Changpeng Zhao, the controversial crypto mogul better known as CZ, has published a new book called “Freedom of Money” — a narrative of his life and career that’s key for anyone who wants to understand the business of digital assets.
What makes this 366-page memoir sing isn’t the riveting prose — English is the 49-year-old bitcoin billionaire’s second language.
Instead, the book shines as it tells the inside story of the rise of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.
CZ lays it out with seeming candor, both about himself and other big players including his famous nemesis, the jailed crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.
By the time you’ve finished “Freedom of Money,” you will understand how a heterodox speculative investment play turned into a $3 trillion industry embraced by Wall Street’s biggest players.
CZ found himself in the middle of the crypto maelstrom almost by accident.
He was a techie in traditional finance who heard about bitcoin from a friend during a poker game.
He did his research and was sold on its value and the potential of the blockchain technology — a seamless “decentralized” way of buying and selling stuff — that is at the core of crypto.
That’s when he sold his apartment and went all in on the coin.
After several crypto winters, the bet eventually made him a billionaire.
It was the launching pad for Binance.
Targeted by Biden
But it also made him a target of the Biden administration, whose crypto crackdown landed him in federal prison for four months.
(He was forced to resign from Binance even as he remains its largest shareholder.)
Jail was a horrible experience — his writing consisted of a “brain dump” during the 15-minute intervals when prisoners have access to a computer, he told me last week in an interview.
But it gave him time to reflect on crypto’s maturation from a backwater into something that is now a chunk of many mainstream investor portfolios.
The underlying technology, the blockchain, continues to be innovative to the point that major bank CEOs see its potential.
It’s telling that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, once an ardent crypto skeptic, not only has become a proponent of the industry, he also endorsed CZ’s book.
Proceeds from book sales will be donated to charity. CZ doesn’t need the money — he’s worth more than $100 billion.
He survived the turmoil quite nicely unlike some others he writes about — including Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, who now is serving a 25-year prison term for defrauding customers of his own crypto exchange, the now-defunct FTX.
CZ tells the story how FTX was imploding and SBF needed a bailout from CZ, a frenemy competitor who had access to money.
‘We could talk’
CZ writes that he told SBF “we could talk” but when they did, CZ was immediately put off. Instead of saying exactly how much money he needed to keep FTX afloat, the scatterbrained SBF “was indirect and wishy-washy, saying he needed a couple billion dollars nonchalantly as if he were asking for a bologna sandwich,” according to the book.
“We couldn’t do due diligence,” CZ told me last week.
“So within 24 hours I told him, ‘Look, the deal’s off. We’re not going to get engaged.’ ”
SBF didn’t get the money and FTX imploded, landing SBF in prison for fraudulently siphoning client money from FTX to pay for a shortfall at his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
Crypto, meanwhile, survived (its price is headed back toward $80,000). CZ got a pardon from President Trump (as first foreshadowed on these pages), and the industry is enjoying a renaissance of deregulation under Team Trump.
During our chat, CZ dispelled some of the speculation surrounding his pardon.
He has never met the president and has no business relationship with the Trump family’s own crypto investments.
He is now an adviser to Binance, he says, with no intention to return on a daily basis.
He is still involved in crypto, mostly as a thought leader to explain its potential to the masses.
