The New York Times Special Report: The Power Gamble of Crypto Tycoon Zhao Changpeng

Author: David Yaffe-Bellany, New York Times reporter

Compiled by: Jiahua, ChainCatcher

I. Zhao Changpeng After Prison: Wealth, Power, and Political Allies

On a June morning, cryptocurrency tycoon Zhao Changpeng drove a white Nissan SUV to the St. Regis Hotel in Abu Dhabi. Zhao Changpeng is the richest person in the cryptocurrency industry, with an estimated net worth of $114 billion. He lives in a nearby villa that has nine bedrooms, four bodyguards, a chef, and a yacht named Da Moon. But he also likes to play the "ordinary person," as he often says. That day, he volunteered to personally show me around the city. Outside the St. Regis, Zhao Changpeng sat in the driver's seat of the Nissan, with his iPhone mounted on the windshield, like the world's richest Uber driver. When I got in the car, he joked, "My Lamborghini."

To be clear, Zhao Changpeng is not an ordinary person. Not long ago, U.S. authorities filed criminal charges against him for his management of Binance. Court documents described the cryptocurrency exchange as a haven for Russian money launderers, Iranian sanction evaders, and "Islamic State" terrorists. Zhao Changpeng pleaded guilty, but his wealth was preserved. After serving a four-month sentence, he returned to Abu Dhabi, still the majority shareholder of Binance and still the most powerful person in the industry.

Now, at 49 years old, Zhao Changpeng travels like a head of state, flying on private jets across Asia, providing cryptocurrency regulatory advice to various governments. After stops in Islamabad or Manila, Binance often announces new regulatory breakthroughs. He has two dogs at home, one of which is a Tazy, an elegant Central Asian breed often compared to an antelope. This was a gift from the President of Kyrgyzstan, who is interested in cryptocurrency; the two even skied together this February. "He actually wanted to give me a tent, one of those really big tents," Zhao Changpeng said, "I didn't want the tent, so he insisted on giving me this dog instead."

Zhao Changpeng's most influential allies are two powerful families. One is the ruling family of the UAE, who hope to leverage his influence to build a tech powerhouse in the desert. The other is the Trump family. Last year, Binance established a business relationship with World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency startup founded by President Trump and his three sons. World Liberty brought in $799 million for Trump last year, making it his most profitable single asset, surpassing his real estate portfolio and social media business. In October last year, Trump pardoned Zhao Changpeng, an act widely criticized as a quid pro quo.

Zhao Changpeng, known in the industry as "CZ," often avoids reporters. But this year, he met with me several times, hoping the public would view his experiences at Binance more positively, even as Binance has yet to stem the flow of illegal funds. He is tall and thin, with dark short hair and a Binance tattoo on his forearm, lacking the ostentation often seen in his cryptocurrency peers. He comes across as polite and focused, though his range of interests is almost amusingly narrow. This year, he self-published a memoir titled "Freedom of Money," in which he wrote about a private tour he received after hours at the Louvre. The experience did not impress him. He wrote that the tour guide was practically "playing music to a cow."

For years, what he has truly excelled at is what scholars call "jurisdictional arbitrage": moving between different countries to find sufficiently loose legal frameworks to satisfy his pursuit of risk and growth. In Abu Dhabi, he may have found the ideal base. As we drove into the city, Zhao Changpeng chatted amiably, asking his bodyguard for directions along the way. ("Yes, boss, keep right.") We passed impressive buildings, heading toward the presidential palace Qasr Al Watan. Its striking white dome is reminiscent of the Taj Mahal.

Zhao Changpeng became increasingly animated as he spoke. Approaching the presidential palace, he said, "For the past few hundred years, democracy has been revered as some ultimate ideal, but the efficiency of democratic systems is not high. If there were a benevolent leader, the efficiency would actually be very high. There wouldn't be much debate, and time wouldn't be wasted on many trivial matters."

