https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.328570/gov.uscourts.wawd.328570.81.1.pdf
Dear Judge Jones, While I know I will have the opportunity to address the court in person at sentencing, I thought I would take the opportunity now to thank the court and the probation office for their time. I apologize for my poor decision and take full responsibility for my actions.
In hindsight, I should have focused on implementing compliance changes at Binance from the beginning. There is no excuse for my failure to build the necessary compliance controls at Binance. I wish I could change this part of the Binance story. But under my guidance, Binance now has the most stringent AML controls of any non-US exchange, and they have been in place since 2022. It’s hard to describe how fast we’ve grown and evolved. How chaotic it was to keep Binance afloat in the early years as we tried to keep up with the pace of Binance’s growth. Unexpected, extreme, exponential growth. In the end, we built a great product that protects all users and their funds at all times. I also apologize to everyone I let down: my family, friends, Binance employees, and the greater crypto community. Although I take some solace from the hundreds of people who have written about it.
My life has changed in so many ways. I am no longer the CEO of Binance — and it’s hard to describe how dedicated I am to the company. Improving Binance to be a secure platform that provides financial services to hundreds of millions of users everywhere is a big part of who I am. I thought I would be doing this for the next few decades. That life is no longer for me. It was hard to accept this at first, but I’ve come to terms with it. I look forward to making a positive impact elsewhere in the future.
As I look to the future, I take time to reflect on the past. My path has been unconventional: I grew up in an immigrant family, with both parents making close to minimum wage. I’ve worked, lived a simple life from the age of 14, and I could support myself. I didn’t take out student loans. In college, I fell in love with tech and tried it. There were multiple failed startups before Binance. When those failed, I always returned investors’ money. I looked at myself and said, “I’ll try again.” I also don’t like leaving problems unsolved. That’s why I voluntarily surrendered and took responsibility for this thing.
That’s it, closing this chapter, turning the page, and focusing on the next chapter of my life. I was initially interested in cryptocurrency because of its inclusiveness and equality, providing opportunities for everyone in the world. Looking ahead, I see a lot of opportunities, and the same is true for biotech. Specifically, I feel that too much of the current medical research is too profit-driven. Big Pharma has their quarterly earnings reports. I want to help fund small research labs with the goal of curing diseases once and for all and providing medical care to billions of people. Over the past few years, I have talked to many biotech startups in this field. For several months, I wanted to make this field a focus area for the next chapter of my life.
Another area where I will continue to spend my time is helping young people, which is a priority for me during my tenure at Binance. From education programs in Africa to improve the living standards of Africans, to underprivileged youth in Southeast Asia, to university courses in Europe. I will be investing a lot of time and resources in this area going forward, in many places.
Words cannot explain how much I regret the choices I made that led me to this court date. Please be assured that this will never happen again. Please accept my assurance that this will be my only contact with the criminal justice system and that going forward I will live my life in a way that would make everyone proud.
The following is the full text of He Yi’s letter:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.328570/gov.uscourts.wawd.328570.81.2.pdf
Dear Judge Jones:
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I am the working partner of CZ(abbreviated as CZ) and the mother of his three children. I hope this letter can help the judge understand a more real CZ.
In the spring of 2014, I met CZ at a school blockchain public event. Everyone called him CZ, which was the initials of his real name, unlike the anonymous name used by many people. CZ was immediately invited to the stage to share impromptu that day because the organizers found out that he worked for the most popular Bitcoin wallet at the time (blockchain.info). He enthusiastically explained blockchain technology and Bitcoin principles to everyone. At that time, he had just sold his house to buy Bitcoin. Due to the decline in Bitcoin prices, his assets shrank significantly, but this did not hit his obsession with blockchain technology. His speech was full of idealism about how blockchain technology can bring positive changes to the world, which also greatly influenced and inspired me. Later, CZ chose to get involved in the encryption field and founded Binance. He certainly hopes that the company will succeed, but he is not a person who takes making money as the ultimate goal. He sincerely hopes to use technology to promote the progress of the world.
In the summer of 2014, CZ’s years of accumulated matchmaking and trading technology background could not be fully utilized in Blockchain. After I invited him many times, he joined OKCoin, the crypto trading platform where I worked. At that time, the crypto had entered a downward cycle. Amid the wailing of the industry, a community member unfortunately suffered from leukemia. He could not afford his medical expenses, so he publicly launched a fundraising campaign. CZ actively participated in the donation even though his personal assets had shrunk greatly, but unfortunately, this community member still died in the end. Inspired by this incident, CZ and I jointly launched the "Love BTC" charity project. He built a website and a public Bitcoin wallet address. We raised funds through social media auctions of clothing, etc., and then directly exchanged BTC for goods and gave them to the beneficiaries. For this purpose, CZ also wrote a paper on how blockchain technology can achieve 100% transparent charity, ensure that the final beneficiaries receive 100% of the benefits, and ensure that no donations are eroded by middleman management fees. This paper can be found on Github, with a timestamp of April 2014
(https://github.com/cpzhao/bitcoin_charity/blob/master/Bitcoin_Charity.md), which is the predecessor of Binance Charity.
