Chapter 1: Testimonials

Overview

Testimonials from global leaders in finance, technology, and governance introduce this chapter. Each person shares their view of CZ's journey and the importance of his work. Together, they suggest his memoir is not just a personal story, but a relevant guide for entrepreneurs, technologists, and anyone curious about the future of money.

Ray Dalio: A Pillar of the New Monetary Order

Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, describes CZ as a bold figure who made alternative money accessible to everyone. He says the book is valuable for people from humble beginnings who want to change the world, and he calls Binance a foundational piece of a new financial system.

Larry Fink: A Firsthand Account of Formative Years

Larry Fink of BlackRock focuses on the book's historical value. He points out that CZ had a front-row seat as an early builder in crypto, and argues the book gives crucial insight into the ideas and decisions that shaped the entire industry.

His Majesty the King of Bhutan: Conviction and National Opportunity

His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck discusses the technology's potential for nations and society. He connects CZ's early vision to real-world opportunity, praises his conviction, and proudly links Bhutan's future to this technological shift.

Yong Zhang: The Portrait of a Boundary-Pushing Founder

Yong Zhang, founder of Haidilao, sees CZ's story as a universal lesson in entrepreneurial courage. He calls the journey turbulent and driven by sheer perseverance, painting a picture of the founders who define an era by moving forward under pressure, doubt, and risk.

Matthew Roszak: Freedom, Agency, and Open Systems

Matthew Roszak, co-founder of Hemi, focuses on core principles. He reads the book as a reflection on how open systems can increase human freedom, agency, and opportunity—ultimately about our power to act and build a better future.

Key Takeaways

• Respected figures from finance, national leadership, and entrepreneurship lend their support to CZ's work.
• The memoir is presented as essential reading for understanding crypto's early years from a key insider.
• Common themes in the testimonials are extraordinary resilience, foresight, and a belief that technology can democratize finance and increase freedom.
• The book is framed as both a biography and a look at a changing global money system, and the mindset needed to build something new within it.

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Chapter 2: Foreword: Yi He

Overview

Yi He opens with a personal memory, reflecting on her first meeting with Changpeng Zhao (CZ) in the spring of 2014. It was a time of profound doubt in the cryptocurrency world, with Bitcoin's value plummeting and widespread declarations of its demise. Against this bleak backdrop, CZ stood out as a figure of unwavering conviction. This foreword isn't just an introduction to CZ or Binance; it’s a meditation on perception, resilience, and the consistent human core that persists through extreme volatility. Yi He frames the subsequent biography as a story of personal integrity amidst the whirlwind of building a global empire and navigating its colossal fallout.

A Moment of Belief in a Crashing Market

The author describes leaving a stable television career to enter crypto when the industry was in retreat. CZ had similarly gone "all in," selling his house only to watch his net worth evaporate. Yet, on stage, his eyes shone with an undimmed belief in blockchain technology. That sight became a catalyst for Yi He, challenging her own fears and illustrating the potent, personal faith that drives pioneers even when external signals scream failure.

The Man Behind the Myth

Addressing the common question of CZ's true nature, Yi He suggests there is no single answer. Public perception, she observes, is often a mirror reflecting the viewer's own biases and hopes. She shifts instead to sketching the formative experiences that shaped his character: a childhood in rural China filled with wonder at simple technology, a move to Canada at twelve, and a youth marked by hard labor at McDonald's and a gas station while excelling in sports. Through it all, a core belief in kindness, hard work, and technology’s transformative power remained constant, guiding his pivot from biology to coding and, ultimately, into Bitcoin's codebase.

Foundations Laid Before the Empire

Their professional partnership began in 2014 during the market decline. Yi He highlights a telling early incident: CZ donating to a community member with leukemia despite his own shrinking assets. After the member's passing, CZ drafted a whitepaper for a fully transparent, blockchain-based charity platform—a project timestamped three years before Binance's founding. This act revealed a deep-seated principle that would underpin his later work: a commitment to transparency and using technology for tangible good.

