Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, has officially released his first full memoir, Freedom of Money, on April 8. The book runs 364 pages and follows his story in the first person, from his early rise and the creation of Binance to his guilty plea, prison sentence, and departure as the exchange's CEO. CZ said 100% of the book's sales proceeds will be donated to charity.
A personal account after years of public narratives
In the preface, CZ says he wrote the book because the public understanding of his story has long been shaped by media coverage, court filings and commentary from others. His stated goal is to add context that he believes was missing. The foreword was written by Binance co-founder Yi He, who has worked alongside him since 2014 and is presented as one of the closest witnesses to the company's internal history.
The memoir is framed less as a victory story and more as a record of the cost behind Binance's rapid expansion. CZ focuses on the human side of that period, including the pressure of growth, mistakes made along the way, and the responsibility he says he chose to confront during the regulatory crisis.
Four months in prison and a $4.3 billion settlement
A major section of the book covers CZ's four-month stay in U.S. federal prison. That followed his guilty plea to charges tied to violations of U.S. anti-money laundering laws and his resignation as Binance CEO under a broader settlement with U.S. authorities. The case against Binance became one of the largest enforcement actions the crypto industry has seen.
Under that settlement, Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in penalties, while CZ himself was fined $150 million and committed to compliance reforms. U.S. regulators had spent years examining the exchange over alleged weaknesses in anti-money laundering controls, sanctions compliance gaps, and operating without appropriate licenses in some cases. The agreement closed one of the most closely watched investigations in crypto.
FTX, SBF and the enforcement cases around Binance
According to the source material, Freedom of Money also includes chapters on the collapse of FTX, references to Sam Bankman-Fried, and CZ's firsthand view of the legal pursuit by the U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC. That gives the book a wider scope than a standard founder memoir, placing it inside several of the industry's defining episodes.
CZ also acknowledges that Binance made mistakes during its period of breakneck growth. He revisits the choices made during settlement talks, plea negotiations and his resignation, without sidestepping their connection to the company's regulatory problems. The title, Freedom of Money, reflects his argument that crypto can break financial barriers, especially in countries with weak banking infrastructure or strict capital controls. At the same time, he writes that compliance strains emerged when Binance's scale moved faster than the pace of regulation. Before this release, CZ had published an earlier work, Beyond Borders, on the French e-book platform Vivlio. He describes the new memoir as his most complete and systematic account so far.