In the summer of 2024, a man sat in a federal prison in California, using an old-fashioned computer that couldn't copy and paste, and typed out the first draft of this book word by word from memory.

His name is Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, and he is known in the industry as CZ.

Before going to prison, he was the head of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with over 300 million users. After his release, he was pardoned by President Trump. During those 76 days, he slept on a moldy mattress two or three centimeters thick, ate cereal that tasted like scraps of paper, listened to the incessant flushing of the toilet all night, and thought about how to get more children into school for free.

This book was written during that period. The BlockBets editors (relying on AI, of course) extracted and compiled some of CZ's stories from the book for readers:

He moved eleven times in total.

In his book, CZ summarized that he "moved roughly every four years." The level of detail in his descriptions of each residence varied greatly, with more specific descriptions of the poorer the place. The following is in chronological order:

1. Qingkou Town, Jiangsu Province, approximately 1977-1982 (0-3 years old)

CZ said, "I have little memory of Qingkou; everything I know comes from what my family told me." (Regarding her birthplace, CZ stated, "I have little memory of Qingkou; everything I know comes from what my family told me.")

2. Zhonghu Village, Jiangsu Province, approximately 1982-1987 (ages 3-10)

With the help of others, the mother moved with CZ and her sister to Zhonghu Village, near their maternal grandmother's house, and lived in the teachers' dormitory of the village's middle school.

The living quarters were extremely basic: two rooms, one for sleeping (two beds took up most of the space), and the other serving as a living room, study, and dining room. The floor was dirt, without even cement. There was no running water; the nearest well was 300 meters away, and the mother carried it back and forth on a shoulder pole every day. Each person could only use one bucket of water for bathing, and bathing was rare, even in winter. The village had no electricity for a long time, and CZ did his homework by kerosene lamp. Electricity was later provided, but only for a few hours each day at irregular times.

A photo of CZ and his sister in Zhonghu Village, 1982.

A few years later, a hand pump was installed in the yard. CZ said that this was the moment when "the seed of longing for technology was planted in his heart".

3. USTC campus in Hefei, 1987-1989 (ages 10-12)

My father was a physics graduate student at the University of Science and Technology of China, and the whole family moved to Hefei. We first lived in a faculty dormitory building, in a single room. The four of us shared two bunk beds, and the kitchen was a communal gas stove in the corridor. Every mealtime, the whole corridor smelled of cooking oil. Not long after, we moved into a small two-bedroom apartment: there was no living room, so the master bedroom served as the living room, and CZ and her sister slept in the second bedroom. "The space was so narrow that it was difficult to even turn around," she said. There was no place to shower in the entire building, and we had to walk ten minutes to a public bathhouse.

4. UBC Vancouver Campus, 1989-1995 (Ages 12-18)

In August 1989, I immigrated to Canada with my parents. We first lived in a single room in a student dormitory on the UBC campus. The four of us squeezed into two bunk beds. The bathroom and kitchen were shared, and we shared a large refrigerator and a long dining table with students from all over the world.

CZ's father spent 7,000 Canadian dollars (seven months' income) on an x286 computer. CZ said, "Without that computer, I might not be who I am today."

In 1990, CZ first encountered computers in Vancouver.

A few weeks later, CZ moved into a townhouse in the UBC faculty housing complex. He said it was "the most spacious place I've ever lived in," with a kitchen and living room downstairs, two bedrooms and a small storage room upstairs, and small gardens in the front and back. However, his parents and sister each had their own bedroom, so the small storage room became CZ's "room": a single mattress was wedged between three walls, and he had to crawl in from the foot of the bed like he was going through a tunnel to sleep there every day, as there was no window. He said he actually felt at ease, "Maybe it's because of this experience that I don't have claustrophobia."

He worked multiple jobs here: McDonald's, dishwasher at PNE, night shift at a Chevron gas station, and volleyball referee. He also had a severe stutter, which was cured with free counseling from a retired speech therapist.

5. McGill University, Montreal, 1995-1999 (approximately 18-22 years old)

During his university years, he rented an apartment off-campus during his freshman year (because it was cheaper than the dorms), but it ended up making him feel "alone." His friends were all on campus, and he was always alone. The book says that at that time, he "had some inexplicable pressure building up inside him."