Recently, this top-down business and political model, which carries both medieval and modern elements, has gained increasing admiration in the United States. During a visit to Abu Dhabi last year, Trump referred to UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as "a very strong man" and "one of the few visionaries." Zach Whitaker, the son of a senior advisor to Trump and a figure in the MAGA camp, was even more direct at a cryptocurrency conference in Dubai last May. "We should really learn from His Highness and the UAE," Whitaker said, "They have set an incredible example: leading development through innovation while upholding family values."

Zhao Changpeng has already begun living the future life that these people aspire to, immersed in an elite circle where monarchs and billionaires coexist harmoniously. As we drove away from the presidential palace, he recounted a private meeting he attended at the nearby Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the UAE. Business figures like hedge fund founder Ray Dalio and Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son were present. While sitting in the audience, he noticed someone leaning down to speak with him. That person was Sheikh Mohammed. He wanted to know how Zhao Changpeng was doing and if there was anything he could help with.

"This is the king," Zhao Changpeng told me, "just kneeling next to you."

II. The Rise of Binance and Compliance Risks

Zhao Changpeng lay on his bed, typing on a laptop positioned above his body.

Chronic back pain has forced Zhao Changpeng to work lying down. Photo: Laura Boushnak, The New York Times.

One day earlier this year, Zhao Changpeng was working in bed when the windows suddenly began to shake. Due to chronic pain, he often lies down to handle work. He told me that he got up and walked to the balcony, where he saw a trail of smoke in the sky. Zhao Changpeng lives on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, facing Iran across the Persian Gulf, and Iran had just launched a missile toward the UAE.

This marked the beginning of a geopolitical crisis that would destabilize the region, but Zhao Changpeng was not overly concerned. He returned to bed and continued working. "More people die in traffic accidents than from missiles," he later stated, "the protection here is quite adequate."

Before settling in the UAE, Zhao Changpeng had no fixed base. He was born in China and moved to Canada with his family at the age of 12. After studying at McGill University, he held various tech jobs, moving between New York, China, and Japan. In July 2013, during a poker game in Shanghai, a colleague suggested he look into "this new thing called Bitcoin."

This borderless technology was perfectly suited to his nomadic lifestyle. After studying it for a few months, Zhao Changpeng made a bold bet. He sold a three-bedroom apartment in Shanghai, which was home to him and his wife as they raised two children, and invested all $900,000 from the sale into Bitcoin. It was a risky decision, but Zhao Changpeng was not worried. He believed that even if Bitcoin crashed, he could easily find another high-paying job in traditional finance.

After that, Zhao Changpeng worked for several cryptocurrency startups across Asia. In the 2010s, the cryptocurrency industry rapidly developed, with hundreds of new tokens emerging, but the platforms for trading these tokens were poorly managed and vulnerable to hacking. In July 2017, Zhao Changpeng founded Binance. Within months, Binance became the largest exchange in the world and has maintained that position ever since.

Binance's success is built on two key judgments. First, the group of cryptocurrency investors is eager for risk and would never be satisfied with merely exchanging dollars or yen for equivalent cryptocurrencies. For years, Binance has offered margin trading: traders can borrow funds to make high-risk, high-reward bets on the prices of Bitcoin and other popular tokens.

The second judgment is simpler but has deeper implications. Many cryptocurrency investors do not want to disclose their identities, and Binance does not require them to do so. In the first four years after the company's founding, customers did not even have to provide the most basic KYC information when opening accounts. KYC, or "Know Your Customer," refers to the identity information that traditional businesses require from customers to prevent financial crimes.

Binance is not the only exchange offering such high-risk services, but Zhao Changpeng's execution surpassed all competitors. "At that time, there were many MySpaces in the exchange industry, and he built Facebook," said Austin Campbell, founder of a cryptocurrency consulting firm. The result was an extremely profitable, almost unregulated platform: unverified investment products open to unverified traders. When the market was booming, Binance took a fee from every transaction. According to "Freedom of Money," the company's profits quickly reached $1 billion.

A pair of orange sneakers with "Trump, Crypto President" printed on the side.

These Trump-branded sneakers were a gift from businessman Gab Abed, the former Barbados ambassador to the UAE, to Zhao Changpeng. Photo: Laura Boushnak, The New York Times.

