Top Ten Reveals of CZ's New Book: Advance Knowledge of "94", the Inside Story of Huobi's Change of Ownership Made Public for the First Time
Original |Odaily Planet Daily Golem
On April 8, Binance founder CZ (Zhao Changpeng) officially launched his new book "Freedom of Money" (Chinese title: 币安人生), which is currently available for users to purchase the e-book on Amazon, and Chinese users can also buy it for 1.99 yuan on Xianyu.
"Freedom of Money" is a memoir written from CZ's first-person perspective, reflecting on his journey from a rural area in Jiangsu, moving to Canada, working in technology and finance in Tokyo, New York, and Shanghai, to encountering Bitcoin in 2013, selling his house to invest in the crypto industry, and finally founding Binance in 2017. The latter half of the book focuses on crisis management after Binance's growth, the FTX incident, global regulatory conflicts, and his experiences of pleading guilty in the U.S. in 2023, serving his sentence, being released, and receiving a pardon.
The book "Freedom of Money" is approximately 180,000 words long, which is considered medium-sized among memoirs of celebrities/entrepreneurs, but it still requires about 6-9 hours to read completely. To help readers quickly understand the core highlights of CZ's new book and his previously undisclosed personal experiences, Odaily Planet Daily has summarized and distilled the content of "Freedom of Money." If readers still feel unsatisfied after reading this article, they are recommended to purchase the book for a complete read.
- Almost became CEO of Mt.Gox China, lost 100 BTC when the platform collapsed
In early 2014, CZ was recommended to become the CEO of Mt.Gox China, and the final proposal was that Susquehanna would provide funding, Mt.Gox would provide technology, and he would be responsible for the Chinese business while also receiving a 10% equity stake. However, just before the contract was signed, Mt.Gox collapsed on February 7, 2014, suspending user withdrawals, so CZ decided not to join.
But CZ was not without losses; after Mt.Gox's collapse, he lost 100 Bitcoins (worth $50,000 at the time, now worth about $7 million) that he had stored on Mt.Gox, but CZ did not attempt to recover them.
- Completed the white paper in three days, raised $15 million in Binance ICO
In 2017, Binance's white paper was completed in three days, which included CZ learning about the concept of ICO to the final release of the Chinese and English versions. On June 14, 2017, CZ attended a hot pot gathering organized by Guo Hongcai (known in the crypto circle as Bao Er Ye), and after the meal, he decided to do an ICO and raised $15 million with Yang Linke at that time. Thus, BNB was born.
Bao Er Ye also proactively became the initial advisor during Binance's ICO and requested some BNB token allocation. Binance conducted a total of 5 rounds of ICO, all of which sold out within seconds. By the end of the last round of ICO on July 2, 2017, CZ successfully raised $15 million worth of digital assets. CZ wrote in his memoir that at that time, everyone was stationed in the office, but the celebration was just ordering slightly more exquisite takeout, with about twenty people taking turns to serve food and eating at their desks.
At that time, CZ also distributed BNB equivalent to one month's salary to all employees at the ICO price of $0.1, and he allocated himself 50,000 BNB, which he never touched, and by the time he wrote the book, it was already worth over $24 million.
- How the name "Binance" came about, joined the company the day before its launch
On June 17, 2017, CZ invited He Yi to the Binance office in Shanghai to help revise the white paper (Note: At this time, He Yi was still the CMO at Yixia Technology). CZ mentioned in his memoir that when He Yi walked into the office, she pointed at the white paper on the table and said, "Your current Chinese name sounds like a supermarket." She then suggested changing it to "Binance," and CZ immediately agreed to the name change without consulting a feng shui master or holding repeated meetings.
However, CZ referred to this as a "little trick" to entice He Yi to join Binance; he believed that the ultimate way to attract top talent was to get them involved first. Ultimately, on the night before Binance's launch on July 13, 2017, CZ called He Yi again, and she verbally agreed to join Binance, resigning from her original company the next day.
- Received news before the "September 4 Ban" and fled early, removed SIM card to avoid tracking
On September 4, 2017, seven ministries in China jointly issued an announcement clearly prohibiting the operation of cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency mining, and ICOs. The night before, CZ mentioned in his memoir that he received a message on his phone saying there would be a "major rectification" the next day. At 12:30 AM that day, CZ held an emergency conference call with He Yi and other executives, ultimately deciding that he, He Yi, and Heina would go to Tokyo, while others would temporarily stay in Shanghai.
To prevent being tracked, He Yi reminded CZ to remove his phone's SIM card and turn it off during the journey, and CZ complied. However, He Yi later informed CZ that this idea came from a spy movie she had watched, and she didn't actually know if they would be tracked.
- Xu Mingxing continued to slander CZ and He Yi, Li Lin was imprisoned due to Xu Mingxing's report
In the early years, CZ also worked at OKCoin, founded by Xu Mingxing (Note: the predecessor of OKX), but CZ stated in his memoir that in January 2015, Xu Mingxing attempted to renegotiate the 10% equity stake he held in OKXCoin, which made CZ unhappy, leading him to resign.