Meteoric Rise and Unchanged Humility

The founding of Binance in 2017 triggered explosive growth, propelling it to the world's largest crypto exchange within six months. CZ was catapulted to celebrity status, with fans treating him like a messiah. Yet, his daily life reflected a steadfast humility. He wore cheap clothes, rode a bike to meetings, and laughed off jokes about his old Toyota minivan. He understood the fickleness of public adulation, remarking that the praised and criticized versions of him were both imaginary constructs.

The Inevitable Turn of the Tide

As Binance grew, so did scrutiny. Regulators and lawsuits arrived, and headlines swiftly recast CZ from "legend" to "indictment." Yi He notes how his public image became a puppet of token prices. She details his principled stance during the FTX collapse, where he initially sought to save the rival exchange to protect the broader industry, only to be met with chaos. Facing intense pressure in 2023, he made the weighty decision to plead guilty in the United States, believing his personal sacrifice was necessary to save Binance, its users, and the industry from a decade-long setback.

Charity and Clarity in Confinement

During his year in the U.S., even as he grew thinner facing legal battles, CZ's focus remained outward. He launched the Giggle Academy project, driven by a desire to provide free, multilingual education to children globally—a direct reflection of his own life-changing benefit from learning. Yi He portrays this as his essential nature: "Even standing in the storm, he still wanted to hold an umbrella for others."

The Surreal Pardon and Unwavering Self

The news of a "U.S. presidential pardon" broke like a movie ending, but CZ was the last to know, engrossed in a meeting about blockchain's potential with the Kyrgyz government. This moment perfectly encapsulated his trajectory: through praise, criticism, and even pardon, his internal compass never wavered. He never accepted the roles of myth or villain crafted for him by the public. He remained the curious child, the hardworking teen, and the principled builder.

Key Takeaways

• Conviction Over Consensus: True innovation often requires believing in a vision when the majority declares it dead, as demonstrated by CZ's steadfast faith during crypto's darkest winters.
• Character Forged in Adversity: A consistent core of kindness, hard work, and belief in technology's power can guide a person from humble beginnings through unimaginable success and severe trials.
• The Fickleness of Public Narrative: Public perception is volatile and often projects its own desires or fears onto figures like CZ, who are alternately worshipped and vilified based on external circumstances like market prices.
• Principle in Action: Core values manifest in actions both large and small—from drafting a charity whitepaper before fame to sacrificing personal freedom for the survival of a community and its technology.
• Humility as an Anchor: Extraordinary success and fame do not necessitate a change in fundamental personal habits or self-perception; staying grounded is a conscious choice.
• Legacy of Empowerment: Even amidst personal turmoil, a drive to empower others—through education or transparent systems—can remain a primary motivation, defining a legacy beyond business achievements.

Chapter 3: Prologue

Overview

The prologue introduces the extraordinary arc of Changpeng "CZ" Zhao's life, from obscurity to founding the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, and then to a federal prison sentence and a presidential pardon. It explains that the book was written in prison and sets the tone for a direct, unvarnished, and authentic account.

From Ordinary to Extraordinary

For four decades, CZ describes his life as "plain and boring." This all changed with the launch of Binance in July 2017. The platform's ascent was meteoric, becoming the largest crypto exchange within five months and the fastest startup ever to reach $1 billion in profits. By 2026, it served over 300 million users. This surreal success thrust him into a public spotlight, a shift epitomized by a Forbes cover that focused more on his hoodie than his achievements. His reality, he notes, became more unpredictable and intense than fiction.

The Unprecedented Legal Challenge

The account then turns to November 2023, when CZ voluntarily traveled to the U.S. to plead guilty to a single charge: violating the Bank Secrecy Act. He clarifies the nature of the crime in plain terms: in its early days, Binance.com had U.S. users but had not registered as a Money Services Business, and its anti-money-laundering program during that period was deemed insufficient by the Department of Justice. He is careful to note there was no fraud, money laundering, identifiable victims, or user harm connected to the charge. Despite having no criminal history and it being an unprecedented sentence for this single violation, he was sentenced to four months in federal prison. He served his time and was pardoned by President Trump in October 2025.