Zhao Changpeng quickly became a celebrity in the cryptocurrency circle. But even though he has joined the ranks of a select few super-rich entrepreneurs with astonishing political influence, few outside the industry truly understand him. Reflecting on his most controversial experiences, Zhao Changpeng portrays himself as someone swept up by circumstances: a cryptocurrency enthusiast intoxicated by success, an outsider unaware of how he became the villain in a Bond movie.

This portrayal is not always convincing. In late June, sitting in his kitchen, Zhao Changpeng told me that during the years of explosive growth at Binance, he "never really thought" about breaking the law. At that time, the company's lax controls allowed a steady stream of criminals to launder money. "I just lacked experience in this area," he said, "I'm a tech person, I used to live in China."

This image does not align with the evidence collected by U.S. prosecutors during their investigation of Binance. In court, prosecutors cited a statement Zhao Changpeng made to his subordinates: "It's better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission." According to legal documents, even though Binance did not obtain permission to operate in the U.S., Zhao Changpeng privately discussed how to cover up the fact that the platform was serving U.S. users. "Don't leave any written records," he told one subordinate.

In Abu Dhabi, Zhao Changpeng claims to be a "rule-following person." However, it seems quite clear that during a critical period when the habits of a new generation of investors were forming and the rules themselves were quite flexible, he strategically chose to test the boundaries of the law.

As he led me through his front door, I was reminded of this point again. At the entrance, there were boxes of Binance merchandise piled up. He urged me to pick a gift, such as a Binance backpack or a yellow and black Binance sweater made in a baseball jacket style.

Zhao Changpeng stands next to a cream-colored sofa, holding up a black and yellow Binance-branded jacket.

I told him that journalists have regulations regarding such matters, and I cannot accept gifts worth more than $20. He laughed and said the price of this clothing was "about $19."

III. Landing in the UAE: Befriending Royals and Clashing with FTX

After traveling around Asia for many years, Zhao Changpeng visited the UAE in 2021. In 2017, when the Chinese government was preparing to announce a ban on cryptocurrency exchanges, he and his Binance colleagues were forced to leave China overnight. A stint in Japan also did not succeed; Singapore could not retain him either due to the difficulty of obtaining a work visa. Later, Zhao Changpeng's friend Gabriel Abed made a suggestion. The businessman, who had served as Barbados' ambassador to the UAE, encouraged Zhao Changpeng to check out Dubai.

Zhao Changpeng quickly saw how Emiratis treat wealthy and powerful individuals. On a Saturday morning in October, he arrived in Dubai. Within hours, government minister Omar Sultan Al Olama paid him a visit and offered him what is known as a golden visa, which grants holders a ten-year residency with ease. A doctor was brought in to conduct the blood tests that all visa applicants must undergo. While applications typically take weeks to process, Zhao Changpeng's was approved in less than 12 hours.

Such a warm welcome left a deep impression on Zhao Changpeng. "On the fourth day in Dubai, I looked at two properties," he told me, "and I bought the second one." By the end of that year, Binance signed a memorandum of understanding with the local government to jointly formulate rules for cryptocurrency businesses; the company sent three employees to assist in building the regulatory framework. The draft was completed in January 2022 and signed into law a few weeks later. "If the ship you are steering is heading in the right direction, the UAE wants you to join their team," Abed said, "that's how they treated CZ. From day one, they stood by him and supported him."

Not everyone in the UAE receives such generous treatment. For years, the country's leadership has implemented mass surveillance and prohibited even the mildest expressions of dissent. In the labor market under their rule, foreign workers are often exploited and abused.

But for Zhao Changpeng, this marked the beginning of a comfortable new life. Before founding Binance, he had separated from his wife, who moved to Tokyo with their child. He began dating his colleague He Yi. He Yi is a marketing executive known in China for hosting the travel show "Beautiful Destinations." While Zhao Changpeng's older child attended university in the United States, he and He Yi raised several young children in the UAE.

