Original article by Odaily Odaily (Golem)
On April 8, Binance founder CZ (CZ)'s new book, "Freedom of Money," was officially launched. Currently, users can purchase the digital version on Amazon's official website, and Chinese users can also purchase and read it on Xianyu for 1.99 yuan.
"Freedom of Money" is CZ's first-person memoir, chronologically recounting his journey from rural Jiangsu and Hefei to Canada, working in technology and finance in Tokyo, New York, and Shanghai, his introduction to Bitcoin in 2013, selling his house to invest in the crypto industry, and finally founding Binance in 2017. The latter half of the book focuses on Binance's crisis management after its growth, the FTX incident, global regulatory conflicts, and his experience of pleading guilty, serving time, being released from prison, and being pardoned in the US in 2023.
The book *Freedom of Money* is approximately 180,000 words long, which is moderate for a memoir of a celebrity/entrepreneur, but still requires about 6-9 hours to read in its entirety. To help readers quickly grasp the core highlights of CZ's new book and his previously undisclosed personal experiences, Odaily has extracted and summarized the content of *Freedom of Money*. If you still want more after reading this article, we recommend purchasing the book for a complete reading experience.
1. He almost became the CEO of Mt. Gox China, but the platform collapsed and he lost 100 BTC.
In early 2014, CZ was recommended to become the CEO of Mt.Gox China. The final agreement was that Susquehanna would provide the funding, Mt.Gox would provide the technology, and CZ would be responsible for the China business and would also receive a 10% equity stake. However, just as the contract was about to be signed, Mt.Gox collapsed on February 7, 2014, suspending user withdrawals. As a result, CZ decided not to join.
However, CZ was not without losses. After the Mt.Gox collapse, his 100 bitcoins (worth $50,000 at the time, now worth about $7 million) stored on Mt.Gox were also lost, but CZ did not try to recover them.
2. Binance completed its white paper within three days and raised $15 million through its ICO.
In 2017, Binance's white paper was completed in just three days. This process included CZ learning about the concept of ICOs and the final release of the Chinese and English versions . On June 14, 2017, CZ attended a hotpot dinner in Chongqing organized by Guo Hongcai (known in the crypto as "Bao Erye"). After the dinner, he decided to launch an ICO and raised $15 million with Yang Linke. BNB was thus born.
Bao Erye (CZ) also proactively became an initial advisor for Binance's ICO and requested some BNB token allocation. Binance conducted a total of 5 ICOs, all of which sold out within seconds. When the last ICO ended on July 2, 2017, CZ successfully raised $15 million worth of digital assets. In his memoir, CZ wrote that the entire team stayed in the office at the time, but the celebration consisted of ordering a slightly more upscale takeout meal, with about twenty people taking turns serving food back to their workstations.
At the time, CZ also gave all employees BNB, equivalent to a month's salary, based on the ICO price of $0.1. CZ also gave himself 50,000 BNB, which he never touched, and by the time of writing the book, they were worth over $24 million.
3. When did the name "Binance" come about? He joined the company the day before Binance's launch.
On June 17, 2017, CZ invited He Yi to Binance's Shanghai office to help revise the white paper (Odaily note: He Yi was still the CMO of Yixia Technology at the time) . In his memoir, CZ stated that He Yi walked into the office and pointed to the white paper on the table, saying, "Your current Chinese name sounds like a supermarket." Then she suggested changing it to "Binance," and CZ immediately approved the name change without consulting a feng shui master or holding repeated meetings.
However, CZ claimed in his memoir that these were all "tricks" to lure He Yi joining Binance. He believed that the best way to recruit top talent was to get them involved first . Finally, on July 13, 2017, the last night Binance was listed, CZ called He Yi again. He Yi verbally agreed to join Binance and submitted her resignation to her original company the next day.
4. Having received word of the "September 4th ban" beforehand, they fled in advance, removing their phone cards to avoid being tracked.
On September 4, 2017, seven Chinese ministries jointly issued an announcement explicitly prohibiting the operation of cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency mining, and ICOs. The night before, CZ stated in his memoir that he received a message on his phone saying there would be a "major crackdown" the following day . At 12:30 AM that day, CZ held an emergency conference call with He Yi executives, ultimately deciding that he, He Yi, and Heina would go to Tokyo first, while the others would remain in Shanghai temporarily.
To avoid being tracked, He Yi reminded CZ to remove the SIM card and turn off his phone during the journey, which CZ did. However, He Yi later told CZ that this idea came from spy movies she had watched, and she didn't know whether they would actually be tracked.
5. Star Xu continued to spread rumors about CZ and He Yi; Li Lin was imprisoned because of Star Xu report.
In his early years, CZ also worked at OKCoin (Odaily note: the predecessor of OKX), an exchange founded by Star Xu. However, in his memoir, CZ stated that in January 2015, Star Xu attempted to renegotiate his 10% stake in OKXCoin, which displeased CZ, leading him to resign.