This was three years before Binance was founded. CZ was not rich at that time. Many people think that charity is just for fame. Some people use it as a means to offset taxes. Some people say that they will do charity when they are financially independent. But for CZ, it is a
Whether he is poor or rich, he always takes charity seriously and assumes social responsibility because he is kind and has a humanitarian spirit.
In August 2017, my first month at Binance, a young user came to me and said that he had transferred thousands of dollars to Binance’s wallet address, but Binance did not support the token, so Binance could not receive the token; this was a very common mistake in the early days of the industry.
According to the industry practice at the time, you need to take responsibility for your own mistakes. However, for this kid in his early 20s, the few thousand dollars might be his family's annual income, his annual college tuition, and his hope for the future. After a brief discussion between me and CZ, he mobilized our limited development resources and quickly helped the user recover the assets. This was the first case in the industry to help users recover assets from the wrong address. With the first time, there will be countless times later. Under CZ's guidance, Binance has helped more than 180,000 users recover assets with a total value of more than 441 million US dollars. This is a project that consumes a lot of resources and is not worth doing in terms of ROI, but we can ignite hope for our users in despair. To this day, publicly listed trading platforms such as Coinbase still do not support this service. In this emerging Wild West, countless practitioners play the role of predators, and CZ has always insisted that we should do the right thing: protect users.
In early 2018, the price of Bitcoin rose by more than $20,000, and the enthusiasm of investors also spawned a large number of frauds. One day, a group of Chinese users came to me and pointed out that they were lured by an account on social media to invest in a project. After the money was transferred, the person disappeared, but according to the public on-chain information tracking, the money had just been transferred to Binance. According to the law enforcement process of most platforms today, users need to find the police first, and the police provide a letter of cooperation before freezing. At that time, China banned cryptocurrency transactions, and the Chinese police did not handle such cases. CZ said to us: "Do the right thing", we temporarily froze the stolen money, and then organized multiple calls between the victims and the scammers. In the end, the scammers returned the money to the users, and the scammers also closed their accounts. This is just one of the countless examples of CZ's persistence in cracking down on evildoers. In the past 2023, Binance cooperated with law enforcement agencies in various countries in more than 58,000 case investigations, many of which were initiated by Binance to push law enforcement agencies to initiate investigations. This is why, despite the mainstream media's attempts to portray CZ as an evil villain, millions of community users and ordinary people regard him as a hero in the industry, because CZ has always insisted on justice. If the cryptocurrency industry is compared to the Wild West, then CZ is the guardian of this wilderness.
Starting in 2019, the company's staff began to grow rapidly, and the team composition is very global and full of diversity. During this period, there are Wall Street elites who graduated from Ivy League schools, dropouts from Europe, female NGO fighters active on the front line in Africa, and young men in rural Southeast Asia who do not want to be fishermen. It can be said that CZ really treats everyone equally regardless of race, belief, gender, education, and family background. Whether it is a junior employee's house in Southeast Asia destroyed by a fire, or Covid sweeping the world causing employees to lack epidemic prevention supplies, or even the war between Russia and Ukraine posing a danger to employees, CZ helps employees regardless of cost. For a company boss, it is not uncommon to spend millions of dollars to help scarce talents facing difficulties lead their families away from an unstable living environment and continue to pay allowances. When CZ made these decisions, he did not consider their background and rank, which also covered a large number of junior employees who were just starting out. These employees are generally easy to find replacements, but there is only one reason for CZ's decision: they need support.
CZ’s leadership style may not conform to traditional expectations of a good CEO. His commitment to transparency and fairness at Binance often clashes with the power expectations of a small group of employees accustomed to a meritocratic corporate environment. This has led to some employees leaving the company in anger and making false accusations to the media. While these reports sometimes frustrate me, CZ has shouldered this burden and continues to support fairness and equality because he understands that true fairness is sometimes unfair to the privileged few.
On a weekend in November 2022, FTX was facing a crisis, and Sam (SBF) made his last call for help to CZ. Before getting any valid reports and documents from SBF, CZ convened a management meeting to decide whether to rescue FTX. He said: "We don't need FTX as a company. We save FTX to save the industry. We should save FTX." Although he eventually gave up the deal, subsequent public information showed that multiple companies associated with FTX were misappropriating user assets, which stunned CZ. CZ believes that transparency is a better solution, so he disclosed the wallet address of Binance's trading platform, and launched products that allow users to verify their account funds and online wallet addresses to demonstrate Binance's transparency, which further promotes industry self-discipline.