He Yi, dressed in a beige top and pants, sits in a small office surrounded by glass walls, in front of a small white table.

He Yi is Zhao Changpeng's partner and the mother of his three children. After Zhao Changpeng was forced out of company operations, He Yi became one of the two co-CEOs appointed by the company. Photo: Laura Boushnak, The New York Times.

Zhao Changpeng thus entered the upper social circles of billionaires. He met a group of Emirati leaders interested in technology, whom he referred to as "crypto sheikhs." Later, he gradually connected with Sheikh Mohammed's brother, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Tahnoon loves jiu-jitsu and hosts powerful business figures in his palace. At these royal dinners, Zhao Changpeng was treated as a VIP. "We would ask, how are the seats arranged?" he said, "They said, just sit wherever you like."

In the initial meetings, these sheikhs introduced Zhao Changpeng to the advantages of the UAE and inquired about how they could assist him. Soon, Zhao Changpeng began promoting the benefits of this country to more billionaires. He encouraged AI mogul Sam Altman to establish business operations in the UAE and reminded him that other countries might treat him with hostility. "You will encounter many regulatory issues," Zhao Changpeng told him over coffee.

Zhao Changpeng was not unfamiliar with the risks of emerging industries. When he arrived in the UAE, he was in fierce competition with a young entrepreneur named Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of rival exchange FTX. As the son of a Stanford Law School professor, Bankman-Fried was in many ways the opposite of Zhao Changpeng: he was well-versed in the industry's rules and had personal connections with American political elites that helped him rise to the top of the industry. "He has means that I don't have," Zhao Changpeng wrote in his memoir. Bankman-Fried would poach Binance employees with salaries three to five times higher. Zhao Changpeng also heard that he spoke ill of him in Washington.

In November 2022, a report from crypto media CoinDesk raised questions about FTX's financial stability. At the time, Zhao Changpeng was in Dubai, preparing to go out for drinks with Abed, when he decided to speak out on Twitter, posting a brief yet ruthless statement. He announced he would sell $500 million worth of FTT, a digital token seen as an alternative to FTX stock. This tweet triggered panic, and anxious investors rushed to withdraw funds from FTX.

But the money was no longer there; Bankman-Fried had stolen $8 billion from customers. He had no choice but to seek help, and there was only one person in the crypto industry capable of saving him. Two days after Zhao Changpeng's tweet, he announced he would acquire FTX; a day later, he backed out of the deal, plunging FTX into a deeper crisis. It all seemed like a clever corporate war. As one observer noted, it was a "bloody slaughter." Within six weeks, Bankman-Fried was arrested in his apartment in the Bahamas, subsequently extradited to the United States, and ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud.

Zhao Changpeng told me he never intended to destroy FTX. He adopted his usual shrugging, innocent demeanor and explained that he had hoped to gradually sell FTT over a few months. "I didn't plan to make them crash," he said, "we lost $500 million."

But his defeated rival had a different view. "He played me," Bankman-Fried said at the time, "and he played it very well."

IV. From Pleading Guilty to Release: Four Months of Imprisonment

Billionaires are drawn to the UAE for good reasons. The country does not impose personal income tax and is considered extremely safe, while at the same time, crypto investors in Europe and the United States are becoming targets for kidnappers. But for Zhao Changpeng, who had just witnessed his archrival being extradited across borders, the UAE had another significant advantage: it has no extradition treaty with the United States.

He recalled that at the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023, a member of the Emirati royal family asked him at dinner if he wanted to obtain citizenship. Zhao Changpeng submitted some documents and then waited. Months later, a government envoy came to his home with a box containing the passports for him and his family. Zhao Changpeng told me that Emiratis "would never extradite their own citizens," and "this is guaranteed."

He had reason to remain vigilant: the investigation into Binance was tightening. U.S. prosecutors were gathering evidence to prove that the exchange's lax management rules allowed scammers, hackers, and sanctions evaders to transfer funds. In private messages obtained by the government, Binance employees spoke candidly about the exchange's suspicious clients. One employee wrote, "Is it too hard to launder drug money now? Come to Binance, we have cake for you."

