CZ's new book reveals: During the 9·4 period, the silence of venture capital left him disappointed, and Sequoia ultimately backed out due to a breakdown in valuation discussions

Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) recalled in his new book that after the "9·4" regulatory policy was introduced in 2017, venture capital firms became generally cautious, and Sequoia Capital, which had initially expressed investment intentions, also paused related cooperation. He stated, "Seeing the VCs collectively silent during our toughest September, I was actually quite disappointed."

CZ revealed that prior to this, Sequoia had expressed investment interest when He Yi joined early on, but chose to wait and see in light of the policy impact. Nevertheless, Binance still achieved rapid growth from September to October, with the number of users increasing from about 20,000 in August to about 120,000 by late October, entering the top ten exchanges globally and becoming profitable.

CZ noted that by the end of October, after the risk phase had basically passed, Sequoia re-expressed its investment intentions, but they had proposed a higher valuation requirement, and ultimately, the two sides failed to reach an investment agreement due to valuation differences. CZ summarized, "Venture capitalists do not provide help in times of need; they only add the finishing touches."