Simply put
- In a conversation with Rug Radio’s Farokh Sarmad, Binance creator Changpeng “CZ” Zhao recounted his four-month stint in prison as “scary” and “very hard.”
- Zhao mentioned that he developed friendships with fellow inmates, one of whom was serving time for double murder. This experience altered his outlook on life.
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, expressed that his time behind bars was “scary” and “very difficult,” emphasizing he wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone.
Last year, Zhao was sentenced to four months in a U.S. prison after pleading guilty to a money laundering charge. Following this, he stepped down as the CEO of Binance as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. authorities.
“The moment you walk in, you see people covered in tattoos — all the buff guys, with face and head tattoos, shouting at each other,” Zhao shared during the interview. “Walking through that environment is quite unsettling.”
He opened up about the dehumanizing experience of prison, including the humiliation of strip searches.
Upon his arrival, Zhao noted his cellmate was serving time for double murder. Being a non-U.S. citizen, he couldn’t be placed in minimum-security prison; instead, he ended up in a low-security facility, where inmates resided for good behavior.
“My cellmate was sentenced to 30 years for killing two men,” Zhao explained. “We shared a cell for a few weeks, and we were getting along.”
“Going through that experience isn’t something to take lightly,” he continued, “it was genuinely frightening… I felt scared.”
Zhao claimed that despite his wealth and status, he was treated no differently within the prison system. “I don’t think they treated me very differently,” he explained, adding that most inmates were actually quite kind. “You make friends anywhere; there are good people everywhere.”
The primary challenge for Zhao was the mental strain of potentially facing an extended sentence due to unforeseen circumstances, especially after witnessing similar experiences befall his friends.
“It really made me rethink what matters,” Zhao remarked regarding his incarceration. First and foremost, health is essential, followed by family; work comes next. He missed the little things too, like enjoying good food and sleeping in a comfy bed, but it was the absence of family that hit him the hardest.
Zhao hinted that his upcoming book would delve deeper into his prison experiences and mentioned a shift in his perception of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, especially after reflecting on his own time in prison.
During the FTX fallout, Bankman-Fried had called Zhao his “sparring partner,” a label resulted from various public and private disagreements. In 2022, he even labeled Zhao as “psychopathic” for some of his comments.
However, as time passed and after living through his own ordeal, Zhao’s viewpoint on Bankman-Fried seemed to have softened.
“We wouldn’t want anyone to experience prison, but I believe bad behavior needs to be curtailed,” Zhao observed. “Long sentences… honestly, don’t contribute much to reform. Those who serve ten years often lose sight of changing themselves.”