Zhao Changpeng hired a legal team to negotiate a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice. His new passport gave him considerable leverage in negotiations. After living in Dubai for a few years, he moved south to Abu Dhabi, which is an hour and a half's drive away, closer to the political power center of the country. During negotiations, Zhao Changpeng seriously considered living as a fugitive: he would have to limit his travel, but at least theoretically, staying in the UAE would be safe.

Ultimately, his legal team reached an agreement with the U.S. government. Zhao Changpeng would plead guilty to violating the anti-money laundering law, the Bank Secrecy Act, and resign from his position as CEO. (The company would pay a $4.3 billion fine.) Although the terms of the agreement were relatively lenient, he was still dissatisfied with his lawyers and did not believe he should serve a single day in jail. "I was sent to prison because we had a platform that didn't do KYC properly," he told me, "You don't even need ID to vote for the U.S. president. I don't know how this system came about. Based on what I've experienced, I feel someone should go to jail for this."

However, for Binance, this was already an excellent outcome. At the sentencing hearing in the spring of 2024, Zhao Changpeng made a statement of remorse: "I deeply regret my negligence and am very sorry." The judge sentenced Zhao Changpeng to four months in prison, calling him "a person who cares for his family and is willing to give." When the court read the verdict, Zhao Changpeng's son, who was attending university, quietly raised his fist in celebration.

As a rare, virtually unlimited-resources felon, Zhao Changpeng had the best conditions to minimize his suffering. He was assigned to Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution, a low-security prison, where Bankman-Fried was later also incarcerated. Before reporting to prison, Zhao Changpeng assembled a team of advisors to teach him how to navigate the subtle interpersonal dynamics within the prison. One advisor, Michael Santos, communicated with other inmates who agreed to help Zhao Changpeng adjust to prison life. "CZ, you know how to deal with people, you've managed thousands of employees," Santos told him, "walking in here won't make you lose those abilities."

On the morning of May 30, 2024, Zhao Changpeng arrived at Lompoc. He quickly joined an informal social group known as "car," which often formed along ethnic lines. Other Asian inmates sat with Zhao Changpeng during meals and exercised with him on the yard during recreation time. They were excited to interact with a billionaire. "Everyone made way for him," said Jayton Agun, who was also serving time at Lompoc, "like a king walking down the aisle."

Zhao Changpeng became friendly with a Vietnamese bank robber who had previously worked as an engineer. They discussed the details of the robberies but found the process was not as meticulously planned as one might imagine from a movie like "Ocean's Eleven." Zhao Changpeng told me he was "very mild" and a "super easygoing person." "He just walked in, took the money, and left. He did it 11 times and never got caught."

This bank robber was one of the few inmates interested in business. He read Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal and asked Zhao Changpeng about Elon Musk's exorbitant salary package at Tesla. Other inmates also had business questions, with one wanting to understand the mysteries of the crypto market. "He asked, why did Bitcoin go up?" Zhao Changpeng recalled, "I said, wow, I can't say for sure either." Zhao Changpeng organized a study group to track stock prices, and a television in the prison was tuned to CNBC.

Not everything he said was well-received. At Lompoc, Zhao Changpeng found it difficult to convince others of his firmly held belief that there were essentially no victims in the Binance case, "no fraud, nothing." When he explained the details of the case, the responses were dismissive. "They said, yeah, everyone says that," Zhao Changpeng recalled.

In August 2024, Zhao Changpeng left Lompoc and transitioned to a halfway house that helps inmates reintegrate into society. However, issues related to his immigration status forced him to spend the last two weeks in a local jail. He passed the time doing push-ups and sit-ups in his cell. On the day of his release, an officer escorted him outside, where his mother, sister, and assistant were waiting for him. They drove to a nearby airport, where he boarded a private plane bound for Abu Dhabi.

It took only 26 minutes from the time Zhao Changpeng left the detention facility to the takeoff of his plane.

