Who is CZ? The Man Behind Binance
Changpeng Zhao, widely known as CZ, is the founder of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume. Most people in the crypto world recognize his name, but not many know the full story behind it.
In April 2026, CZ released a memoir titled Binance Life: A Memoir of Luck, Resilience, and Protecting Users, also published under the name Freedom of Money. The book is 364 pages long and covers his life from childhood to prison and beyond. All royalties from the book go to charity.
The release also sparked a major price surge in the BIANRENSHENG token on LBank, which climbed from $0.05 to around $0.33 in the same week.
Growing Up Without Much and Moving to Canada
CZ was born in Jiangsu, China, in 1977. His father was a geophysics professor who was labeled a "pro-capitalist intellectual" during a political campaign and was sent to perform labor in a rural area. As a result, CZ grew up in a university dormitory without running water. He described that period of life as "carefree" because he believed that poverty did not equate to unhappiness.
In 1989, CZ moved to Vancouver, Canada, to reunite with his father. To help support his family, he worked at McDonald's for two years and worked night shifts at a Chevron gas station. These early experiences shaped the frugal and no-waste attitude he later established in Binance’s work culture.
From McGill University Dropout to Managing a Global Team
CZ initially entered McGill University planning to major in biology but later switched to computer science. After eventually dropping out, he found full-time work at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Subsequently, he moved to New York to work at Bloomberg Tradebook and was managing a global team by the age of 25.
His career was steadily growing at the time, but cryptocurrency had not yet entered his field of vision.
The Poker Game That Started It All
CZ first encountered Bitcoin in 2013 during a poker game. Someone at the table mentioned Bitcoin, which sparked CZ's curiosity and led him to research further. Then happened one of the boldest decisions of his life. He sold his apartment in Shanghai and invested all his funds into Bitcoin, even though the price dropped 70% shortly after his purchase.
Afterwards, he served as the technical director of Blockchain.info and briefly as the CTO of OKCoin. These roles allowed him to gain close-up insight into the operation of the crypto industry and the areas it still lacked. This experience eventually motivated him to create his own exchange.
How Binance Turned from an Idea into a Real Exchange Within Weeks
Binance stood out from other exchanges for several key reasons:
- Supported ERC-20 tokens before most other exchanges did
- Committed to responding to customer service requests within five minutes
- Its trading engine can process 1.4 million transactions per second
These choices helped Binance grow quickly and build a user base that trusted the platform.
The China Ban That Could Have Ended Binance
In September 2017, China banned cryptocurrency. This was a serious blow for many exchanges, including Binance. Instead of pulling back, CZ made a move that earned the company a strong reputation across the industry. He used 40% of Binance's cash reserves, around $6 million at the time, to compensate users for losses tied to other ICO projects that were affected by the ban.
After the ban, Binance operated without a fixed headquarters. Its employees worked remotely from dozens of countries as the company adapted to stay ahead of changing regulations around the world.
A $4.3 Billion Fine and the Decision to Step Down
In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice investigated Binance for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and failing to meet anti-money laundering requirements. The investigation did not involve fraud or losses to users, but it did point to an internal culture of "asking for forgiveness rather than permission."
To protect Binance and its users, CZ resigned as CEO. Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in corporate fines, and CZ personally paid $150 million. He describes the decision as "sacrificing the pawn to save the rook," meaning he stepped back so the company could keep moving forward.
Writing a Memoir From Inside a Prison Farm
CZ served four months in Lompoc II, a low-security federal prison in California. While incarcerated, he used a public computer with no internet access and a 15-minute usage limit each time to complete writing his entire memoir. After publication, the book topped Amazon’s Bitcoin and cryptocurrency sales charts.
His time in prison changed his perspective on his life. He worked on the farm, lost 6 kilograms, and focused on staying physically active. More importantly, he began to understand that family and health are more important than work. For someone who used to work around the clock, this shift in mindset was significant. While living in transitional housing after release, he even volunteered to write cryptocurrency educational materials for other inmates.
Rivalries, Old Feuds, and the FTX Collapse
This memoir also covers some of the most discussed interpersonal relationships in the crypto industry.
On the topic of Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX, CZ explains that the relationship fell apart after he found out SBF was lobbying against Binance in Washington and trying to recruit Binance's biggest clients away. When FTX was collapsing, CZ signed a non-binding agreement to acquire the exchange. He says his reason for doing so was to stabilize the market and give users enough time to withdraw their funds, not because he intended to complete the deal.
The memoir also reignited a long-running feud with Star Xu, the founder of OKX. CZ claims Xu once reported him to Chinese authorities. Xu fired back publicly, calling CZ a habitual liar and resurfacing a 2015 notarized video he says proves CZ forged a contract. The dispute quickly turned into a $1 billion public bet, which Xu ultimately declined.
Their combined influence is also part of why the Binance Life token went viral went viral across the crypto world.
Away from the drama, CZ's life partner and Binance co-founder He Yi is the company's second-largest shareholder. She managed Binance entirely while CZ was in prison. The two have been together for over a decade and have three children.
What CZ Is Building Next
Under his plea agreement, CZ is barred from managing Binance for three years. His focus has shifted to Giggle Academy, a free digital education platform designed for illiterate adults and out-of-school children around the world. He also continues to support Web3, artificial intelligence, and decentralized science through Binance Labs, and he serves as a strategic advisor on Pakistan's national crypto committee.
CZ still believes that crypto's biggest value is not in speculation. He sees it as critical infrastructure for the estimated 1.4 billion people around the world who do not have access to traditional banking systems. For him, the real impact of crypto lies in low-cost money transfers and financial access for people who have long been left out of the system. His story is not just about building the world's biggest exchange. It is about what can happen when someone commits fully to an idea, takes on serious risk, faces real consequences, and still finds a reason to keep going.
