface he and his team developed later became a model emulated by most cryptocurrency exchanges; operations head Sunny woke up at three or four every morning to check news; Heina single-handedly managed the entire backend, from finance to legal to administration, and her husband smashed her laptop in the middle of the night, nearly destroying Binance's hot wallet that contained $500,000. Then there was He Yi, who, before joining Binance, helped CZ settle on the Chinese name "币安."

When founding Binance, CZ established a strict rule: all customer service requests must be responded to within 24 hours, without exceptions. He later reduced the response time progressively to 1 hour, 5 minutes, and then 1 minute.

After the last round of ICO ended, at the ICO price of $0.1 per token, he distributed BNB equivalent to one month's salary to each employee. Years later, a finance colleague mentioned having 50,000 BNB in his account (valued at $68 million at its historical peak), of which he was completely unaware.

Another detail is that when Russia launched missile attacks on Ukraine in February 2022, Binance had about 90 employees in Ukraine, mainly in the customer service team. Binance offered to assist employees' evacuation, and about 45 of them (half) decided to leave. The relocation costs at that time were higher and procedures more complicated, and Binance spent about $5 million in the first three months to help these employees and their families. CZ insisted: "Protecting the team is more important than money; if we do not protect our own team, how can we expect the team to protect our users?"

This commitment also earned the team’s genuine regard. At the guilty plea hearing, after the judge read 248 letters of support, he said: "I have rarely seen so many positive letters." Among them were letters jointly signed by 56 Ukrainian employees, who were colleagues of those that helped evacuate during Zhao Changpeng's war period.

During his "absence" period in 2023, after stepping down as CEO, pleading guilty in the U.S., and going to prison, Binance underwent the most extreme stress test—considering that FTX completely collapsed within 72 hours after its founder SBF's incident, while Binance not only operated steadily but also achieved continuous growth.

Users / Customers: 329 times (user protection, responsibility)

The subtitle of "The Life of Binance" is "Memoirs of Luck, Resilience, and Protecting Users," and in the book, "users" are never seen as an abstract group, but rather as the core reason behind every significant decision and a firm annotation to every cost incurred.

On September 4, 2017, seven ministries in China banned cryptocurrency exchanges, mining, and ICOs, and required project parties to refund all funds. After the announcement, BNB fell from $2.2 to $0.6 but remained six times its issuance price ($0.1). However, the other four ICO tokens on the Binance platform were trading below their issuance prices, with project parties unable to refund, creating a gap of about $6 million. Binance covered it out of its pocket, leading to over a 40% reduction in its cash reserves. At that time, the platform had only 35,000 users, which grew to 120,000 a month later, and Binance continued to be profitable from then on.

This taught CZ an important lesson: "When facing users, always choose to do what is right rather than what is easy. Protecting users will lead to success and wealth beyond expectations."

In 2019, hackers stole 7,000 Bitcoins, worth about $40 million. CZ publicly conducted 32 hours of real-time Q&A on Twitter, updating progress regularly. The book states: "Although system failures can be distressing, communicating and resolving issues openly and transparently can instead earn trust." CZ ensured that Binance fully assumed responsibility, and that user assets were unaffected.

The book also shares several cases. One was when local police in a certain country contacted Binance, requesting to freeze user assets and asking users to go to the police to pay a "fine," which was 30% of their account assets. This was essentially extortion under the guise of law enforcement. Binance found itself in a difficult position. In the end, the legal team updated the process: before freezing accounts, detailed information must be provided, and a formal court ruling must be obtained.

In another case, a college student accidentally transferred funds to a non-supported token address on Binance, and the several hundred dollars were his saved tuition. He Yi asked CZ if he could help retrieve the funds. Technically feasible but procedurally complicated, CZ did not hesitate and approved it. The book states: "I know that for users, this is never a small matter; it is their hard-earned trust."

Regulation / Government: 325 times (regulatory tug-of-war)

A significant portion of "The Life of Binance" documents the tug-of-war between Binance and the global regulatory framework.

The 325 mentions of "regulation / government" can be broken down as follows: the Department of Justice (including DOJ) 82 times, government 77 times, supervision 42 times, SEC and the Securities Regulatory Commission together 30 times, law enforcement 20 times, licenses 24 times, regulation 35 times, compliance 11 times.

This distribution indicates that CZ is facing not just one regulatory agency, but a complex regulatory ecosystem made up of multiple agencies, countries, and political cycles.

Throughout 2023, Binance was in intense negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice. CZ said he holds meetings with a dozen lawyers daily, many of whom have previously worked in government agencies like DOJ, CFTC, SEC, or FINCEN.

