In his newly released autobiography, Freedom of Money, Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao provides a candid, behind-the-scenes look at the collapse of FTX and his own company's subsequent legal battles. Zhao recounts the pivotal November 2022 phone call with Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), where the FTX founder requested "a couple of billion dollars nonchalantly, as if he were asking for a bologna sandwich." CZ states he never intended to finalize the acquisition, signing a non-binding Letter of Intent only as a formality to assess the situation and potentially protect users.
Zhao pinpoints the moment FTX's collapse accelerated: when Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison publicly offered to buy Binance's FTT holdings at $22 each to stabilize the market. Zhao calls this "a fatal mistake," as it revealed a floor price that professional traders immediately shorted through, causing FTT to plummet from $22 to $5 within 72 hours and triggering $6 billion in withdrawals from FTX.
The memoir also discloses the existence of an "Exchange Collaboration" Signal chat group, created by FTX's Zane Tackett during the Terra/LUNA collapse earlier in 2022. The group included CZ, SBF, Coinbase's Brian Armstrong, Kraken's Jesse Powell, and others, and later attracted scrutiny from Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigators looking for evidence of collusion—which Zhao denies existed.
Zhao details the aftermath for Binance, which faced its own bank run with $7 billion withdrawn in a single day on December 14, 2022. He claims he was unconcerned as user funds were secure, and deposits returned within a month. The book also covers Zhao's personal downfall, including his 2024 guilty plea to U.S. Anti-Money Laundering violations, his four-month prison sentence, and Binance's multi-billion dollar settlement with authorities. He reflects on the trade-offs between rapid growth and compliance, and the book's central theme of "freedom of money" through cryptocurrency.
