Key Highlights
- Binance Co-Founder CZ announced on April 3 that his memoir ‘Freedom of Money’ is set to launch next week, with e-books now available for pre-order on Amazon in English and Traditional Chinese.
- CZ confirmed he wrote the book entirely himself without using AI, and that all proceeds from sales will go to charity.
- The memoir, largely written during his four-month prison sentence in 2024, covers CZ’s journey from rural China to building the world’s largest crypto exchange — and the $4.3 billion DOJ settlement that nearly ended it.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder of Binance and one of the most polarising figures in the cryptocurrency industry, announced on April 3 that his long-anticipated memoir, titled ‘Freedom of Money: A Memoir of Protecting Users, Resilience, and the Founding of Binance,’ will officially launch next week.
In a post on X, CZ shared that e-books are now available for pre-order in both English and Traditional Chinese on Amazon, and that the English physical book will also be released next week. He added, with characteristic understatement, that the timeline holds “unless the editors pull me in for one more round.”
In a follow-up post, CZ addressed two points that had drawn recurring questions from the crypto community and media: the role of AI in writing the book, and who profits from it. He confirmed that no AI was used in writing the memoir and that all proceeds from sales will go directly to charity.
Written in prison, published on his own terms
CZ shared that he began writing the book during his four-month incarceration at a federal facility in 2024, after pleading guilty to a single count of violating U.S. anti-money-laundering statutes. Binance paid $4.3 billion in penalties as part of the settlement, CZ was personally fined $150 million, and he stepped down as CEO of the exchange he built from a handful of friends in 2017 into a 300-million-user platform valued at roughly $100 billion.
He was released from custody on September 29, 2024, after spending his final weeks at the RRM Long Beach halfway house in California.
The original draft ran to approximately 114,000 words. CZ first hinted at writing a book back in May 2024, when he teased the project with a post about using his “quiet time” in prison productively. He later noted the manuscript had taken “way longer” than expected and would require “another 3x effort” to rewrite. The final version has been condensed to roughly 97,000 words across 350 pages.
Rather than go through a traditional publishing house, CZ opted to self-publish, citing the time requirements of conventional routes. The decision allowed for a simultaneous English and Chinese release — the Chinese version is titled 币安人生 (Binance Life) — but also meant navigating editing cycles without institutional support. CZ has publicly noted that each round of edits typically consumed two to three weeks, contributing to multiple delays since the project was first teased in early January.
What the book covers
According to the book’s Amazon listing, the memoir spans his childhood in rural China — in a home with reportedly no running water — through his immigration to Canada as a teenager, his years building trading systems at the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Bloomberg, and the founding of Binance in 2017.
The book also addresses the FTX implosion and CZ’s interactions with Sam Bankman-Fried directly. CZ also wrote that he considered whether FTX was connected to the Terra/LUNA collapse but ultimately held back, stating he “never saw hard evidence.”
The memoir’s most closely watched sections cover CZ’s pursuit by U.S. federal regulators and the plea negotiations that led to the $4.3 billion settlement. According to reporting based on an early draft, prosecutors initially sought $6.8 billion; Binance countered with $500 million. The final figure was negotiated across months of legal maneuvering involving more than a dozen lawyers.
In a detailed interview in February, CZ discussed his Department of Justice battle, life inside a federal prison, and his post-Binance plans — many of the same themes that form the book’s narrative arc. He described his transition from “global CEO” to inmate as a forced recalibration, framing the experience as something that ultimately gave him the time and distance to reflect on what Binance had become and what it had cost him.
CZ has confirmed the book also details a previously unreported incident in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a detainer on him near the end of his sentence, claiming he had overstayed his visa — despite the fact that the overstay occurred because he had been ordered to remain in the U.S. and subsequently imprisoned.
The NYT Leak and the memecoin problem
The road to publication has itself become a minor crypto saga. On February 27, The New York Times published a story based on an early, unauthorized draft of the manuscript, detailing behind-the-scenes settlement negotiations and previously undisclosed incidents from CZ’s time in custody.
CZ responded within hours, framing the coverage as free publicity. His lawyer, Teresa Goody Guillén, issued a statement saying the article relied on material “neither in CZ’s book nor in his words.”
The publicity, both intentional and accidental, triggered its own set of consequences. A “Freedom of Money” memecoin surged to an $8.3 million market cap. On-chain analyst EyeOnChain identified three wallets that had accumulated tokens before the NYT report, turning a combined $8,600 investment into $781,000 in unrealized gains.
CZ had preemptively addressed the memecoin risk back in January, when he first disclosed the Chinese title and clarified the book has no link to the Binance Life token on Binance Square. As The Crypto Times reported at the time, CZ explicitly stated: “This is not related to any meme tokens or listings. But I embrace the meme culture.” He also confirmed he does not hold any related memecoins and has no intention of doing so. Despite the disclaimers, the existing “币安人生” memecoin on BSC, launched in October 2025, surged past $141 million in market cap within days of the announcement.
On March 23, CZ officially revealed both the English and Chinese titles on Binance Square, noting that the draft had been completed and that the early disclosure was to avoid potential leaks.
Charity, not commerce
The decision to donate all proceeds to charity is consistent with statements CZ has made since the book’s existence was first revealed. In January, he wrote: “Not trying to make money from the book.”
CZ’s charitable focus aligns with his endeavours to revamp his post-Binance and post-prison public persona. Since his release in September 2024, he has concentrated on Giggle Academy, a free digital education platform targeting the roughly 300–500 million children globally who are not enrolled in school, and YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), the venture arm through which he continues to fund early-stage blockchain and AI projects.
What it means for the industry
The memoir’s publication arrives at a complicated moment for both CZ and Binance. President Donald Trump controversially pardoned CZ last fall, effectively clearing his criminal record but not the compliance restrictions that bar him from managing the exchange. Richard Teng continues to serve as Binance CEO. CZ retains approximately 90% ownership of the company.
The book is also landing in a market that has shifted dramatically since CZ’s heyday. Bitcoin corrected from an all-time high near $126,000 in October 2025 to below $70,000, the regulatory environment in the U.S. remains in flux with competing bills on stablecoins, prediction markets, and market structure, and Binance itself continues to operate under a multi-year compliance monitorship imposed as part of the DOJ settlement.
Whether Freedom of Money reads as a genuine reckoning or a rehabilitation exercise will ultimately be for readers to decide.
