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several days have passed since zhao changpeng, the former richest man in china, was released from prison.

according to reports, zhao changpeng was released from the california correctional facility on september 28. his sentence was originally scheduled to end on september 29. the reason for his early release was that the release coincided with the weekend.

after four full months of prison life, the taste of freedom may excite zhao changpeng more than anything else. this excitement not only comes from personal freedom, but also from the resolution of a major life event.

from the richest man in china to being imprisoned, it took changpeng zhao seven years to successfully turn the huge wealth in his pocket into what the united states calls a "fine", and he also successfully used the power of money to get through a catastrophe in his life.

zhao changpeng, who is only 47 years old and has a huge amount of wealth, is about to start the second act of his life. but behind everything that seems to have settled, there is still a hidden crisis lurking.

one fact is that the u.s. securities and exchange commission is still investigating binance for violations, having filed multiple charges last june.

judging from the continuous huge fines from the u.s. department of justice to the cftc, binance is very likely to receive fines from the sec. as the actual controller, how can changpeng zhao live in peace?

huge fine, four months in jail

as a highly controversial gray area, the cryptocurrency field has natural characteristics that are difficult to regulate.

on march 27, 2023, changpeng zhao and binance were sued by the u.s. commodity futures trading commission (cftc) for allegedly violating trading rules, accusing changpeng zhao and binance of illegally operating a digital asset derivatives exchange.

the next day, changpeng zhao publicly responded that after preliminary review, the indictment seemed to contain an incomplete statement of facts, and they disagreed with the characterization of many of the issues alleged in the indictment.

however, three months later, the u.s. securities and exchange commission (sec) again filed 13 charges against changpeng zhao and binance, including operating unregistered exchanges, broker-dealers, and clearing agencies; and providing false transactions on the binance us platform. control and supervision statements, etc.

faced with strong pressure from the u.s. judicial department, zhao changpeng chose to compromise.

on november 21, 2023, zhao changpeng signed a plea agreement with the u.s. department of justice.pleaded guilty to multiple violations, including violations of the u.s. bank secrecy actanti-money launderingregulations and other issues.

according to the plea agreement, changpeng zhao must pay a personal fine of us$50 million, resign as ceo of binance, and shall not participate in any activities of binance within three years. on the same day, binance announced that singaporean richard teng would take over as ceo.

on the same day, binance also admitted a criminal charge and reached a settlement with the u.s. treasury department’s financial crimes enforcement network (fincen) and the office of foreign assets control (ofac), paying fines of $3.4 billion and $968 million respectively.

this amount set a record for the largest financial penalty case in u.s. judicial history.

however, zhao changpeng's troubles did not end there. in march 2024, the united states unilaterally modified his bail conditions, added more restrictions and supervision measures, and even took away all his passports, making it impossible for him to leave the united states.

fortunately, money can make all the difference. with huge fines and the support of a top team of lawyers, in april this year, zhao changpeng was sentenced to just four months in prison by the seattle federal court, which was far less than the three years that prosecutors tried to punish.

after spending four months in prison at the federal lompoc correctional facility in california, zhao changpeng released his first tweet,just a simple "gm" greeting to the cryptocurrency community.

this tweet caused quite a stir and within an hour it was read more than 1 million times, binance tokens such as bnb and cake also showed significant gains.

founded binance and became the richest man in china

in 1977, zhao changpeng was born in jiangsulianyungangwhen he was 12 years old, he went to canada with his father to study.mcgill universitystudy computer science.

after graduation, it took changpeng zhao less than 2 years to become an important member of bloomberg, the world's largest financial information company.

while working at bloomberg, changpeng zhao gained diverse cross-border work experience. at the same time, he realized that cross-border remittance fees were high and the process was complicated, which provided him with subsequent contacts.bitcoinforeshadowing was laid.

in 2013, changpeng zhao learned about bitcoin for the first time. the unique encryption, convenience, and liquidity of bitcoin made changpeng zhao very interested and began to get involved in cryptocurrency projects.