V. Behind the $2 Billion Investment: Binance, USD1, and Trump's Pardon

Zhao Changpeng sits in the driver's seat of a car, with his phone mounted on the windshield.

He was driving a Nissan SUV touring Abu Dhabi. Photo: Laura Boushnak, The New York Times.

Zhao Changpeng returned to a world that was changing in his favor. A government friendly to the cryptocurrency industry was about to take power in Washington. Shortly before the election, Trump co-founded World Liberty with Steve Witkoff's family. Witkoff, a real estate tycoon, was preparing to become the White House envoy to the Middle East. Soon, these newly empowered Americans, who were both making deals and conducting diplomacy, began to frequently travel to the UAE.

While driving me around the city, Zhao Changpeng stopped and pointed to the ADNEC Center. This exhibition center hosted a large gathering of cryptocurrency enthusiasts in December 2024. "I met Eric Trump right here," he said. He recalled that a Trump supporter named David Bailey introduced him to the president's second son. Eric is also one of the heads of World Liberty. It was a casual chat without a formal agenda. "He just said he was looking at a real estate project here," Zhao Changpeng told me.

Their interests were about to converge. The UAE had been striving to transform from an oil nation into an emerging technology powerhouse, a plan led by Sheikh Tahnoun, who oversees the UAE's $1.5 trillion sovereign wealth fund. Before going to prison, Zhao Changpeng had discussed selling a portion of Binance's shares to Tahnoun's key aide, Xiao Peng. This would create the closest connection between his company and those providing him political asylum.

Sheikh Tahnoun almost always wears sunglasses. He serves as the chairman of a venture capital fund called MGX, which focuses on artificial intelligence. According to a knowledgeable source, early last year, MGX agreed to invest $2 billion in Binance, valuing the company at $75 billion. MGX believes that Binance is the ideal bridge connecting cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence: a high-tech money transfer platform that one day could enable automated AI agents to make payments on behalf of real people.

Zhao Changpeng told me he hoped to settle the deal in Bitcoin. The UAE was concerned that the price of Bitcoin could fluctuate significantly, complicating the transaction. They preferred to pay Zhao Changpeng in stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a price of $1.

What happened next is widely controversial. If the Democrats win control of Congress in November, this matter is likely to become the subject of a congressional investigation. MGX stated that after evaluating various stablecoins, it chose USD1 issued by World Liberty for "commercial viability." This choice was shocking because USD1 had not been tested in the market and had no historical performance to reference. Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Binance had explicitly requested MGX to use USD1 for payment; Zhao Changpeng said this was a decision made by MGX. "As long as the stablecoin is credible and won't disappear overnight, I don't really care," he told me, "There are no other considerations."

But all parties had reasons to involve World Liberty in the deal. In January 2025, just days before Trump took office, an investment company backed by UAE capital acquired 49% of the startup; Sheikh Tahnoun secured a board seat at World Liberty. Around the same time, the UAE was negotiating with the White House for export licenses for high-end computing chips that drive artificial intelligence. Binance also had matters to address with the Trump administration. As legal troubles began to fade, the company hoped to lift some restrictions imposed by a settlement agreement from 2023.

In May 2025, Witkoff's son Zach announced the deal and thanked Binance and MGX for "their trust in us." Congressional Democrats condemned it as "stablecoin corruption." Issuers like World Liberty profit by receiving cash from cryptocurrency traders, providing them with stablecoins, and then using the received cash for investments to earn returns. With the $2 billion deal from MGX and Binance, World Liberty immediately became one of the largest stablecoin companies in the world, benefiting both Trump and Witkoff. "This is such a shameless act of flattery," said Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator from Connecticut who investigated Zhao Changpeng and Binance, "the scope and scale of its corruption are unprecedented."

Zhao Changpeng insisted that no wrongdoing occurred. He said he no longer held those USD1 but used them to invest in Bitcoin and other assets. "I think President Trump has very good lawyers, and the arrangement of his sons running the business while he serves as president is completely legal and compliant," he told me. He believed some of the anger might stem from cultural differences. "In Kazakhstan, we can eat horse meat," he explained, "in some other countries, people would say, 'That's crazy.'" Could a business deal between the ruling families of two countries not be a good thing? Zhao Changpeng drew a parallel to medieval practices. "If a princess from one country marries a prince from another country," he said, "they can maintain peace for 50 years."