According to CZ's recollection, after he left, Xu Mingxing continued to accuse him of forging the cooperation contract between Roger Ver and OKCoin during his tenure. After CZ clarified on Reddit, Xu Mingxing began to personally attack him and pressured He Yi to publicly criticize CZ, but He Yi refused and chose to resign instead.
In 2022, two prominent figures in the Chinese community, Xu Mingxing and Li Lin, were detained. Li Lin was placed under house arrest for 90 days before finally deciding to sell Huobi to Sun Yuchen. However, in 2025, CZ stated in the book that during a dinner, Li Lin told him that he had seen a screenshot showing that it was Xu Mingxing who personally reported him to the Chinese police, which led to his arrest.
- Had a bad first impression of SBF, refused to lend a hand after FTX collapsed
The collapse of FTX in 2022 was a major event in the crypto industry, and CZ detailed his "grievances" with SBF and his true thoughts during the FTX collapse in "Freedom of Money."
At the Binance Blockchain Week in January 2019, CZ met SBF for the first time. At that time, SBF was still the CEO of Alameda, and CZ described SBF in the book as looking quite smart and having high emotional intelligence—"he knew what to say to whom."
A few months later, just a month after FTX launched, SBF approached CZ for investment. Although Binance's CFO was optimistic about FTX, CZ and He Yi still declined the investment. In November 2019, FTX lowered its valuation for Binance and proposed to exchange BNB for FTT, which CZ agreed to. He wrote in his memoir, "From a business perspective, the terms were good." Ultimately, Binance held a 20% stake in FTX.
CZ mentioned in his memoir that after the investment was completed, SBF changed his attitude, poaching Binance's VIP account managers and several "money-oriented" employees, and spoke ill of Binance in Washington. So although Binance was still a shareholder of FTX, the relationship between CZ and SBF had reached a freezing point.
So when FTX collapsed in 2022, SBF's first message seeking help from CZ was, "Has our relationship deteriorated to the point where we don't even talk?" After that, the two communicated, and SBF mentioned needing billions of dollars in investment.
CZ bluntly stated in his memoir, "I don't want FTX, and I don't want to help SBF. But to protect users and the industry, I had to intervene." The subsequent events are well known; Binance signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) with FTX, and on November 8, SBF announced on Twitter that Binance was interested in acquiring FTX, but on November 9, Binance decided to withdraw from the deal.
7. Refused a $20 million listing fee, personally set listing rules
Binance's strict listing management regulations today were already taking shape during CZ's time. CZ recalled that when Binance entered the top ten global exchanges, a project party directly offered him a personal "listing fee" of $20 million, but CZ refused on the spot and blacklisted them.
Because of this incident, CZ realized the need to establish a standardized and transparent listing mechanism. He personally drafted the "Binance Listing Guidelines," clearly stating that all applications must be submitted through the official website form, and the listing team must be "physically isolated" from the project party. CZ also mentioned in his memoir that he often saw listing managers from other exchanges busy handing out business cards and networking at various meetings, a practice he never agreed with.
- Invested in Twitter and became a small shareholder of SpaceX, praised Musk for seeing through SBF
In 2022, CZ's investment of $500 million to support Musk's acquisition of Twitter became widely known in the crypto circle. Regarding this matter, CZ wrote in his memoir that he chose to participate in the investment because Binance advocates for financial freedom, which must also support freedom of speech.
CZ stated that the investment process was quite complicated, but fortunately, it was completed in the end, and he only attended a few meetings for the $500 million investment. CZ wrote in the book that he is still a small shareholder of Twitter (now called X), and since X later merged with xAI, he also became a small shareholder of xAI. As xAI merged with SpaceX, he ultimately became a small shareholder of SpaceX.
At the same time, CZ did not forget to take a jab at SBF. He later learned that SBF also wanted to invest in Twitter but was rejected by Musk, praising Musk for his keen judgment of character.
- Suffered from back pain since childhood
CZ mentioned in his memoir that he has suffered from back pain since his teenage years, possibly inherited from his father or due to prolonged sitting, and he "threw his back out" for the first time at the age of 17. By 2019, the pain worsened, causing CZ to spend most of that year working while lying in bed: with his laptop on a stand and his iPad and iPhone beside him.
In 2020, to address his back pain, CZ went to Berlin for surgery, but the surgery was unsuccessful, and his herniated disc recurred.
- Wrote the book in prison, taught cryptocurrency to inmates
On April 30, 2024, CZ was sentenced to prison by the U.S. government, and by May 31, he was sent to a low-security federal prison in Lompoc, California, to serve a four-month sentence. CZ wrote in his memoir that the first draft of this book was written in prison. The computers in the prison were essentially like electronic typewriters, unable to copy and paste or connect to the internet, so if he wanted to revise a paragraph, he had to retype it, which meant most of the book's content was written from memory.
During the later stages of his sentence, CZ was transferred to a halfway house, where he was approved to volunteer, and one of the volunteer tasks was to help create cryptocurrency educational materials for inmates. CZ stated that he basically copied and pasted everything from Binance Academy.
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