After being released from prison in the United States, the former richest man in China realized the sudden enlightenment

Author:Wen Shijun

Editor: Sun Chunfang

In May 2025, Paris, France, in broad daylight, violence was committed in the street:

On the narrow sidewalk of Paris 11, a woman who fell to the ground kept screaming and screaming for help. Her husband held her tightly and covered her attack with his body, covering the attack from the gangsters, with blood all over his head. Three masked attackers are trying to pull the woman into a white van with the express company logo.

This is the center of Paris, the most densely populated right bank of the Seine River, and there are already some pedestrians on the streets at 8 a.m. Someone stopped and watched, and soon noticed the abnormality. Several people began to try to rescue them, and one of the brave men rushed straight towards the attacker with a red fire extinguisher. Seeing that the situation was not good, the three gangsters hurriedly let go and jumped onto the van and quickly fled from the scene.

This is an attempted kidnapping on the streets of Paris, France last Tuesday. The woman the gangsters tried to kidnap is the daughter of Pierre Noize, co-founder and CEO of French cryptocurrency trading platform Paymium. She is still five months pregnant.

The astronomical wealth created by cryptocurrencies, combined with its anonymous and difficult-to-trace characteristics, is very suitable for "ransom", making cryptocurrency industry executives and families a "mobile ATM" in the eyes of criminals.

Related cases have occurred many times in many countries around the world. Just earlier this month, the father of a cryptocurrency executive was kidnapped in Paris' 14th arrondissement and although French police rescued the victim two days later — he lost a finger.

In response to this, Zhao Changpeng, the founder of Binance, who once became the richest Chinese in the world and is still the richest man in Canada, cannot help but empathize with it. The day after the incident, the cryptocurrency tycoon, who is currently worth US$30.2 billion (217.7 billion yuan), reposted the news on social media and attached a short comment:

“Stay safe out there”.

The "silence" after being released from prison is just to wait for this

day

Cryptocurrency giants are not only the "money tree" for criminals.

Last May, after pledging to pay billions of dollars in settlements (the highest amount since the founding of the United States), Zhao Changpeng was still sentenced to four months in prison in the United States - a "victory" and the U.S. federal prosecutors' demand for his sentence was three years.

On September 28 last year, after he was released from prison, he posted a message on social media "GM" (Good Morning, Good Morning, good morning), with just two letters , creating 19.48 million views. For some time after that, Zhao Changpeng was relatively low-key. Even due to his "silence", fake videos that imitate his fake accounts and AI-generated videos appeared on social media.

As part of the plea agreement signed with the United States, Zhao Changpeng resigned as Binance CEO and promised not to participate in any Binance activities within three years. On November 6, on the day the results of the US election were announced, Zhao Changpeng once again posted a message on social media. At this time, the natural meaning of these two letters has more meanings, such as "Great Moment".

The new US administration's attitude towards cryptocurrencies has turned into a "bright card", and Zhao Changpeng's public activities and voices on social media have gradually increased - now the pace of more than a dozen tweets a day has been restored, and there is no longer any taboo to mention Binance directly.

Not long ago in early May , Zhao Changpeng rarely accepted face-to-face interviews from an online media. In this interview, Zhao Changpeng talked about his “learnings”:

"I used to be indifferent to geopolitical issues, but now I am deeply aware that the influence of the political agenda has long penetrated into individual life and may even put people in prison. With such a lesson, I am now more cautious. After I was released from prison, I spent several months resting and turning off all activities, and it was not until a period of time that I gradually re-engage in social affairs."

Betray Justin Sun? Rumors of "stained witness" have attracted attention

As a benchmark figure in the cryptocurrency field, it is difficult for Zhao Changpeng to truly stay out of the matter under the turbulent waves of money and desire.

In early April this year, many foreign media broke the news that Zhao Changpeng has been trying to push the Trump administration to pardon him. The report also quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that as part of the plea agreement, Zhao Changpeng provided evidence of Sun Yuchen's violation of the law to the U.S. prosecutors and agreed to testify.

Justin Sun is also an important figure in the cryptocurrency field and one of the people who use cryptocurrency to achieve "wealth freedom". Compared with Zhao Changpeng's amazing wealth, Sun Yuchen's label is a "master" of the "currency circle". He once filmed Buffett's lunch, "save" Trump's cryptocurrency project, and bought the installation art "Comedian" (a banana stuck with tape) by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan for US$6.2 million (44.73 million yuan), and ate it on the spot during the live broadcast.

Zhao Changpeng responded to the news that he "betrayed" Sun Yuchen at the first time, saying, "They seem to have forgotten who went to prison and who did not. Those who become government witnesses will not go to prison, but will be protected." He also mentioned that someone paid to "smear me."

