CZ: "The Prison Guard Said I'd Need Protection”

Changpeng Zhao just sat down for a two-hour interview on the All-In Podcast, and he held nothing back. The former Binance CEO talked about prison, pardons, selling his Shanghai apartment to buy Bitcoin at $600, and why he cried exactly twice in the past decade.

Here are the highlights worth your time.

How Did CZ Discover Bitcoin?

It started at a poker game in Shanghai. In mid-2013, a friend named Ron Tao told CZ to look into Bitcoin. Bobby Lee, who was about to become CEO of BTC China, followed up the next day with a simple pitch: put 10% of your net worth in. Small chance it goes to zero, and you lose 10%. Much higher chance it does a 10x, and you double everything.

CZ spent six months reading the white paper and digging through Bitcoin Talk forums. By late 2013, he was convinced. One problem: Bitcoin had already run from $70 to $1,000 while he was doing his homework.

"I was like, I'm too late," CZ said. Sound familiar?

He went all-in anyway. CZ sold his apartment in Shanghai for just under $1 million, quit his stable job at a fintech company where he had worked for eight years, and started buying Bitcoin. He got paid for the apartment in installments. Every payment went straight into BTC. His average buy price landed around $600.

From Software Vendor to $15 Million ICO

CZ did not jump straight into Binance. He bounced through Blockchain.info as VP of engineering, then became CTO at OKCoin. Neither lasted long. Culture clashes pushed him out both times.

By 2015, he was selling exchange software to other platforms. The business did well. He signed up 30 exchange clients in two years, running what he called "exchange as a service."

Then China shut most of his clients down in early 2017. With his revenue gone, CZ pivoted. He already had the exchange technology. He just needed to run one himself.

In June 2017, Binance did an ICO. About 20,000 people bought in. The raise hit $15 million in roughly 10 days, off nothing but a white paper and CZ's reputation. Months later, Binance was the number one exchange.

"Our revenue hit hundreds of Bitcoins. Crazy," CZ told host Chamath Palihapitiya. "We double checked, triple checked. I was like, that's crazy."

When China banned crypto exchanges in September 2017, CZ packed up his 30-person team and moved them all to Tokyo overnight. Most were young with no kids. One product manager cried because her boyfriend stayed behind. She still moved.

What Really Happened With FTX?

CZ invested in FTX in 2019, taking a 20% equity stake. Tensions built quickly. He says FTX poached Binance VIP account managers by offering five times their salary, then used their client database to lure traders over. Sam Bankman-Fried was allegedly badmouthing Binance in Washington circles at the same time.

By mid-2021, CZ had enough. Binance exited its FTX position in July 2021, a full year and a half before FTX collapsed.

"We had no financial insight. I was a very passive investor," CZ said. He never asked for financial statements, partly because the two companies were competitors.

He denied rumors that his exit triggered FTX's problems. "That's categorically not true."

What Was Prison Actually Like?

CZ pleaded guilty to a single Bank Secrecy Act violation for serving U.S. users without proper registration and weak KYC/AML procedures. No money laundering charges. No evidence of personally handling transactions. The court threw out two additional charges that the government tried to add.

Prosecutors asked for 36 months. That was double the maximum sentencing guideline. The judge gave him four months in a low-security federal prison holding 2,200 inmates.

Because CZ is not a U.S. citizen, he was placed in low security instead of minimum security, where white-collar offenders typically go. His unit had drug offenders. Inmates were grouped by ethnicity. CZ ended up in a six-person Asian group out of 200 in his unit.

The food was heavy on carbs, light on everything else. "I haven't seen a whole fruit for months," he said.

CZ wasted no time once his sentence ended. He left the facility and was on a plane within 26 minutes. His first taste of freedom? A proper shower where he did not have to touch the walls.

What Does the Pardon Mean for Binance?

President Trump pardoned CZ in October 2025. CZ said the pardon was essential for Binance's U.S. future. As the ultimate beneficial owner of both Binance and Binance US, his criminal record created a ceiling on what the exchange could do in America. But the legal saga cost him more than business leverage. Stepping down from Binance made him cry. The only other time? When his father passed away a few years earlier.

"If US wants to become the capital of crypto in the world, you cannot not have the largest player," CZ said.

He believes Trump's own experience with 34 criminal charges under the Biden DOJ gave the president a personal understanding of aggressive prosecution. CZ did not claim to have done anything special to secure the pardon beyond filing a petition through his lawyers.

What Is CZ Doing Now?

CZ stays busy across multiple fronts. He advises governments on crypto regulatory frameworks, mentors founders building on the BNB Chain ecosystem, and runs investments through YZi Labs across blockchain, AI, and biotech.

On the education side, he is building Giggle Academy, a free app targeting the roughly 1.2 billion people worldwide who lack access to schooling. He has spent about $3-4 million on it so far. A memecoin community donated $12 million to the project without being asked.

He deliberately avoided attaching a token to Giggle Academy. "If I issue a token, everyone's going to focus on the token," he said. He wants real students, not farmers gaming a rewards system.

His advice? "Push yourself to 110-130% every day, however you can last long. Do that for 30 years and get lucky. You will most likely be relatively successful."

For the full two-hour conversation, check out the All-In Podcast.

Follow CZ on X: @cz_binance

Sources:

• All-In Podcast – Full two-hour interview with CZ hosted by Chamath Palihapitiya.