Binance founder’s book release confirmed
Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, says his memoir will be available in late February or early March. He made the announcement on social media, promising to share details he couldn’t discuss during his recent Davos Forum interview.
“There is nothing to hide. More details in the upcoming book,” CZ wrote on January 25. He gave a release window of four to six weeks.
Self-publishing approach
The 300-page book contains about 97,000 words and will be published simultaneously in English and Chinese. CZ decided to self-publish rather than work with traditional publishers, mainly because of timing concerns.
“Takes too long to go through a publisher, even though they will likely help significantly with distribution,” he explained.
All money from book sales will go to charity. “Not trying to make money from the book,” CZ added. This seems consistent with his recent focus on philanthropy since leaving prison.
Title considerations and memecoin warnings
CZ revealed he’s considering “币安人生” for the Chinese version, which roughly translates to “Binance Life” or “A Life with Binance.” The English title hasn’t been decided yet and might be completely different.
He was careful to address the memecoin community directly. “Full disclosure, and just to get this out there publicly so that it’s impossible to ‘leak’… This is not related to any meme tokens or listings,” he wrote.
CZ said he doesn’t own any “币安人生” memecoins and has no plans to buy any. He did mention he likes the phrase because it’s “sticky” for him, but he might still change the title at the last minute.
Writing process and content
The memoir has been in development since at least March 2025. Back then, CZ said he had written a 114,000-word draft and noted the project took “way longer” than expected. He thought it would need “another 3x effort” to rewrite properly.
During that early stage, he hinted the book would cover controversial industry events. One topic mentioned was the possible connection between FTX and the Terra/LUNA collapse in May 2022.
“I was thinking about this when writing this section of the book… I didn’t want to speculate; there were rumors, but I never saw hard evidence,” he wrote in March 2025.
The final version ended up at 97,000 words after months of editing—quite a bit shorter than the original draft.
Prison experiences included
When asked if the book covers his time in prison, CZ confirmed: “Yes, it’s all in there.”
Zhao pleaded guilty in late 2023 to violating US anti-money laundering regulations and stepped down as Binance CEO. He served four months at Federal Correctional Institution, Lompoc I, and was released in September 2024. In October 2025, he received a presidential pardon.
Since getting out, CZ has mostly avoided talking about Binance’s operations. Instead, he’s focused on charity work, education projects, and now this memoir. The book promises to be a comprehensive account of his journey before, during, and after building what became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
I think what’s interesting here is the timing. Releasing this now, after his pardon and with some distance from his prison sentence, probably gives him more freedom to speak openly. The self-publishing route is practical, I suppose, given his circumstances and desire for control over the timeline.
The charity aspect makes sense too—it aligns with his current public image and might help with how the book is received. Still, I wonder how much new information will actually be in there versus what’s already known through court documents and previous interviews.
Anyway, it’s coming soon, and people in the crypto space will likely be reading it closely, looking for insights about Binance’s early days and the industry’s turbulent recent history.