Therefore, in early May, Zhao Changpeng appeared for an exclusive interview. Some people believe that one of his purposes is to personally clarify the adverse news. In the interview, when mentioning that some media said that you "selled other cryptocurrency founders in prison for reducing sentences", Zhao Changpeng talked about the shortcomings of traditional media and responded. He believes that "the previous party (Democrats) failed in the election" shows that "people no longer believe those articles."

Moreover, Zhao Changpeng himself holds a "weapon" on social media: "Although these negative reports are still annoying, at least we have our own platform to express our true views." His confidence comes from his 10 million fans on X's personal account - the official White House account of the US White House only has 1.89 million fans. Zhao Changpeng said: "I may have more fans than most politicians, Elon (Musk) has more fans, and President Trump is even more so."

But Zhao Changpeng didn't say enough to completely calm this round of public opinion. Because as of now, he has not decisively denied the core dispute, such as "I have not provided evidence."

Roommate is a double murderer who has been sentenced to 30 years

As the richest prisoner in American history, Zhao Changpeng's life in American prisons has always made the outside world very curious. Zhao Changpeng himself rarely talks about this special experience.

What’s rare is that in this interview in May, Zhao Changpeng specifically recalled this experience: “It was really hard to bear at that time.” “Although I am a person with strong resistance to stress and a calm personality, my situation at that time really made me difficult.”

"No one in the prison cares who you are, just treats you as an ordinary prisoner." Zhao Changpeng said that he was not treated particularly in prison: "For example, after undressing, showing his hips, being locked in a cell, my first roommate was a double murderer."

Zhao Changpeng recalled that the roommate was sentenced to 30 years for killing two people at one time and had served 12 years in prison. “Because prisons were grouped by race, Asians and Pacific Islanders and Native Americans were grouped together, so I lived with this Aboriginal roommate for a few weeks, but we got along well” “But when we went through these, it was really not fun, it was scary, and I was scared at the time.”

Zhao Changpeng's description is like the American federal prison shown in the movie: the cell area has three floors, two rows of cells are opposite, and the middle is the activity area of ​​240 prisoners. "As soon as you walk in, you will see a lot of big guys with tattoos, with tattoos on their faces and heads, yelling at each other, looking very fierce."

Zhao Changpeng still remembers the first scene of being imprisoned: "The prison guard told me that my cell was on No. A5 on the first floor. I walked over and wanted to open the door, but found that the door was locked. A strong man came over and told me that the door needed to be opened by the prison guard."

Zhao Changpeng was not "bullied" in prison. He said: "These prisoners look fierce, but they are actually very polite and friendly. After deep contact, they will find that each of them has a gentle side. I have a very harmonious relationship with my inmates and prison guards."

"You can make friends everywhere, and there are good people everywhere. Some people do make mistakes, but the punishment is too severe, which is an over-punishment." He even made friends in prison: "I still keep in touch with some people who are still serving their sentences."

Experience in prison: Health is the first priority, followed by family

In fact, in prison, what Zhao Changpeng is most worried about is whether he can get freedom as scheduled after the four-month sentence is over:

"I always worry that they will find a reason to imprison me for a few more months, or even get additional charges. Many prisoners have encountered this situation." Zhao Changpeng was also very clear afterwards that this was a psychological problem arising from the high pressure environment like the prison: "If I had told me clearly that 'only 4 months' from the beginning, I would feel that 'ok, I can survive'. But in it, there are too many things that are not accurate, which makes people anxious."

Four months of life in iron windows have also influenced Zhao Changpeng's values: "I realized what is the most important thing - health is first, followed by family, then work and other things."

Zhao Changpeng said: "In prison, you won't miss food, or you won't miss the comfortable bed too much, but you will definitely care about your family. You won't miss money or job, and although it's really sad for me to resign as CEO of Binance."

In November 2023, as part of the plea agreement, Richard Teng, who came from Singapore's regulatory background, replaced Zhao Changpeng as CEO of Binance. Singapore is relatively open to cryptocurrencies and was once a "safe haven" for cryptocurrency business.

Zhao Changpeng is the biggest harvester of the cryptocurrency trend. In 2014, Zhao Changpeng sold his house in Shanghai and bought Bitcoin on a large scale. In 2017, Zhao Changpeng founded Binance and served as CEO, and four years later he became the richest Chinese in the world.

Zhao Changpeng lives in the UAE. In October 2021, he purchased a 1,077.68 square meters six-bedroom apartment in Dubai for US$13.5 million. In November 2023, Zhao Changpeng "voluntarily" went to the United States for relevant anti-money laundering and other reviews, but was immediately banned from leaving the United States. He was not able to return to his home in the UAE until his sentence ended at the end of September last year.

In this interview in May, Zhao Changpeng said that he usually works from home, to be precise, in the bed: "If I sit for too long, my back will feel uncomfortable, so I have a computer stand for the bed, which I work in the bed."

At present, Zhao Changpeng's social media avatar has become a traditional Arab costume: a pure white robe, a black rope ring pressed against a white turban -blocking his recognizable heart-shaped hairline.