He went to Tokyo for internships twice during the summer vacation, with the company covering his accommodation, but he soon discovered that "the accommodation costs were much higher than his salary."

6. Tokyo, approximately 1999-2001 (ages 22-24)

He didn't finish his final year of university and stayed in Tokyo to work. He rented a small room in Meguro Ward, which the book describes as: "Just big enough to fit a bed and a bookshelf, and a motorcycle parked next to the bed." The motorcycle was parked in the bedroom because it wasn't safe to park it outside.

The Tokyo lifestyle is the most comfortable part of the book: riding a motorcycle across the Rainbow Bridge, having dinner in Tokyo Bay, going for a drive and hot springs in Hakone on weekends, getting a PADI diving certification, ranking in the top ten in Tokyo at Counter-Strike, and meeting his wife Winnie in Tokyo.

In 2000, CZ rode a motorcycle in Hakone, Japan.

7. Manhattan, New York, 2001-2005 (approximately 24-28 years old)

He joined Bloomberg in November 2001. When the company moved, a professional moving company was arranged to pack up the Tokyo apartment, even the trash cans. CZ said, "This is completely different from my past moving experiences."

Upon landing in New York, Bloomberg arranged a serviced apartment for him on 59th Street in Manhattan. It was a one-bedroom apartment, which CZ said was "the most comfortable place I had ever stayed at the time." His luggage took two months to arrive by sea, but the transition period actually helped him adapt to the new city.

He rose rapidly through the ranks at Bloomberg, leading a 60-person development team by age 25, with an annual salary and bonuses reaching $390,000 in 2005. His child was born there, and out of family responsibility, he quietly uninstalled Counter-Strike.

8. Shanghai, 2005-2017 (ages 28-40, intermittent)

He arrived in Shanghai in November 2005 and founded a fintech company. Initially, he practiced his speeches repeatedly in his newly rented, empty apartment, preparing for press conferences. While his residence in Shanghai is not described in great detail, he did mention:

He bought an apartment in Pudong (in the book, he says, "That apartment holds so many memories: teaching the kids to rollerblade, learning to swim, throwing birthday parties"), and sold it in 2013 to invest all his money in Bitcoin. This was the most family-oriented residence he mentioned in the book, and the only house he described with family life as its theme. After selling it, he never had a place like that again.

In 2015, his family was in Tokyo, while he stayed in Shanghai to start his own business, "so he simply spent more time in the office."

9. Singapore, 2018-end of 2021 (approximately 41-44 years old)

After the MAS announced in 2018 that it would not regulate cryptocurrencies, CZ established Singapore as his main base. He rented a three-bedroom apartment with a great view in Sentosa, but "the cargo ship routes outside the window are too noisy, so I always have to keep the windows closed during meetings." Singaporean apartments are generally small; "my bedroom can barely fit a desk and a bed, and there's barely any space left to turn around." He uses Grab for everything and doesn't own a car.

This period included FTX, the death of my father, and tightening regulations in multiple countries. In December 2021, I was forced to close Binance's Singapore site. The application for a work visa took more than nine months, a stark contrast to the fact that I later obtained a golden visa in Dubai on the same day.

10. Dubai, from the end of 2021 to present (44 years old and above)

In late September 2021, at the suggestion of his friend Gabriel, CZ flew to Dubai. He obtained his Golden Visa that very day (less than 12 hours, and it was a weekend). On his fourth day in Dubai, he bought the second property he had been looking at. This was his first property purchase in nearly nine years since selling his Shanghai apartment in 2013. In his book, he specifically explained why he had never bought property before: "A house can't be moved, and it's troublesome to liquidate. Buying a house means paperwork, maintenance, and property management, which is a drain on my limited time and energy." This purchase was to "proactively catch up," because he only discovered after obtaining the Golden Visa that it usually requires investment or property purchase.

Dubai is extremely efficient. Within a month of his arrival, Binance signed a memorandum of understanding with the government and received in-principle approval for the license within three months. This is something that Singapore has not been able to do for several years.

