Top Ten Reveals of CZ's New Book: Advance Knowledge of "94", The Inside Story of Huobi's Change of Ownership Revealed 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 electronic version on Amazon. 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 Hefei, then to Canada, working in technology and finance in Tokyo, New York, and Shanghai, and finally getting involved with Bitcoin in 2013, selling his house to enter the crypto industry, and 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 entire book is about 180,000 words long, which is considered medium-sized for memoirs by 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 you still feel unsatisfied after reading this article, readers are encouraged to purchase the book for a complete read.

1. Almost became CEO of Mt.Gox in China, lost 100 BTC when the platform collapsed

In early 2014, CZ was recommended to become the CEO of Mt.Gox in 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 unscathed; after Mt.Gox's collapse, he lost 100 Bitcoins (worth $50,000 at the time, now worth about $7 million) that he had on Mt.Gox, but CZ did not attempt to recover them.

2. Completed the white paper in three days, raised $15 million in Binance ICO

In 2017, Binance's white paper was completed in three days, a process that 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 community as Bao Er Ye), and after the meal, he decided to do an ICO and raised $15 million with Yang Linke at the time. BNB was born.

Bao Er Ye also proactively became one of the initial advisors during Binance's ICO and requested some BNB token allocation. Binance conducted a total of 5 rounds of ICO, all of which sold out in seconds. By the end of the last round of ICO on July 2, 2017, CZ successfully raised the equivalent of $15 million in digital assets. CZ wrote in his memoir that 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 back to their desks.

At that time, CZ also issued BNB equivalent to one month's salary to all employees at the ICO price of $0.1, and he issued himself 50,000 BNB, which he never touched, and by the time of writing the book, it was already worth over $24 million.

3. How the name "Binance" came about, joined the company the day before 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 desk 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 let them participate first. Ultimately, on the last night before Binance launched on July 13, 2017, CZ called He Yi again, and she verbally agreed to join Binance, then submitted her resignation to her original company the next day.

4. 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 explicitly 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 the others would temporarily stay in Shanghai.

To avoid being tracked, He Yi reminded CZ to take out his phone's SIM card and turn it off during the journey, which CZ complied with. 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.

5. 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 his 10% stake in OKCoin, 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.

In 2022, two prominent figures in the Chinese community, Xu Mingxing and Li Lin, were detained. Li Lin was under house arrest for 90 days before 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.

6. 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 emotionally intelligent—"saying the right thing to whoever he met."

A few months later, just a month after FTX launched, SBF approached CZ for investment. Although Binance's CFO was optimistic about FTX at the time, 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 stated in his memoir that after the investment was completed, SBF changed his attitude, not only poaching Binance's VIP account managers and several "money-oriented" employees but also speaking 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 candidly stated in his memoir, "I don't want FTX, nor do I want to help SBF. But to protect users and the industry, I had to intervene." The subsequent story is well known; Binance signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) with FTX, on November 8, SBF announced on Twitter that Binance was interested in acquiring FTX, and on November 9, Binance decided to withdraw from the deal.

7. Refused a $20 million listing fee, personally set the listing rules

The strict listing management regulations at Binance 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 parties. CZ also mentioned 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 never agreed with.

8. Invested in Twitter and became a minor shareholder of SpaceX, praised Musk for seeing through SBF

In 2022, the news that CZ invested $500 million to support Musk's acquisition of Twitter spread widely in the crypto community. Regarding this matter, CZ wrote in his memoir that he chose to participate in the investment because Binance advocates for financial freedom, which must include supporting freedom of speech.

CZ stated that the investment process was quite tortuous, 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 minor shareholder of Twitter (now called X), and since X later merged with xAI, he also became a minor 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 being very perceptive about people.

9. Suffered from back pain since childhood

CZ mentioned in his memoir that he has been plagued by back pain since his teenage years, possibly inherited from his father or due to prolonged sitting, and he "threw out his back" 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 the herniated disc recurred.

10. Wrote the book in prison, taught inmates about cryptocurrency

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 prison were basically 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, which CZ stated he mostly copied and pasted from Binance Academy.