a year later, despite the opposition of his family, zhao changpeng sold his house in shanghai to invest in bitcoin.

during this period, he met okcoin’s founder xu mingxing, became okcoin’s technical director, and left after a year.

in june 2017, changpeng zhao officially founded binance. in just three months, the price of bitcoin soared, from us$3,000 to us$20,000.

so just six months after its establishment, binance attracted 6 million users, with a single-day trading volume of more than 10 billion us dollars, soaring to the first place in the industry and becoming the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.

subsequently, binance sold its own token bnb to raise funds, became the preferred market for various cryptocurrencies, and began to develop rapidly.

according to "global people", in the first quarter of 2018, binance made a profit of us$200 million; in 2021, binance has 3,000 employees worldwide, with a daily trading volume of us$76 billion, and a valuation of us$300 billion.

in 2022, binance also spent $60 million to sign football star cristiano ronaldo.

binance's rapid growth has also rapidly expanded zhao changpeng's personal wealth.

in 2021, changpeng zhao's wealth once reached us$94.1 billion, making him one of the top ten richest people in the world.

according to the "2024 forbes global billionaires list" released on april 3 this year,zhao changpengranked 50th with a net worth of us$33 billion (approximately rmb 231.4 billion).

in fact, affected by the violent fluctuations in the prices of bitcoin and binance coin, changpeng zhao's net worth also rode a "roller coaster" while in prison.

in early july this year, changpeng zhao's net worth reached us$45 billion, and then fell to us$22 billion in early september. according to bloomberg's real-time billionaire rankings, zhao changpeng currently ranks 61st with a net worth of us$30.8 billion (approximately rmb 215 billion).

even though his net worth has shrunk by two-thirds compared to his peak, zhao changpeng is still "the richest inmate in the history of american prisons."

power in hand, focus on education

although under changpeng zhao’s criminal settlement agreement, he must resign as ceo of binance and stay away from any “day-to-day” activities at the company.

however, even though he is no longer the ceo, changpeng zhao is still the company's largest shareholder.this means that changpeng zhao still has great influence on the future direction of binance.

and don’t forget there is “he yi”.

as the "first sister in the currency circle", he yi and zhao changpeng met in 2014 and invited zhao changpeng to join the cryptocurrency exchange okcoin as the chief technology officer in 2015.

when changpeng zhao founded binance in 2017, he yi joined as co-founder and chief marketing officer. she was crucial to binance’s early development and is better known than changpeng zhao in china’s cryptocurrency community, with chinese media dubbing her the cryptocurrency world’s “first sister.”

as time goes by, zhao changpeng and he yi became partners. however, it was not until the court documents about zhao changpeng were made public that people learned that zhao changpeng had never been divorced, but he and he yi had three children together.

the wall street journal previously quoted sources as saying:"in zhao changpeng's absence, his partner he yi is binance's largest shareholder and has taken control of the company's marketing and investment departments."

in fact, in addition to the secret relationship between the two, he yi is also the largest shareholder of binance besides changpeng zhao. these two important factors determine that binance is still changpeng zhao’s binance.

no matter what, after paying billions of dollars in fines and four months of personal freedom, changpeng zhao and binance have finally shed their "historical baggage". facing the new situation, where will changpeng zhao go?

now it seems that he is likely to become "teacher zhao" and focus on public welfare education.

last yearafter announcing his retirement from the ceo position in november, changpeng zhao repeatedly expressed his desire to "be a teacher," including his willingness to privately become a coach or mentor to a small number of emerging entrepreneurs because he "can at least tell them what not to do." .

this yearin march, changpeng zhao announced the launch of a k12 project called giggle academy.aims to provide "a gamified free basic education program for everyone",and recruiting teams to work directly with him.

after being released from prison, changpeng zhao also posted on the x platform: "giggle academy is going well and it will become an important part of my life in the next few years."

but no matter what he does in the future, for zhao changpeng, the most important thing right now is undoubtedly to leave the united states, otherwise no one can say when the next "prison disaster" will come.