Two weeks after the completion of the $2 billion deal, the White House agreed to allow the UAE to obtain these chips, overriding concerns from some U.S. national security officials. Last spring, Steve Witkoff traveled to Abu Dhabi with Trump. They celebrated the agreement with UAE officials at the presidential palace.

According to a person familiar with the conversations, Witkoff privately told an acquaintance that Zhao Changpeng should receive a pardon. Zhao Changpeng had submitted the relevant application materials and was awaiting the president's decision. The outcome would have significant implications for Binance. After Zhao Changpeng pleaded guilty, the exchange's stalled U.S. operations lost state-level licenses. A pardon could help the company gain recognition from regulators. (A White House spokeswoman stated that Witkoff was not involved in the pardon process.)

Describing the process to me, Zhao Changpeng used cautious language, calling it a "black box" handled by several lawyers who regularly communicated progress from Washington. He said that occasionally, dubious intermediaries would find him at social events, claiming they could arrange a meeting with Trump for the right price. "There’s a small group of people who make money off this," Zhao Changpeng said.

Zhao Changpeng ignored them. He told me that he only began seriously considering applying for a pardon in March 2025. At that time, other cryptocurrency executives had received pardons, and The Wall Street Journal reported that he was also seeking one. "I thought, since the newspaper thinks I should apply for a pardon, maybe I should," he said.

But according to two knowledgeable sources and documents reviewed by The New York Times, Zhao Changpeng's legal team had already been working with prominent pardon lawyer Brett Tolman as early as December 2024 to explore the possibility of obtaining a pardon. Publicly filed documents show that Binance ultimately paid $2.1 million to a lobbying firm run by Chase McDowell, purchasing services that included "administrative relief." McDowell has close ties to the president's two older sons. (A spokesperson for World Liberty told me the company "had no involvement in any pardon decisions.")

In October last year, when the pardon news was announced, Zhao Changpeng had just arrived in Kyrgyzstan, preparing to meet with President Sadyr Japarov. Japarov was interested in launching a digital token pegged to Kyrgyzstan's national currency. When he was welcomed by the host in the capital, Bishkek, he posted a brief thank-you message on social media. That evening, he discussed stablecoins with the president at a restaurant.

VI. Beyond Mansion Life, Binance's Controversies Persist

A grand piano sits in a white children's playroom, toys scattered on the floor, colorful paintings hanging on the walls. Zhao Changpeng stands in the center of the room.

The children's playroom features a Steinway piano. Photo: Laura Boushnak, The New York Times.

On a scorching summer morning this year, Zhao Changpeng drove up the driveway of his $5 million villa. He and He Yi hosted visiting grandparents and siblings here. His two dogs greeted him at the door. In addition to a Tegan hound, Zhao Changpeng also has a Belgian Malinois named Broccoli because he thought the name sounded a bit like "blockchain."

The photographer followed closely behind as Zhao Changpeng briskly moved from one room to another, showing us photos of him with young children. In the center of the children's playroom stood an impressive cream-colored piano surrounded by toys. The tuner who came for maintenance was saddened to see the piano so neglected. Zhao Changpeng told me it was a Steinway, "the expensive kind," "but I don't play." As he walked into the home gym, he paused to do a few sets of bench presses.

Zhao Changpeng wanted to clarify that he does not live like a typical billionaire. Although Forbes estimates his wealth at over $100 billion, Zhao Changpeng insists the actual figure is much lower, around $10 billion to $30 billion. He said he only needs a small portion of that, just $10 million, to live comfortably.

When participating in cryptocurrency podcasts, Zhao Changpeng is occasionally asked about his house. He often brings up a leak on the upper floor that has never been fixed. Sure enough, in the living room, he pointed to a water stain on the floor and then gestured to the ceiling. "It's right there," he said, "I don't know if you can see the color difference."