According to CZ's recollection, after he resigned, Star Xu continued to accuse him of forging the cooperation agreement between Roger Ver and OKCoin during his tenure. After CZ clarified on Reddit, Star Xu began to launch personal attacks against him. At the same time, he also pressured He Yi to publicly accuse CZ, but He Yi refused and chose to resign.
In 2022, two prominent figures in the Chinese-language online community , Star Xu and Li Lin, were detained. Li Lin was placed under house arrest for 90 days before finally deciding to sell Huobi to Justin Sun However, in 2025, CZ stated in his book that at a dinner party, Li Lin told him that he had seen a screenshot showing that it was Star Xu who personally reported him to the Chinese police, leading to his arrest.
6. I had a bad first impression of SBF, and CZ refused to offer any help after FTX's collapse.
The collapse of FTX in 2022 was a major event in the crypto industry. CZ also wrote in detail about his "feud" with SBF and his true thoughts at the moment of FTX's collapse in "Freedom of Money".
CZ first met SBF at Binance Blockchain Week in January 2019. At the time, SBF was the CEO of Alameda. In his book, CZ described SBF as someone who seemed quite intelligent and had high emotional intelligence—"saying the right thing to the right person."
A few months later, just one month after FTX launched, SBF approached CZ for investment. Although Binance's CFO was very optimistic about FTX at the time, CZ and He Yi still declined the investment. In November 2019, FTX lowered its valuation to Binance and proposed exchanging BNB for FTT, which CZ agreed to. He wrote in his memoir, "From a business perspective, the terms were good." Ultimately, Binance held a 20% stake in FTX.
In his memoir, CZ stated that after the investment, SBF changed its attitude, not only poaching Binance's VIP account managers and several employees who "valued money," but also spreading negative rumors about Binance throughout Washington. Therefore, although Binance remained a shareholder of FTX, the relationship between CZ and SBF reached a freezing point.
So when FTX collapsed in 2022, the first message SBF sent to CZ for help was, "Has our relationship deteriorated to the point where we don't even talk anymore?" After the two communicated, SBF said he wanted an investment of several billion dollars.
In his memoir, CZ candidly stated, "I didn't want FTX, nor did I want to help SBF. But to protect users and the industry, I had to intervene." The rest is history: Binance and FTX signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI), SBF announced on Twitter on November 8th that Binance intended to acquire FTX, and on November 9th, Binance decided to withdraw from the deal.
7. Rejected a $20 million listing fee and personally set the listing rules.
Binance's strict listing regulations today were already in their infancy during CZ's tenure. CZ recalled that when Binance entered the top ten global exchanges, a project team directly offered him a $20 million "listing fee," but CZ refused on the spot and blacklisted them.
Because of this incident, CZ realized the necessity of establishing a standardized and transparent listing mechanism. Therefore, he personally drafted the "Binance Listing Guidelines," which clearly stipulates that all applications must be submitted through the official website form.
The coin team and the project team must be "physically isolated." CZ also stated in his memoir that he often saw listing managers from other exchanges busy handing out business cards and building relationships at various meetings, a practice he has always disagreed with.
8. Investing in Twitter to become a minority shareholder in SpaceX, praising Musk for his accurate judgment of SBF.
In 2022, news that CZ had invested $500 million to support Musk's acquisition of Twitter circulated widely in the crypto community. In his memoir, CZ wrote that his reason for participating was that Binance's goal of making money free meant supporting freedom of speech.
CZ described the investment process as convoluted, but thankfully it was eventually completed, resulting in a $500 million investment in which he only attended a few meetings. In his book, CZ writes that he remains a minority shareholder in Twitter (now called X), having later merged with xAI, thus becoming a minority shareholder in xAI as well. xAI then merged with SpaceX, making him a minority shareholder in SpaceX as well.
At the same time, CZ didn't forget to take a jab at SBF. He later learned that SBF also wanted to participate in Twitter's voting but was rejected by Musk, praising Musk for his accurate judgment of people.
9. I have been suffering from back pain since I was a teenager.
In his memoir, CZ stated that he had suffered from back pain since his teens, possibly inherited from his father or due to prolonged sitting. He first "pulled his back" at the age of 17. In 2019, the pain worsened, causing CZ to spend most of that year working from bed: his laptop on a stand, with his iPad and iPhone propped up beside him.
In 2020, CZ went to Berlin for surgery to relieve back pain, but the surgery was unsuccessful and the herniated disc recurred.
10. Write a book in prison and talk to inmates about cryptocurrency.
On April 30, 2024, CZ was sentenced to prison by the U.S. government. On May 31, he was transferred to a low-security federal prison in Lompoc, California, to begin serving his four-month sentence. In his memoir, CZ wrote that the first draft of the book was written in prison. The computers in the prison were basically like electronic typewriters; they couldn't copy and paste or connect to the internet, and if he wanted to change a paragraph, he had to retype it. Therefore, he wrote most of the book from memory, paragraph by paragraph.
Later in his sentence, CZ was transferred to a halfway house, where he was approved to volunteer. One of his volunteer tasks was to help create cryptocurrency educational materials for inmates, which CZ said he mostly copied and pasted from Binance Academy.