So far, CZ and I have experienced ten years of ups and downs in this industry. These ten years have been a decade of dramatic changes in the industry. In these ten years, Bitcoin has risen from a low of hundreds of dollars to more than 40,000 US dollars now. We have seen countless former celebrities lose their reputations and countless well-known institutions collapse in an instant. Most of the time, these people are self-proclaimed smart and talented, but they regard the law as nothing, thinking that they can deceive the public or get away with it. But CZ is not: he is upright, kind, sincere, smart and very, very hardworking; CZ had two spinal surgeries in 2020 alone because of work, and he did not stop working for a day even if he was repeatedly lying in bed for 18 months. In the past six years, as CEO and the largest shareholder, he has received a salary lower than that of multiple executives introduced by the company later, and has not made a single dividend or cash out for himself. This time, in order to keep Binance running, he chose to fly to the United States to plead guilty; between personal interests and public interests, CZ always chooses to sacrifice himself and achieve Binance, and when between Binance and users, he will choose users.
As CZ's partner, I know clearly how CZ won the respect of the community; it could be when the Chinese government banned Bitcoin trading platforms and other project parties took the opportunity to make a fortune, CZ chose to clear out users at a higher price; it could also be when Binance was stolen, CZ was the first to disclose the information and take full responsibility; it could also be when countless project parties issued coins just to sell them to get rich, and CZ was helping users track down scammers and hackers in the industry, some cases even had nothing to do with Binance, just because of his sense of mission and responsibility for the industry.
As CZ's life partner, I have known CZ for nearly ten years, so I know his unknown side better. He knows nothing about the jewelry, luxury goods, luxury cars, and art auctions that the rich are keen on. He lives a simple life. He buys affordable clothes on Amazon, he rides a balance bike to meetings, he enthusiastically showed his Toyota 6-seater van to reporters and was later publicly ridiculed by reporters. He buys things out of efficiency and interest, he has no fanatical desire for money, fame, and enjoyment, and he hopes to live a meaningful life.
At the same time, he always tries to be considerate of his friends, regardless of their occupations and social status: He also tries his best to take time out of his busy work schedule to maintain high-quality interactions with his three young children, who are very close to him and now always ask: Why is Dad not at home? When can Dad come back?
Of course, I am not saying that CZ did not make mistakes, but his biggest mistake was ignorance. As a startup without a fancy background, the founding team members had no legal background, and even most of the early management team members, except CZ, could not even read English, such as myself. In the absence of experience and legal knowledge, CZ won users with fairness, integrity and sense of responsibility to the industry, but also made mistakes. In any case, the mistakes have been made, and Binance and CZ have paid a huge price.
CZ once said: "No one wants to be a hero, because no one is born to rush to the front to block the arrows. Heroes are just in that position and have to protect their families, communities, tribes, and countries to do the right thing, and have to become heroes in the process."
I humbly hope that Judge Jones can take into account that in the early and chaotic cryptocurrency industry, there is no consensus on how to regulate the industry and how to define the United States. As a founder who has never managed a company of this scale, he will definitely encounter blind spots. If CZ knew the seriousness of the matter, he would have been on guard from day one and blocked any American users. He does not want to be a hero, and of course he has no intention of becoming a criminal. All his actions follow universal humanitarian principles and he does his best.
Today, it is his sense of responsibility that made him choose to face the trial, but he should never be considered the same as those evil murderers, robbers, and fraudsters. I sincerely hope that Judge Jones can open God's eyes, be omniscient, and make a fair judgment after seeing a more complete CZ. If necessary, you can contact me at any time for more details.