11. Lompoc II, a U.S. federal prison, June-August 2024 (approximately 47 years old)

Strictly speaking, it was forced residence, but it is one of the most detailed descriptions of the accommodations in the book. On the day of arrival, I underwent a full-naked inspection: palms up, arms raised, fingers inserted into hair, mouth opened, tongue raised, ears checked, then testicles raised, turned around, feet exposed, buttocks spread apart, bent over, and coughed three times to ensure there was nothing hidden in my anus.

After receiving a worn-out brown T-shirt and yellowed socks, CZ was assigned to cell A5 in section C: a steel bunk bed frame, a small cabinet, a steel toilet with a small basin, and a plastic chair. The mattress was two or three centimeters thick, moldy and worn, with a cold steel plate underneath. His cellmate Jay found him an old sweater that smelled of sweat, which he "took without hesitation."

On his first day in jail, CZ didn't dare to take a shower, but he knew he'd have to sooner or later. When he finally did, he found it wasn't as scary as in the movies, but the shower room was only as wide as his shoulders, the water could only flow for 30 seconds, and the temperature couldn't be adjusted, so it was often scalding hot. The solution everyone had was to wet a small towel and let it cool down before wiping themselves.

The entire cell block housed 200 male prisoners, all with tattoos and fierce eyes. The sound of toilets flushing was like a fighter jet, happening all night long. The food consisted of "cereal that tasted like scraps of paper" served with skim milk that was almost like plain water.

Some prison guards were interested in cryptocurrency and, recognizing CZ, asked, "Should we buy Bitcoin now?" CZ thought to himself, "If he says 'yes, you can buy,' what if Bitcoin drops in price tomorrow?" So he gave a uniform reply: "I can't even get online, I have no information at all, how would I know?" The guards then stopped asking.

After 76 days, I was transferred to a halfway house (similar to a university dormitory, with unlocked doors and about 40 inmates). Some time later, I moved into my sister's house to complete my final nine days of home confinement. My sister had specially installed a landline for this and attended supervisor training.

He was released from prison in August 2024. After leaving the parking lot, he stood for 20 minutes waiting for his family to arrive. He then flew back to the UAE. "The moment I hugged my children and family again, I felt true happiness."

People and Faces in the Crypto World

SBF: "Has our relationship deteriorated to the point where we don't even talk to each other anymore?"

The first description of SBF in the book is: he had a unique habit of playing video games during business meetings.

CZ first met Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) at Binance Blockchain Week in January 2019. At the time, he was the CEO of Alameda, and FTX had not yet been established. They hosted a dinner at the Singapore Aquarium, followed by a lavish after-party at a villa in Sentosa. CZ found the event too noisy and left after a short while.

In the summer of 2019, just one month after FTX launched, SBF approached Binance to discuss investment. CFO Zhou Wei admired SBF, finding him very driven. SBF flew in specifically for this purpose, displaying great humility in front of CZ and outlining numerous potential collaboration scenarios. While CZ didn't see through him as quickly as Musk, he decided against investing at the time. Subsequently, SBF poached Binance's junior VIP account manager with five times the salary, taking all VIP client data with him. Binance VIP clients then began receiving targeted discounts from FTX. Among the clients he took was Three Arrows Capital, which later also collapsed.

In 2020, shortly after CZ invested in FTX, a friend told him that SBF was spreading negative rumors about Binance throughout Washington. In 2024, he learned that Ryan Salame, a senior FTX executive, was having a romantic relationship with Michelle, who was in charge of lobbying. Michelle had previously been actively promoting FTX while simultaneously suppressing Binance in US political circles. Another friend confirmed that SBF publicly smeared Binance in front of US policymakers and crypto enthusiasts at a closed-door meeting.

Alameda appears to have been involved in some unusual trading on Binance. A large number of unusual sell-offs occurred on a Binance contract, which was found to be the work of Alameda, a subsidiary of SBF. When the Binance team contacted Alameda, they explained that they were "testing system robustness." A few weeks later, Alameda did the same thing on Binance US. After FTX collapsed, its employees admitted that such losses were common minor mistakes they made. At that time, Binance still held a 20% stake in FTX, which deepened CZ's suspicions about FTX.

