Author: Golem , Odaily Planet Daily
On April 8th, Binance founder CZ (Changpeng Zhao)'s new book, *Freedom of Money*, was officially launched. Users can currently purchase the digital version on Amazon's website, and Chinese users can also purchase it for 1.99 yuan on Xianyu (a Chinese online marketplace). ( Related reading: Understanding CZ: The Years Before Binance's Birth and the 72 Principles That Shaped Him )
"Freedom of Money" is CZ's first-person memoir, chronologically recounting his journey from rural Jiangsu and Hefei to Canada, working in technology and finance in Tokyo, New York, and Shanghai, his introduction to 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 Binance's crisis management after its growth, the FTX incident, global regulatory conflicts, and his experience of pleading guilty, serving time, being released from prison, and being pardoned in the US in 2023.
"Freedom of Money" is approximately 180,000 words long, which is moderate for a memoir of a celebrity/entrepreneur, but still requires about 6-9 hours to read completely. To help readers quickly grasp the core highlights of CZ's new book and his previously undisclosed personal experiences, Odaily has extracted and summarized the content of "Freedom of Money." If you still want more after reading this article, we recommend purchasing the book for a complete reading experience.
1. He almost became the CEO of Mt. Gox China, but the platform collapsed and he lost 100 BTC.
In early 2014, CZ was recommended to become the CEO of Mt.Gox China. The final agreement was that Susquehanna would provide the funding, Mt.Gox would provide the technology, and CZ would be responsible for the China business and would also receive a 10% equity stake. However, just as the contract was about to be signed, Mt.Gox collapsed on February 7, 2014, suspending user withdrawals. As a result, CZ decided not to join.
However, CZ was not without losses. After the Mt.Gox collapse, his 100 bitcoins (worth $50,000 at the time, now worth about $7 million) stored on Mt.Gox were also lost, but CZ did not try to recover them.
2. Binance completed its white paper within three days and raised $15 million through its ICO.
In 2017, Binance's white paper was completed in just three days. This process included CZ learning about the concept of ICOs and the final release of the Chinese and English versions . On June 14, 2017, CZ attended a hotpot dinner in Chongqing organized by Guo Hongcai (known in the cryptocurrency circle as "Bao Erye"). After the dinner, he decided to launch an ICO and wanted to raise $15 million, just like Yang Linke did at the time. Thus, BNB was born.
Bao Erye (CZ) also proactively became an initial advisor for Binance's ICO and requested some BNB token allocation. Binance conducted a total of 5 ICOs, all of which sold out within seconds. When the last ICO ended on July 2, 2017, CZ successfully raised $15 million worth of digital assets. In his memoir, CZ wrote that the entire team stayed in the office at the time, but the celebration consisted of ordering a slightly more upscale takeout meal, with about twenty people taking turns serving food back to their workstations.
At the time, CZ also gave all employees BNB, equivalent to a month's salary, based on the ICO price of $0.1. CZ also gave himself 50,000 BNB, which he never touched, and by the time of writing the book, they were worth over $24 million.
3. He Yiqi's Chinese name is "Binan". He joined the company the day before Binance was listed.
On June 17, 2017, CZ invited He Yi to Binance's Shanghai office to help revise the white paper (Odaily note: He Yi was still the CMO of Yixia Technology at the time) . In his memoir, CZ stated that He Yi walked into the office and pointed to the white paper on the table, saying, "Your current Chinese name sounds like a supermarket." Then she suggested changing it to "Binance," and CZ immediately approved the name change without consulting a feng shui master or holding repeated meetings.
However, CZ claimed in his memoir that these were all "tricks" to lure He Yi into joining Binance. He believed that the best way to recruit top talent was to get them involved first . Finally, on July 13, 2017, the last night Binance was listed, CZ called He Yi again. He Yi verbally agreed to join Binance, and the next day she submitted her resignation to her original company.
4. Having received word of the "September 4th ban" beforehand, they fled in advance, removing their phone cards to avoid being tracked.
On September 4, 2017, seven Chinese ministries jointly issued an announcement explicitly prohibiting the operation of cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency mining, and ICOs. The night before, CZ stated in his memoir that he received a message on his phone saying there would be a "major crackdown" the following 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 first, while the others would remain in Shanghai temporarily.
To avoid being tracked, He Yi reminded CZ to remove the SIM card and turn off his phone during the journey, which CZ did. However, He Yi later told CZ that this idea came from spy movies she had watched, and she didn't know whether they would actually be tracked.
5. Vitalik taught my son about "infinitesimals," and I missed a great opportunity to invest in Ethereum.
I've known these big shots for a long time, but I was once lost in their presence.
In his memoir, CZ stated, "I first met Vitalik Buterin at the Bitcoin Summit in Las Vegas in December 2013. He was only 19 years old at the time and was working at Bitcoin Magazine, yet he was already talking to me about Ethereum, which he was conceiving. In May 2014, we met again at an industry summit in Beijing."
In May 2015, Vitalik stayed at my house when he came to Tokyo. He slept in a bunk bed with my eight-year-old son and even taught my son what 'infinity' was.
Back then, I asked him, 'Isn't building a Turing-complete language on the blockchain too ambitious? Is it really feasible?' Vitalik said, 'Yes.' Now we know he truly did it. My imagination was simply lacking.
I've known Vitalik since 2013 and have always followed Ethereum, but I never invested. What a missed opportunity! But then again, if I had invested in ETH back then and earned hundreds of times my initial investment, perhaps Binance wouldn't exist today. Fate has its own plans for everyone.
