The Unpublished Manuscript Details
The New York Times got its hands on a nearly 300-page draft of Changpeng Zhao’s upcoming memoir, “Freedom of Money.” The manuscript, which hasn’t been published yet, covers some pretty sensitive ground. It talks about the secret negotiations between Binance and the U.S. Department of Justice, CZ’s four-month prison sentence, and his complicated relationship with Sam Bankman-Fried.
According to what the Times reported, prosecutors originally wanted $6.8 billion from Binance. The exchange came back with a counteroffer of $500 million. They eventually settled on that $4.3 billion penalty we all heard about. CZ pleaded guilty to just one count of violating anti-money-laundering laws.
The book also describes something that hadn’t been reported before: CZ had a run-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement after his release. ICE placed a detainer on him, claiming he’d overstayed his visa while he was incarcerated. His lawyers had to step in, but he still spent his final two weeks under police custody.
From Prison to Private Jet
On the day he was released in September 2024, the manuscript says CZ left detention and boarded a private plane. Only 26 minutes passed between leaving custody and takeoff. That’s a pretty quick transition, I think.
The memoir covers his interactions with former SEC Chair Gary Gensler too. CZ wrote that he once offered Gensler an advisory role at Binance, which Gensler turned down. They later met for sushi in Tokyo in 2019.
About Sam Bankman-Fried, CZ recalled that SBF asked for billions during the 2022 crisis. He wrote that SBF made the request “as if he were asking for a bologna sandwich.” That’s quite an image.
There’s also a passage defending Trump’s handling of classified documents. CZ wrote that he would give a bonus to an employee who took company files to read in the bathroom. When someone quoted that line on X, CZ replied: “make sense, right?”
CZ’s Response and Community Reaction
CZ responded on X within hours of the NYT report. He framed the whole thing as free advertising for his book. “NYT is advertising my upcoming book already, for free,” he wrote. He added that the Times obtained “a very early draft, without permission.”
His lawyer, Teresa Goody Guillén, said the NYT was “writing based on material that is neither in CZ’s book nor in his words.”
On X, the crypto community mostly echoed CZ’s take. Multiple users agreed that what the Times framed as an exposé was actually just great free marketing. The dominant reaction was that this was basically a promotional win for CZ.
Chinese-speaking users got into debates about how to translate “Freedom of Money”—whether it means financial freedom or monetary liberty. Some noted it resembles Li Xiaolai’s book “The Road to Financial Freedom.” Li is a well-known Chinese crypto influencer and author.
Publication Details and Memecoin Buzz
The memoir has been in the works since at least March 2025, when CZ revealed a 114,000-word draft. It’s been condensed to roughly 97,000 words across 300 pages since then.
CZ chose to self-publish simultaneously in English and Chinese. He said going through a traditional publisher would take too long. All proceeds will go to charity, which is worth noting.
During the writing process, CZ hinted the book would explore whether FTX was connected to the Terra/LUNA collapse in May 2022. But he ultimately held back, writing that he “never saw hard evidence.”
The buzz around the memoir even triggered a memecoin. A token called “Freedom of Money” surged to an $8.3 million market cap. On-chain analyst EyeOnChain flagged three wallets that had accumulated tokens before the NYT report. They turned a combined $8,600 investment into $781,000 in unrealized gains.
CZ had actually addressed this possibility back in January. When he posted about the Chinese title 《$币安人生》, he explicitly stated he holds no related memecoins. “This is not related to any meme tokens or listings,” he wrote at the time.
The memoir is expected to come out in the coming weeks. CZ said the English title might still change, and each round of editing takes two to three weeks. So perhaps we’ll see it soon, but maybe not as soon as people think.