The two later bumped into each other at a Saudi summit (a dinner at Crown Prince MBS's palace). Anthony Scaramucci (former White House Communications Director) accompanied SBF and introduced him. CZ and SBF exchanged a few awkward pleasantries before parting ways.

Before FTX collapsed, on November 2, 2022, CoinDesk reported that FTX might go bankrupt, and the price of FTT began to fall. Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, made a fatal mistake in replying to CZ's tweet, publicly stating her willingness to buy FTT at $22, effectively exposing the liquidity crisis. The day before, FTX had withdrawn $200 million from Circle, and other warning signs had already appeared. 24 hours later, SBF messaged CZ: "Has our relationship deteriorated to the point where we don't even talk anymore?"

FTX subsequently admitted to a "liquidity crisis" and was willing to sell the entire company to Binance. CZ said, "I don't want FTX, nor do I want to help SBF, but I have to intervene to protect users and the industry." SBF hoped to announce that Binance intended to acquire FTX to stabilize the market, but after the announcement, FTT immediately fell to around $2, and the market immediately realized that FTX was insolvent.

Vitalik and CZ's eight-year-old son sleep in bunk beds.

CZ first met Vitalik at the Bitcoin Summit in Las Vegas in December 2013. The 19-year-old Vitalik was working at Bitcoin Magazine at the time and was already talking about his vision for Ethereum.

In May 2014, they reunited at an industry summit in Beijing. Two months later, they met again at a Bitcoin conference in Chicago and even took a photo together.

After that, they began a deeper relationship. CZ even sent Vitalik the Binance white paper for his feedback. When Vitalik visited Tokyo in 2015, he stayed at CZ's house, sharing a bunk bed with CZ's eight-year-old son and teaching him programming.

In 2016, Vitalik visited Shanghai and toured the Binance Technology office. CZ introduced him to the team as a "genius." In July 2017, CZ asked Vitalik to read the Binance white paper. Vitalik did not like centralized trading platforms, but he still gave suggestions.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, both were in Singapore, and CZ invited him to his home for dinner. After the FTX crash in 2022, Vitalik suggested that Binance use zero-knowledge proof technology for reserve proofs, which the team adopted. In 2025, Vitalik invited CZ to support his research on an open-source pandemic prevention system, and CZ immediately donated money.

Although Vitalik once publicly said on stage at a blockchain conference, "I wish all centralized exchanges would go to hell," CZ said he didn't care, believing that Vitalik has a unique personality and is a simple genius, but sometimes speaks without thinking.

Star Xu

In the spring of 2014, after CZ left Blockchain.info, He Yi invited him to join her trading platform, OKCoin, while BTCChina simultaneously offered him a 10% equity stake. Surprisingly, OKCoin matched his offer within three hours, also offering 10% equity, with 5% coming from a voluntary relinquishment by an investor. CZ ultimately chose Beijing and joined OKCoin. The book states that if Cao Darong and Li Qiyuan hadn't offered conditions that compelled OKCoin to follow suit, they wouldn't have offered such a large stake.

CZ had direct observations of Star Xu's work style. The book states that Wudaokou in Beijing has a highly competitive entrepreneurial culture, and Star Xu was a typical representative of this culture. He had a bed in his office, practically making the company his home, and hoped CZ would do the same. CZ didn't object; at that time, his family had moved to Tokyo, and he remained alone in Beijing, almost isolated from the outside world, dedicating himself entirely to his work.

But not long after, CZ began to feel uncomfortable. The book deliberately avoids going into details, only saying that it was a "fundamental difference in culture and values," and noting that "there have been many public reports about it before." In January 2015, Star Xu attempted to renegotiate CZ's 10% stake, and CZ did not hesitate to submit his resignation.

A few months after CZ's departure, Roger Ver and Star Xu publicly clashed over the domain name usage fee for bitcoin.com. Their chat logs show that the price difference was only tens of thousands of dollars, but negotiations broke down due to language barriers and cultural differences, ultimately escalating into a public spat.