The following is the full text of the letter from CZ’s wife:
Hello. My name is Yang Weiqing. I met Mr. CZ in 1999 and got married in 2003. We have raised two children together. In the 25 years since I met Changpeng, CZ is a very responsible person to his wife, children and family, has ideals for his career, and is very positive and optimistic. Despite repeated setbacks in his entrepreneurial career, he took meticulous care of me and the children during the most difficult times. Changpeng started from scratch. His parents did not give him any cash assets or inheritance. After I got married, I have been a full-time wife and have never participated in the work. Changpeng has always borne all the expenses of the family. Before the success of Binance, Changpeng had several failed entrepreneurial experiences. But when the entrepreneurial failure was the most difficult, he still maintained the family expenses for me and the children. He attaches importance to the education of children, and also respects my choice of educational direction. He did his best to keep the children educated in international schools. And Changpeng also paid off all the debts of investors through his own efforts every time. He never owed money to others and had no debts. I still remember clearly that when our children were babies and toddlers, Changpeng tried his best to accompany them and grow up, and rarely missed any opportunity to take care of them. Changing diapers, feeding, traveling with the children, etc. After Binance was established in 2017, the children were in adolescence, and Changpeng became busier and busier. He would come back to support the children as soon as possible when they encountered problems in school, and help them solve one problem after another in school. At that time, my children and I lived in Tokyo, Japan. Even though we were remote, our two children always maintained close communication with their father. What impressed me most was that our son participated in the Boys Scout of America in junior high school. As we all know, many activities of the Boy Scouts need to be completed with the company of their father. Once in a camping activity, the father and son went camping with other members of the Boys Scout to a mountain river in Japan for two days. They set up tents together, made fires and cooked together, slept in tents together in cold weather, etc. In just two days, our son learned a lot from his father. For example, perseverance, kindness, love for family, not afraid of hardship, and maintaining a positive and optimistic attitude to face challenges in difficult times. Changpeng's love for his 82-year-old mother and sister is also very selfless. Changpeng has been taking care of my family for many years. He helped my parents buy a house in Tokyo. He also helped my nephew find a job. As early as 2018, less than a year after its establishment, Binance decided to withdraw from the Japanese market. A few months later, Japan was flooded, and Binance donated tens of millions of yen to the disaster area in Japan. At that time, my family and friends in Japan were very grateful for his cross-border contribution to the disaster area and the victims. Changpeng has also done a lot of charity in various countries, including building schools in Africa and donating to the Turkish earthquake. Many of them he may not remember. A man who values family, friends and children's education is very loving and kind, and a responsible good man. I beg the judge to give a light sentence and give Changpeng a chance to continue to take care of his relatives.
The full text of the letter from sister CZ:
I am CZ's sister and a former Managing Director at Morgan Stanley. I am writing this letter to share my thoughts on Changpeng as a person. Changpeng and I grew up together. As a child, he was always kind, curious, and positive. Growing up, he had many interests, mainly sports and technology, and he loved using his skills to help others. When we were in high school in Vancouver, he was the captain of the school's boys volleyball team for five consecutive years. At the same time, he also served as an assistant coach for the women's volleyball team. He dedicated his passion and energy to volleyball to make his team one of the most respected teams, and Changpeng himself came to the city of Vancouver and won the team MVP for many consecutive years.
I later saw the same level of dedication and passion in Changpeng’s career. Before Binance, he had run several startups. Although not as successful as Binance, he treated each one the same way, always using technology to create the most value for customers. There were many challenges; he saw every setback as an opportunity to learn and never gave up. To this day, Changpeng still considers himself a simple technician. His approach to business is very simple - we create value for customers and the revenue will follow.
This mentality has not changed since he first started his business in 2005. When he is presented with “alternative business practices,” his response is always: “This game is too complicated for me. I don’t have the time and energy for this. I prefer to be a simple technician.”
There is one example I remember very clearly. In early 2016, before Binance was founded, an acquaintance in a business approached him and proposed a cooperation project, where Changpeng would provide the technology and this person would provide an operating license to allow an online platform for people to place bets on random objects. This seemed like a low-risk, quick money-making opportunity; but Changpeng turned it down. He told me about it at a family dinner. He said, "I don't see the value in this. It's just making some quick money from people who can't think clearly on their own. I'd rather spend my time on better things." I was very proud of him when he said this.
After retiring from Morgan Stanley, I became a leadership and management consultant. I briefly provided group coaching services to the Binance team in the early days of Binance, and I had the opportunity to observe how meetings were conducted and how decisions were made. The overall guiding principle that Changpeng has set for the business is that the team always strives to provide the greatest value to customers. There are two main considerations in every discussion: ensuring the safety of customer funds, and the best service. I witnessed ICO transactions being debated and belittled because the team believed that the underlying project did not meet the standards for creating customer value. I saw the team discuss some practices adopted by competitors and decide not to do so because they believed that customer interests were not best served. I believe that the same guiding principles are still dominant and active within Binance today.
After the FTX incident in 2022, there was a large number of withdrawals on the Binance platform. When I spoke to Changpeng on the phone, he was very relaxed about it. He said that all customer funds were kept in their own accounts; they could withdraw funds as they pleased, and it would not cause any financial pressure on Binance. The real stress test was in technology. Can the system handle such a large volume of transactions? "Indeed, we have an excellent team." . Binance has never misused any customer funds. Changpeng never blames anyone and always adheres to the value of seeking welfare for the people.
To be sure, Changpeng made mistakes in the U.S. regulatory environment, and there is no doubt that we should learn from this experience. But in my opinion, he always sets high standards for himself, strives to do good for others, and takes great personal pride and self-esteem in doing so. Even after his success and reputation in the crypto industry, he remains a humble, simple, brave, smart, and caring person.