The Book's Unconventional Birth

This book was born from that prison experience. The first draft was a "brain dump" composed on a severely restricted inmate terminal with no internet, no copy-paste function, and no ability to fact-check. He wrote based solely on memory, comparing the process to using a typewriter. After his release, he discovered minor inaccuracies in his recall (dates, names) and corrected what he could, but acknowledges some may remain. He embraces these imperfections, prioritizing raw authenticity over polished prose, and warns readers the account will jump between topics, mirroring the chaotic, multi-faceted nature of his journey.

Key Takeaways

• CZ's life transformed from mundane to globally consequential in an exceptionally short period following Binance's launch.
• His legal issue stemmed from a regulatory compliance failure in Binance's early operations, which he characterizes as a technical violation without malicious intent or direct harm to users.
• His prison sentence was historically severe for the single charge, culminating in a presidential pardon.
• The book is an intentionally authentic, first-person account written from memory during his incarceration, and may contain minor factual inconsistencies as a result.
• The style will be direct, non-linear, and reflective of CZ's personal perspective and experience.

Chapter 4: Go Live, July 14th, 2017

Overview

The team's intense, real-time experience of Binance's trading platform going live shifts rapidly from collective excitement to sobering reality as the market reacts in unexpected ways. It chronicles the emotional and psychological pressure on the team in the subsequent weeks, framing it as a formative trial by fire.

The Anticipatory Countdown and Instantaneous Letdown

The launch moment was filmed and full of hope, with the team counting down to the activation of the BNB trading pair. The excitement evaporated instantly as the screen populated not with buy orders, but a flood of sell orders. The price of BNB began ticking downward, plunging the office into a stunned silence. This immediate sell-off contradicted the intense demand seen during the ICO just weeks before, revealing that many initial buyers were short-term speculators hoping for a first-day profit surge.

A New and Crushing Form of Pressure

While the technical launch was a success—the platform was fast, stable, and well-designed—the market's negative reaction introduced a profound personal burden. For the first time, the weight of thousands of people’s financial losses, however temporary, became palpable. The unfiltered chat box, filled with profanity and personal attacks, became a real-time gauge of community fury. This period marked the beginning of what CZ describes as the highest-pressure experience of his life.

Relentless Building Amidst Market Indifference

In response, the team embarked on a relentless sprint of development and improvement, sleeping in the office to release a stream of new features. These included API trading, zero-fee promotions, new coin listings, a UI redesign, and multilingual support. Despite these tangible advancements and a growing user base, the price of BNB remained disconnected from the exchange's operational performance, a stark lesson in the power of mass market psychology over fundamentals.

Transparent Leadership in the Storm

Breaking from traditional corporate PR playbooks, CZ chose a path of radical transparency by hosting live streams every other day, directly facing the scrolling curses from the community. The strategy was not about enduring abuse, but about demonstrating presence and commitment. This consistency eventually began to foster a segment of supportive voices who appreciated the visibility and urged patience. The continuous public engagement lasted for three tense weeks, only subsiding with the pivotal announcement of Yi He joining the company.

Key Takeaways

• Market Psychology vs. Fundamentals: A product's technical success and user growth do not guarantee immediate positive market sentiment; prices can be driven by collective psychology unrelated to underlying progress.
• The Weight of Community Trust: Leading a project with public investors introduces a unique form of pressure centered on the direct impact of decisions (and market movements) on people's lives.
• Transparency as a Tool: In the social media age, persistent, authentic communication during a crisis—even when facing hostility—can build deeper credibility and loyalty than polished, distant PR statements.
• Resilience is Forged in Adversity: The most challenging periods, where effort seems disconnected from reward, often define a team's character and commitment to long-term vision.