A few days later, Star Xu suddenly claimed that the root of the problem was that CZ had "forged the contract" while in office. CZ explicitly refuted this in his book: he had already left the company when this happened, and he had never even seen the "fake contract." He didn't want to get involved in their war of words, but the "forged contract" directly damaged his personal reputation, so he couldn't remain silent.

In May 2015, CZ posted a clarification on Reddit, stating that he had never forged any documents, and also listed some issues he had observed during his time at OKCoin. He himself admitted, "Looking back now, saying too much seems emotional, but at the time I was genuinely angry."

Star Xu reacted extremely strongly: he launched a personal attack on CZ and pressured He Yi to publicly criticize CZ. He Yi refused and subsequently resigned. The community generally viewed He Yi resignation as support for CZ. Star Xu saw this as a personal betrayal and began a sustained attack on both CZ and He Yi.

This is the last and most significant detail about Star Xu in the book: In 2025, at a dinner party, CZ met Li Lin again after 11 years. At that time, Li Lin, the founder of Huobi, had decided to leave the industry after his release and sold Huobi to Justin Sun. Li Lin told CZ that he had seen a screenshot showing that Star Xu had personally reported him to the Chinese police, and it was this report that directly led to his arrest.

Justin Sun pays homage to local leaders.

In 2017, during the early days of Binance, Justin Sun was preparing to launch the Tron project. When he came to the Binance office, he said he had come specifically to "pay his respects." CZ was hearing this term for the first time at the time.

On July 7, 2018, CZ flew to Zug, Switzerland to attend a blockchain conference. That evening, the organizers hosted a welcome dinner for more than 50 speakers at a lakeside restaurant. Sun Yuchen asked him for a photo and posted it online. Later, the media and online trolls mistakenly reported this photo as a "private meeting" between the two of them. In fact, there were no fewer than 50 people around when the photo was taken.

Support Musk's acquisition of Twitter

In April 2022, Musk announced his intention to acquire Twitter. CZ's first reaction was, "Great, at least Twitter's update speed will improve!" He even made a phone call to Musk, followed by a short internal meeting where Binance decided to invest $500 million to support Musk's acquisition of Twitter, as reported by the media on May 5th. Subsequently, Musk said he wouldn't buy it, causing the stock price to plummet; six months later, Twitter sued Musk, forcing him to complete the deal. CZ stated that by then he had lost enthusiasm for the transaction.

On October 28, the Binance team confirmed that it had transferred $500 million to Musk.

CZ later learned from the news that FTX also wanted to participate in the Twitter acquisition, but Musk's "anti-hype radar" was activated, and he directly rejected SBF.

Meeting with the Sequoia Court

On August 8, 2017, the same day He Yi announced her joining Binance, Neil Shen of Sequoia Capital messaged her, hinting at their willingness to invest. Binance then pushed forward with negotiations, holding video conferences and meetings at the Jing'an Shangri-La Hotel in Shanghai, but Sequoia's progress noticeably slowed down.

In late October, after Binance weathered the risks, Sequoia reiterated its investment intentions, but CZ directly requested a valuation adjustment. Because of the disagreement over valuation, the investment ultimately fell through.

On the very day Binance topped the charts and Bitcoin hit a new all-time high, Sequoia Capital sued Binance for failing to fulfill its investment agreement. CZ believes this was orchestrated by Sequoia's US legal team, and the method of the lawsuit was very "sophisticated." The book states, "For startups, suing venture capitalists is suicidal, especially for industry giants like Sequoia." In 2019, the court rejected all of Sequoia's claims, and Binance won the case.

In Abu Dhabi in 2023, CZ met again with Neil Shen of Sequoia China (at this time, Sequoia China and the US had separated, and the Chinese team was renamed "Sequoia China"). The two had a pleasant conversation and shook hands to make peace.

CZ's family

In this book, CZ's descriptions of his family are highly restrained, rarely sentimental, but the more restrained the descriptions, the more weighty they are.

I still feel sad whenever I think of my father.

The father is the most fully depicted, and also the most burdensome, family character in the book.

A family photo of CZ. Taken in 1987 at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei.