6. I had a bad first impression of SBF, and CZ refused to offer any help after FTX's collapse.
The collapse of FTX in 2022 was a major event in the crypto industry. CZ also wrote in detail about his "feud" with SBF and his true thoughts at the moment of FTX's collapse in "Freedom of Money".
CZ first met SBF at Binance Blockchain Week in January 2019. At the time, SBF was the CEO of Alameda. In his book, CZ described SBF as someone who seemed quite intelligent and had high emotional intelligence—"saying the right thing to the right person."
A few months later, just one month after FTX launched, SBF approached CZ for investment. Although Binance's CFO was very optimistic about FTX at the time, CZ and He Yi still declined the investment. In November 2019, FTX lowered its valuation to Binance and proposed exchanging 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.
In his memoir, CZ stated that after the investment, SBF changed its attitude, not only poaching Binance's VIP account managers and several employees who "valued money," but also spreading negative rumors about Binance throughout Washington. Therefore, although Binance remained a shareholder of FTX, the relationship between CZ and SBF reached a freezing point.
So when FTX collapsed in 2022, the first message SBF sent to CZ for help was, "Has our relationship deteriorated to the point where we don't even talk anymore?" After the two communicated, SBF said he wanted an investment of several billion dollars.
In his memoir, CZ candidly stated, "I didn't want FTX, nor did I want to help SBF. But to protect users and the industry, I had to intervene." The rest is history: Binance and FTX signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI), SBF announced on Twitter on November 8th that Binance intended to acquire FTX, and on November 9th, Binance decided to withdraw from the deal.
7. Rejected a $20 million listing fee and personally set the listing rules.
Binance's strict listing regulations today were already in their infancy during CZ's tenure. CZ recalled that when Binance entered the top ten global exchanges, a project team directly offered him a $20 million "listing fee," but CZ refused on the spot and blacklisted them.
Because of this incident, CZ realized the necessity of establishing a standardized and transparent listing mechanism. Therefore, he personally drafted the "Binance Listing Guidelines," which clearly stipulates that all applications must be submitted through the official website form.
The coin team and the project team must be "physically isolated." CZ also stated in his memoir that he often saw listing managers from other exchanges busy handing out business cards and building relationships at various meetings, a practice he has always disagreed with.
8. Investing in Twitter to become a minority shareholder in SpaceX, praising Musk for foresight in SBF.
In 2022, news that CZ had invested $500 million to support Musk's acquisition of Twitter circulated widely in the crypto community. In his memoir, CZ wrote that his reason for participating was that Binance's goal of making money free meant supporting freedom of speech.
CZ described the investment process as convoluted, but thankfully it was eventually completed, resulting in a $500 million investment in which he only attended a few meetings. In his book, CZ writes that he remains a minority shareholder in Twitter (now called X), having later merged with xAI, thus becoming a minority shareholder in xAI as well. xAI then merged with SpaceX, making him a minority shareholder in SpaceX as well.
At the same time, CZ didn't forget to take a jab at SBF. He later learned that SBF also wanted to participate in Twitter's voting but was rejected by Musk, praising Musk for his accurate judgment of people.
9. I have been suffering from back pain since I was a teenager.
In his memoir, CZ stated that he had suffered from back pain since his teens, possibly inherited from his father or due to prolonged sitting. He first "pulled his back" at the age of 17. In 2019, the pain worsened, causing CZ to spend most of that year working from bed: his laptop on a stand, with his iPad and iPhone propped up beside him.
In 2020, CZ went to Berlin for surgery to relieve back pain, but the surgery was unsuccessful and the herniated disc recurred.
10. Write a book in prison and talk to inmates about cryptocurrency.
On April 30, 2024, CZ was sentenced to prison by the U.S. government. On May 31, he was transferred to a low-security federal prison in Lompoc, California, to begin serving his four-month sentence. In his memoir, CZ wrote that the first draft of the book was written in prison. The computers in the prison were basically like electronic typewriters; they couldn't copy and paste or connect to the internet, and if he wanted to change a paragraph, he had to retype it. Therefore, he wrote most of the book from memory, paragraph by paragraph.
Later in his sentence, CZ was transferred to a halfway house, where he was approved to volunteer. One of his volunteer tasks was to help create cryptocurrency educational materials for inmates, which CZ said he mostly copied and pasted from Binance Academy.
Bonus Chapter 1: Accidental Leakage of Personal Information Such as Early Phone Numbers
CZ's book includes a screenshot of his early business card, but the personal information on the card was not blurred.
This attracted a large number of "eagle-eyed readers" who added the account on WeChat, transferred money via Alipay email address, and so on.
Side Story 2: Three Romantic Relationships and One Marriage; Young CZ Liked to Threaten Breakups
In the book, CZ also mentions his love life in bits and pieces. He started dating in middle school, and his girlfriend at the time was a kind Taiwanese girl.
After entering high school, CZ went to Montreal and had a long-distance relationship with his high school girlfriend. After three months, she broke up with him. CZ said that although he was very sad, he was not surprised.
During his sophomore year, CZ started dating Amanda, a gentle and kind Taiwanese girl. However, he was immature at the time, and every minor disagreement escalated into a major conflict, with him threatening to break up with her. Finally, when he used the breakup threat for the last time, Amanda agreed. CZ cried bitterly, berating himself for being stupid and manipulative.
Later, CZ went to Tokyo, where he met Winnie at a Chinese restaurant. They started dating and married a few years later. However, while he was working in Beijing, his family had already moved to Tokyo. In his memoir, CZ stated, "It was around this time that my ex-wife and I began to separate, and we officially divorced a few years later."
It is worth noting that CZ did not mention any details of his story with He Yi in the entire article.
