CZ's Message to Anyone Hitting Rock Bottom: 'Keep Walking' — And He's Speaking From Experience

Changpeng Zhao has been at the very end of the road himself; so when he speaks today it has a weight that is different from other people's opinions.

The owner of Binance, known to the world as CZ, shared a message with people who were at their lowest point in life and simply said two words; "keep walking". That was basically it; nothing fancy, just two words.

CZ had been in prison for 4 months while his company was being taken apart by the regulators, accumulated $50 million worth of personal fines, and came out alive on the other side of it a complete human being.

When you have lived the life that CZ has lived in terms of public failure in the crypto world, you look at your public embarrassment and call it a moment in time; instead of a closing event.

What CZ Actually Went Through

The founder of the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume (Binance) reached an all-time low in November when Changpeng Zhao (CZ) pleaded guilty to breaking US anti-money laundering laws. This was part of a settlement where Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines — the largest penalty in the history of the US Treasury Department and the largest fine ever imposed against a money services business. As a result, he left his position as CEO of Binance to start serving a four-month prison term at a federal facility in California.

Having created his entire identity and business around Binance, quitting as CEO and going into federal custody likely felt like being stripped of the very foundation of his life.

He served his sentence and was released from custody on September 27, 2024, after which he began to speak again.

Why 'Keep Walking' Is the Right Advice

The instinct when things fall apart is to stop moving — to wait for conditions to improve, for clarity to arrive, for some external signal that it's safe to try again. That instinct is understandable and almost always wrong.

What CZ said in two words is the message that the majority of longer-form motivational speeches cover with an excess of fluffy rhetoric — and that is the importance of movement. Movement — not hope, not a strategy, and not a new perspective on a failing system. It is the act of moving forward and continuing to move forward than when you could easily stop would be the most logical thing to do.

In the world of crypto, many have experienced extreme vicissitudes. Founders who built and failed to achieve success. An investor who endured an 80% drawdown only to sell at the bottom. People who made millions and then lost everything because of an exchange collapse as well as victims of rug pulls and bad leveraged trades. The frequency and depth of rock bottom experiences in the crypto market is much more significant compared to most industries.

Therefore, for the people who have been through the aforementioned events, having advice from someone who has actually experienced public professional failure — and still continued to move — holds more weight than any other generic piece of advice. CZ is giving this advice based on what he has experienced; he is not offering platitudes to the audience based on never having been through something terrible as a public professional.

What He's Been Doing Since

Since he got out of prison, CZ has been intentional about starting again on a different basis. He has said publicly that his focus is on education and investing — specifically Giggle Academy, a free digital education platform he described as targeting the roughly 700 to 800 million adults who are illiterate and the 300 to 500 million children who do not go to school. He is also heavily involved in education projects around AI (artificial intelligence) and blockchain technology, especially in developing markets, through YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), the venture arm through which he continues to fund early-stage blockchain and AI projects.

The message "keep walking" expresses the fact that you are aware of your low point, but will not be identified by this. He is not suggesting that people do not care about their past or that they can forget about it through positive thoughts. He is simply stating that when everything else has gone wrong, the next step you take is the only thing you have control over.

It is also important to note that CZ still has a platform. After all that he has been through with his guilty plea and trial and then the $1 million fine, a prison sentence, and disaster in the regulatory area with regards to his operational role, there are still people listening to him. President Trump later pardoned CZ in October 2025, with the White House framing the prosecution as part of the Biden administration's "war on cryptocurrency." This in itself speaks volumes about his ability to recover from adversity and does not need to be said again through his message.

The Crypto Community Needs This Conversation

The mental health of those in the crypto space is a real concern, but one that is not sufficiently addressed. While the financial aspects are subject to extreme volatility, there is also a tremendous amount of emotive exposure and emotional investment. Fortunes can be made and lost within a matter of weeks. The public can celebrate and vilify the same people within the span of a single market cycle, and the culture actively promotes risk-taking without necessarily considering what happens when the risk does not produce a favorable outcome. When CZ tells you to "keep walking," although it may seem like a small thing to say, it is still enough.