A family photo of CZ, taken on August 6, 1989, upon their initial arrival at Vancouver Airport.

During his childhood, his father was often away from home. He was the first person from rural Jiangsu to be admitted to university. He taught himself calculus, linear algebra, and electromagnetism, studying these subjects late into the night while others played cards and drank. He eventually gained admission to the University of Science and Technology of China for a master's degree in physics and later became a university lecturer. Later, he went to the University of Toronto as an exchange scholar to pursue his doctorate. He was admitted to the Department of Physics at UBC and, after settling in Vancouver, brought his whole family to live with him. CZ said that his father opened up new opportunities for him and his sister, but his father could only come home twice a year during the winter and summer vacations, a journey of nearly 24 hours each way.

One detail: CZ's father spent 7,000 Canadian dollars (equivalent to seven months of his income) to buy him an x286 computer when he was 13 years old. CZ wrote, "This is the most expensive computer my father and I have ever bought in our lives. But looking back now, it was absolutely worth it. Without that computer, I might not be who I am today."

When my father was at UBC, he was hit by a car late one night while walking home. He was in a coma for three days and suffered from chronic headaches ever since. His dream was to start his own company, but he couldn't achieve it because English wasn't his native language and he lacked business experience. He lived a simple and content life, only accepting money from CZ once, and refusing it whenever offered again.

The death of his father is one of the most emotionally charged parts of the book. His father was diagnosed with leukemia in 2020, and his condition worsened in the spring of 2021, with doctors estimating he had only 12 to 18 months to live. CZ immediately suggested bringing his father to Singapore, contacting top leukemia specialists, and securing a humanitarian special entry permit during the COVID-19 lockdown. With everything in place, his father said he wanted to stay in Toronto for another two weeks.

A week later, my father developed a fever on an ordinary night. Not wanting to wait in line at the emergency room late at night, he decided to go to the hospital the next day. Unexpectedly, the chemotherapy had greatly weakened his immune system. He passed away the following morning.

"Just the night before, they were taking a walk together, and everything seemed normal."

CZ wrote: "This news is hard for me to accept. I had prepared everything, and I was only a week away from seeing him. I cried several times in the first two days. My father and I weren't particularly close, and we didn't contact each other often. Maybe that's typical of Chinese father-son relationships. But losing him leaves me feeling empty."

He also wrote: "I still feel sad whenever I think of my father, and I am still feeling sad when I write this."

At 82 years old, she traveled six hours to see her son.

Throughout the book, the mother is portrayed as someone who silently bears the burden, but she appears at several crucial junctures in CZ's life.

During his childhood, his father was often away, leaving his mother to raise their two children alone. Their home had dirt floors and no running water; every day, they had to carry water on a shoulder pole from a well 300 meters away. She provided each child with a desk, which CZ described as a "luxury" in the rural area at the time, perhaps planting the seeds of learning in his subconscious. His mother later worked in a garment factory in Vancouver, leaving early in the morning, scrimping and saving to give her children the best of everything.

After CZ sold his Pudong apartment and invested all his money in Bitcoin, and the price subsequently plummeted, his mother's only reaction was: "Why can't you have a stable job like your sister?" He used this sentence to describe that difficult period; it was simple, but extremely weighty.

The night before his plea, CZ wrote his resignation letter in his Seattle hotel room until 4 a.m. That night, he had dinner with his sister, mother, and several close friends. After dinner, he went back to his room alone to write.

When the mother first came to visit her son in prison, she was turned away because the immigration officer hadn't stamped her Canadian passport with an entry stamp, and the prison guards couldn't find the record. The 82-year-old had traveled six hours to see her son, only to be refused entry. Her sister later downloaded and printed the entry record from the government website, which finally allowed her to enter.

CZ was finally released after being detained for 14 days. The moment he walked out of the detention center, "his sister and mother were already waiting outside." He got into a car and headed straight to the airport, boarding a private jet. CZ wrote, "I hugged my sister and mother and boarded the plane. From the time I walked out of the detention center to the time the plane took off, it only took 26 minutes."

