The richest man had a fight with his former boss

Author: Gu Yu, ChainCatcher

I. The Origin of Grievances: A "Blood Incident" Triggered by a Memoir

The event originated from the official release of the personal memoir "The Life of Binance" by Zhao Changpeng, the founder of Binance and the richest person in the Chinese crypto circle, yesterday. The memoir comprehensively discloses his personal experiences and many industry insider stories, with multiple references to Xu Mingxing, the founder and former boss of Binance's main competitor, OKX.

Years ago, Zhao Changpeng and another co-founder of Binance, He Yi, served as Chief Technology Officer and Vice President at OKCoin, founded by Xu Mingxing. Due to various reasons, both left the company in 2015 and co-founded Binance in 2017, building it into the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.

In the book, Zhao Changpeng wrote that months after leaving, Xu Mingxing accused him of "forging business contracts" without basis, damaging his personal reputation, and referred to it as a "personal attack." Additionally, he disclosed that Li Lin once told him at a dinner that he had seen a screenshot showing Xu Mingxing reporting him to the Chinese police, which led to him being controlled by the police.

These materials portray Xu Mingxing as a scheming individual, triggering the first round of confrontation between the two sides.

Xu Mingxing, after retrieving video recording evidence from that year, fiercely criticized Zhao Changpeng on the X platform, stating, "After spending four months in prison, a person still talks nonsense to the world. I can only say that a person accustomed to lying can never change their nature. These lies include the history of joining and leaving OKCoin, the Roger Ver contract dispute, whether he personally manipulated the market… his marital status, etc."

Meanwhile, discussions about Zhao Changpeng's marital status have become increasingly heated in the X community. Although Zhao Changpeng mentioned his parents, children, and other relatives multiple times in the book, as well as important work and life partners, he only briefly mentioned his current marital status and his current wife, stating that he is divorced.

However, it is well known that Zhao Changpeng and He Yi have been in a marital relationship for many years and have multiple children. Zhao Changpeng's vague attitude on this matter quickly led to a second round of attacks from Xu Mingxing.

"If the richest person can produce a divorce agreement signed by both parties as of today, I will immediately apologize publicly. If he cannot produce such an agreement but claims in the media and in the book that he is divorced, then he is openly lying to the public," Xu Mingxing said.

In response, Zhao Changpeng stated he could wager $1 billion that he had officially divorced before that day. Xu Mingxing did not accept the bet, stating that such a public wager was unprofessional and shifted the issue to another dimension: "Has your Binance share been legally separated from your ex-wife? Just proving that is enough."

At this point, He Yi also joined the debate, demanding Xu Mingxing to "either apologize like a man or have a lawyer intervene to notarize the payment, or admit to being a liar?"

II. Various Parties Compete to Voice Opinions and Take Sides

The public feud among top figures has also sparked many industry professionals to take sides and discuss the event from different angles, adding more heat to the situation.

The founding partner of ArkStream Capital stated that CZ's book is worth reading, but CZ's character and vision are significantly different from top entrepreneurs, whether it is the insider trading and relationship-based listings tolerated by Binance, or avoiding discussions of major mistakes after 1011, or being stabbed by early Binance investors, and turning partners into enemies, etc. The book has a lot of embellishments, but industry practitioners are well aware of the truth. Character and vision determine the upper limits. If the industry leader were to change, I believe the Crypto market cap would be far more than $3 trillion.

Well-known KOL FTWBITCOIN911 said, "CZ revealed what was said at a private dinner with Boss Li, directly exposing it without Boss Li and Boss Xu having a falling out. It shows a lack of understanding of Chinese social customs. What someone tells you privately, you write it out directly, probably without Old Li's permission. This makes people passive. Moreover, you have no real evidence for the reporting issue. Writing this out is childish behavior; CZ is not stupid, he is truly bad!"

On the other hand, several industry professionals expressed that Xu Mingxing's denunciation strategy is inappropriate, reflecting his identity anxiety and imbalance.

For example, Zhu Su, a former co-founder of Three Arrows Capital, believes that Xu Mingxing's current stance is somewhat autistic. "In my view, he seems to have not truly accepted the fact that his former employees left in a relatively short time to establish a much larger exchange, and that CZ's geographical strategy is superior to his Chinese peers. His tone still sounds like an older man scolding a younger man," Zhu Su stated.

Additionally, many voices pointed to Xu Mingxing's private life, with well-known X bloggers like "Crypto Circle Encyclopedia" exposing Xu Mingxing's immoral behaviors, such as keeping a mistress and deliberately deleting user compensation announcements, dragging both parties into an awkward and difficult-to-verify "quagmire."

III. The Missing Dignity and Vision

Regarding the details of the various events, both Zhao Changpeng and Xu Mingxing hold their respective positions, arguing from 2018 to 2026. As for who is right and who is wrong, the cryptocurrency community has long felt aesthetic fatigue from the endless war of words—everyone is unable to discern and gradually loses interest in distinguishing.

Private life is inherently a dark place and should not become a bargaining chip in business games. Yet today, in 2026, we still see billionaires "running naked" in public spaces, indicating that the Chinese crypto circle has yet to complete its coming-of-age ceremony from "grassroots heroes" to "industry leaders," lacking in vision and dignity.

Disputes among internet industry giants are not uncommon; entrepreneurs like Jack Ma, Pony Ma, Robin Li, and Liu Qiangdong have had varying degrees of clashes, with frequent verbal battles, but these are more focused on personal styles and corporate development strategies.

In contrast, this incident, with its $1 billion wager, personal life attacks, and old grievances, resembles more of an emotional outburst rather than constructive dialogue. Extending the timeline, the voices of these crypto industry giants are more focused on promoting their own businesses, with little discussion on industry strategic levels or unique perspectives.

As the crypto industry transitions from wild growth to regulatory compliance and institutional entry, this shortfall in vision is particularly glaring. The era where "traffic equals justice" has passed; user trust, capital confidence, and global reputation are becoming the industry's most scarce assets. If the two most influential entrepreneurs in the Chinese crypto circle can transform their "Binance Life" and "OK Life" into a shared pursuit of product excellence, user responsibility, and industry accountability, they may truly deserve the labels of "richest" and "leader."

What is true entrepreneurial spirit? What does the responsibility of being an industry leader mean? In the crypto industry, the answers to these questions remain quite vague.

This ongoing war of insults essentially has no winners. It consumes the personal images of two top billionaires, dilutes the brand assets of the platforms, and undermines the hard-won trust foundation of the entire industry. It serves as a mirror, reflecting the deep-rooted grassroots nature of the Chinese crypto circle as it approaches the pinnacle of commercial civilization.

To some extent, this is not a contest of who wins or loses, but a magnifying glass—magnifying the unresolved structural contradictions in the Chinese crypto circle as it matures: when the wealth scale has reached trillions, but the means of expression remain in the grassroots era, what is lost is not just dignity, but the ticket to true commercial civilization.