CZ also disclosed detailed negotiation specifics with the DOJ, initially demanding $6.8 billion, a figure that even Binance's own former DOJ lawyer could not comprehend how it was calculated. Zhao Changpeng's side first negotiated it down to $500 million, going back and forth several rounds, during which the DOJ issued multiple "final warnings," ultimately settling at $4.3 billion.

This experience, not only marks CZ's personal compromise and perseverance but serves as the most complete record of the collision between the cryptocurrency industry and regulatory power.

America: 211 times (the turning point)

From the timeline, the mention of "America" progresses as follows: in 2019, Binance announced the independent Binance US site; in June 2022, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. SEC was investigating Binance, focusing on whether the issuance of BNB tokens violated securities laws; in June 2023, the SEC filed 13 charges, covering illegal operations of trading platforms in the U.S. to the misuse of customer funds. In November of the same year, CZ flew to Seattle to plead guilty and was stuck in the U.S. for nearly six months; in April 2024, the sentencing hearing took place, resulting in four months of imprisonment; in June 2024, he entered Lompoc federal prison; on October 21, 2025, President Trump signed an unconditional pardon.

Prison / Incarceration / Cell: 179 times (depth of despair)

179 times, this density indicates that the prison chapter's length far exceeds most readers' expectations.

The book contains an image vividly illustrating CZ's state of mind during this period. He said he was most worried that, like in the song "Hotel California," "you can check in anytime you like, but you can never leave." He feared that after flying to the U.S., the DOJ would find new charges to continue detaining him. On the day he was ultimately released, as he got into the car and it drove away, the Lompoc prison building slowly disappeared from the rearview mirror, he truly realized: "I am free again."

The book detailed the entire process of his first day in prison: waiting next to the parking lot, being taken inside, strip-searched, receiving worn brown T-shirts and yellowed socks, being issued a prison ID, undergoing psychological assessment, and being taken to an area filled with tattooed muscular men, where he struggled to push open the iron barred doors—having exposed himself as a newcomer just seconds after entering.

CZ also wrote about the gang logic in prison: inmates automatically segregated by race. CZ found himself grouped among "Pacific Islanders," which included Asians, Hawaiians, and Native Americans. "So, I arrive here in less than ten minutes, and I unintentionally joined a gang?"

The book mentions that computer that couldn't copy and paste. That was the tool he used to draft this book, "If I wanted to adjust a paragraph, I had to retype it, much like using an old typewriter."

There was also a cellmate named Michael Santos, sentenced to 45 years for drug possession but served only 26, published six books while in prison, learned stock trading in prison, and got married in his 15th year of incarceration. CZ said: "He was a gift from God to me."

This period of incarceration also led CZ to lose about 12 pounds, a clear indication of the awful food and mental anguish.

BNB: 78 times (bearing responsibility)

In "The Life of Binance," Zhao Changpeng positions BNB as the core asset and responsibility carrier of the Binance ecosystem, rather than merely a simple token.

He Yi: 56 times (fighting alongside each other)

CZ writes about He Yi differently than anyone else.

There are no titles listed, no descriptions of authority; only moments and steadfast choices that piece together the image of this soul partner who walks alongside him.

The bond between He Yi and CZ began in 2014 when, during a blockchain sharing session, CZ first saw her in the front row while sharing on stage. Later, He Yi invited him to join OKCoin, marking the starting point of their subsequent collaboration.

He Yi was the person who named Binance. The first thing she said when entering the office was that the previous name "sounded like a supermarket." When CZ asked if she had a better suggestion, she thought for a moment and said, "How about calling it Binance?" CZ and Allan exchanged glances and agreed, "Sounds good." He Yi was somewhat surprised: "Are you sure you don't want to think about it more? Don’t you want to ask others? Or find a feng shui master?"

He Yi was the one who joined after BNB had already dropped 40% upon its launch, resigning from her position as CMO of a soon-to-be-listed company. That company, called Yixia Technology, had just completed a $500 million Series E funding round, and if it went public smoothly, her stock options would be worth tens of millions of dollars. She did not call to backtrack and sent a message that evening saying her resignation had been submitted, also mentioning that according to the calendar her mother checked, August 8 was an auspicious day to move to Shanghai to start her new job.

He Yi was the most diligent in revising the Binance white paper. CZ said she proposed an extremely high number of revisions and did not ask for any token allocations. CZ said: "I felt the time spent accepting changes was even longer than the time it took to write the draft originally."

He Yi was the one who woke her injured mother up late at night before the ban in China, saying she didn't know when she would be able to return.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year in 2026, He Yi completed the preface for this "Life of Binance." The last line of the preface reads: "How fortunate to be with him on this journey."

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