After the plane landed in the UAE, he wrote: "The moment I hugged my children and family again, I felt true happiness."

I'm so lucky to have such a sister.

The older sister is the family member who appears most frequently in the book, second only to He Yi, and she is almost always present during CZ's most vulnerable moments.

Childhood: CZ's older sister is two years older than him, but she started school earlier than her peers. In Vancouver, his sister started working at McDonald's at the age of 15, and a year later, she took CZ with her to work there too. When they lived in a UBC campus dormitory, CZ slept in a small storage room without windows. His sister would suggest switching rooms with him every few weeks so he could "get some fresh air." CZ said, "I'm so lucky to have a sister like that."

The prison visitation period is the part of the book where the older sister plays the most significant role. CZ was imprisoned in a low-security prison, where family visits required being on a pre-sentencing report list. The older sister, armed with a printed copy of the regulations by Michael Santos, struggled for a long time at the prison gate before finally getting in, and even helped her mother resolve the passport entry stamp issue. CZ wrote, "Before my family's first visit, I kept saying they didn't need to come. But honestly, after a week in prison, I was really happy to see them again. Knowing they were coming, I prepared for hours in advance and waited. When the guard finally called my name, I practically 'fell to the ground' as I ran from the corridor to the visiting room. It was one of the happiest moments of my entire incarceration."

CZ spent the last nine days of his home confinement at his sister's house. His sister had specially installed a landline, turned off call forwarding, attended supervisor training, and passed a home visit inspection by staff.

This charming girl is Winnie.

Winnie appears only once in the book, and very briefly:

"Shortly after arriving in Tokyo, I happened to walk into a cozy Chinese restaurant with a friend. The pretty Chinese waitress there caught my eye, and we started chatting naturally. It turned out that it was her family's restaurant; her father was the only chef, responsible for all 485 dishes on the menu; and her mother took care of the dining area and handled the cash. This charming girl was Winnie. We started dating and got married a few years later."

This is the only instance. The book provides no further explanation of the marriage process.

CZ's most frequently mentioned friends in the book

Cao Darong and Li Qiyuan

These two are the starting point of the entire Binance story:

In July 2013, at a card game with old friends, Cao Darong (General Manager of Lightspeed China, whom he had known for six years) casually mentioned, "CZ, there's something new called Bitcoin, you should check it out." The next day, CZ had dinner with Li Qiyuan (Li Qiwei, the brother of the founder of Litecoin), who gave his famous advice: "You should convert 10% of your assets into Bitcoin. There's a small chance it will go to zero, and you'll lose 10%; but there's a high probability it will increase tenfold, and your net worth will double."

The two then invited CZ to join BTCChina as CTO three times in total, but CZ declined each time due to other opportunities. The last time, BTCChina even offered 10% equity, but he still missed out on another opportunity.

After that meal, CZ left all poker groups.

Eric's article is short but extremely important.

In 2015, CZ returned to Shanghai and resumed his life of playing cards, golf, and various social activities. One day, his friend Eric suddenly said during dinner, "CZ, if you quit poker for two years, you can play whatever you want afterwards. With your intelligence and emotional intelligence, you could have achieved much greater things. Right now, you're completely wasting your life."

Eric, ten years older than CZ, had sold his early entrepreneurial company to Motorola. He was always mild-mannered and polite, never speaking with a sharp tongue. CZ wrote that Eric's words after that meal took root in his mind and lingered for days. From that day on, he gave up poker, his work efficiency skyrocketed, and he eventually founded Binance. The book concludes: "To this day, I am still grateful for his sincere advice and warning."

This is the most direct expression of gratitude CZ gives for friendship in the entire book.

A friend I've known for twenty years, who stepped up to me in crucial moments

CZ and Heina have known each other for twenty years. In 2005, Heina worked as a saleswoman at a friend's wine cellar in Shanghai. She was a woman from rural Sichuan who worked and studied at the same time and earned a bachelor's degree. After joining Binance, she was responsible for all back-office affairs, which is why CZ said, "I spend 99% of my energy on the front end, and I avoid back-office matters as much as possible."