Zhao Changpeng stands in the dining room, pointing at the ceiling. Behind him is a long dining table.

Zhao Changpeng points to a leak that has never been fixed. Photo: Laura Boushnak, The New York Times.

By billionaire standards, Zhao Changpeng's villa is not luxurious. He told me there is a house nearby listed for $150 million. But his deliberately displayed humility is hard to reconcile with the world of power and privilege he now inhabits. At a group dinner, Zhao Changpeng listened as Altman introduced an emerging field of biotechnology research. "They can get sperm and eggs from the same person," Zhao Changpeng recalled, "basically, one person can have a child." Zhao Changpeng himself has ambitions to break biological limits: he invested in a startup researching artificial wombs.

Since his release from prison, Zhao Changpeng has divided his time among various ventures, including tech investments and traveling as a sort of "crypto diplomat." In many countries, he is often treated with royal-like hospitality and helps promote the cryptocurrency industry. "They always send someone with two cars to drive right up to the plane," he told me, "and a girl brings local delicacies for you to try."

Zhao Changpeng downplayed his involvement with Binance. The company's plea agreement prohibits him from "operating or managing" the business. He specifically expressed dissatisfaction with Binance's recent lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal. The paper had previously reported on personnel changes in Binance's compliance department, and he called the lawsuit "extremely wasteful." He told me that even if Binance won, "it wouldn't gain much." (The company withdrew the lawsuit last month.)

Clearly, Binance remains an important part of his life. Among the two co-CEOs who succeeded him, one is He Yi, who is also the mother of his three young children. Two years ago, to demonstrate a move towards traditional corporate governance, Binance established a board of directors, which includes three so-called independent directors. One of them also serves as chairman: Gab Abed, who was the friend that originally encouraged Changpeng Zhao to go to the UAE. They once rode jet skis together, and Abed gifted Zhao a pair of orange high-top sneakers with the words "Trump, Crypto President" printed on them.

Recently, Binance has faced new allegations of misconduct. Last year, four compliance officers reported that nearly $2 billion flowed from customer accounts to a batch of entities linked to Iran, and they were subsequently fired or suspended by the company. This could mean that the sanction evasion behavior that led to the U.S. filing criminal charges in 2023 has resurfaced. The company disputed the findings of the investigation into these employees and denied that anyone was punished for raising concerns. The U.S. Department of Justice later stated that two Chinese companies had used Binance to launder proceeds from Iranian oil sales, but no charges were brought against the exchange.

Binance's relationship with the UAE has also shown some cracks. In December last year, the company obtained a license to operate in Abu Dhabi, shortly after which Abu Dhabi faced intense missile attacks from Iran. The exchange's new regulatory body praised the company as a benchmark for "regulatory progress." However, this summer, two Binance employees were briefly detained in the UAE. Local police were investigating potential financial crimes on the platform, and such a hardline approach is uncommon.

The detention incident made local Binance employees uneasy. Zhao Changpeng told me he messaged a contact at the UAE police and also reached out to an assistant of Sheikh Tahnoun. "I just said, 'Listen, let's find a way to prevent this from happening again,'" Zhao recalled, "'It's not good for the country's image, and it's not good for us either.'" He insisted that the UAE remains a friendly place for Binance. "No one is in danger," he said.

Zhao Changpeng's confidence comes from repeated successful escapes. In an era where breaking the rules often leads to rewards, he is a definite winner. In his memoir, he devoted about a page and a half to explaining his belief in the "simulation theory." This theory posits that all of us might be living in a reality conceived by others. He encountered this idea early in his crypto career and now believes that, mathematically, it is indisputable. "In another 20 years, we should be able to plug a rod into our brains like in 'The Matrix' and enter a fully simulated world," he wrote, "billions of people will do this, and there will be billions of simulated worlds."

This belief allows Zhao Changpeng to maintain a certain distance from the pressures of daily life. He wrote that we might all be some version of Super Mario, running around in an artificial world. He tries to follow a simple motto: "It's just a game."