In Binance's early days, withdrawals were processed entirely manually. Heina, as the finance manager, was assigned to the final stage of manual review to prevent errors that could lead to abnormal asset outflows. Her work rhythm was: working from dawn till dusk, reviewing a batch of withdrawal applications every 15 to 30 minutes until 1 a.m. before finally getting a break, sleeping for three hours, then waking up at 4 a.m. to review the next batch, and continuing the cycle at 7 a.m. This continued without interruption.

Heina's husband's pent-up anger finally exploded because of her long hours of staying up late. In a fit of rage, he grabbed the computer in the middle of the night, smashed it on the floor, and stomped on it several times. CZ left a message for that husband in his book: "He probably won't realize until he reads this book that what he smashed in his rage that night was Binance's hot wallet."

Most wallets were restored via backup, but it was discovered that a hot wallet containing newly added cryptocurrencies had not been backed up in time, and contained approximately $500,000. CZ said, "This amount of money, while not enough to bankrupt us, is not insignificant either."

Binance subsequently upgraded its backup mechanism and eliminated the manual withdrawal review process. Heina also received a military-grade drop-proof laptop as compensation and as a precaution.

Heina faced her most difficult situation in the early hours of the morning in September 2017 when the ban was imposed: she didn't have a Japanese visa, and at 2 a.m., she woke her husband to tell him, "I'm flying to Thailand at 6 a.m., and I don't know when I'll be back," while her two-year-old son was still fast asleep. Her husband asked, "How long will you be gone?" She replied, "I'm not sure." CZ jokingly wrote, "I was surprised that no other laptop was smashed that night."

Rich, my old friend who always appears at crucial moments

Rich is one of the most persistent real-world friends in the book.

The book doesn't describe at length how the two met, but Rich appears at several key junctures: in 2021, it was Rich who first alerted CZ to Michelle Bond's lobbying efforts in Washington to suppress Binance on behalf of FTX; during the Department of Justice case, Rich also appeared in CZ's circle of friends supporting him; and on the night of the guilty plea, he was one of his close friends present. Rich is the kind of person CZ described as "always by his side"—not an industry star, but always present at crucial moments.

Ted, my best friend from high school

Ted's time span was the longest. He was CZ's best friend at University Hill Secondary School in Vancouver. His father was a doctor in Taiwan, and his family was much better off than CZ's. Ted's mother prepared two lunchboxes every day, one for Ted and one for CZ, who always forgot to bring his own lunch. CZ said that his humble character might have come from this mother.

Twenty years later, the two remain in touch. On the night of the 2018 Taiwan earthquake, CZ and Ted were eating snacks at a roadside stall when Ted received a message informing him that he was on the cover of Forbes' February issue. That same year, Ted was the first to see and alert CZ to a letter from the Japanese Financial Services Agency, because CZ rarely checks his emails. This detail is quite interesting; a close high school friend is still keeping an eye on important emails for him.

Crypto veteran Bao Erye

Erbao was an early OG in the crypto world at Binance, an industry veteran, and had a deep friendship with CZ. When he visited the office in the early days of Binance's launch, he immediately suggested that CZ recruit He Yi, saying, "If she can join, all the problems will be solved." This became one of the direct triggers for He Yi's joining.

On the other hand, when Fcoin launched its "transaction mining" model, sparking a wave of imitation in the industry, Erbao also tried to persuade CZ to follow suit. After CZ publicly criticized the model on Weibo, Erbao publicly said, "Your logic is flawed." CZ persisted in his judgment, and Fcoin's subsequent bankruptcy proved him right. Although the two disagreed, the book portrays Erbao as always showing empathy and warmth, not as an adversary.

Jay, my first friend in prison

Jay, an Asian inmate, helped CZ move to a leaky cell less than five minutes after CZ entered Block C. That evening, Jay found him bedding and a sweaty old sweater, and taught him basic prison etiquette. Before CZ could even speak, Jay announced, "You're one of us." CZ thus joined the "Pacific Islanders" gang, a small group of only six people out of 200 in the entire block, without any real choice.

Jay is a tightly packed but extremely vivid character in the book, representing the genuine kindness that CZ unexpectedly received in prison.