He Yizhi's Letter to the U.S. Judge: What Is the Real Zhao Changpeng Like?
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He Yizhi's Letter to the U.S. Judge: What Is the Real Zhao Changpeng Like?
Today, it is a sense of responsibility that has led him to face the trial, but he should absolutely not be regarded as同类to those evil individuals who commit murder, robbery, and fraud.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsNote: On April 24, the U.S. Department of Justice stated that Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) should serve a three-year (36-month) prison sentence. According to their reasoning, DOJ prosecutors believe CZ helped Binance violate federal sanctions and anti-money laundering laws, and argue that he must pay a heavier price—thus warranting a longer sentence.
Shortly before sentencing, CZ submitted a letter to Judge Richard A. Jones, who is presiding over the case, expressing regret for his "wrong decisions" and accepting full responsibility for his actions.
In addition to CZ’s own letter, 161 letters of support have been submitted by family, friends, and others, offering diverse perspectives on the real CZ. Jessica Zhao, CZ’s sister and former Managing Director at JPMorgan, said that while her brother made mistakes, he has consistently worked to help others throughout his life. She referenced the FTX collapse, emphasizing that CZ ensured Binance never misused customer funds. CZ’s children, Ryan and Rachel, currently attending university in the United States, urged the judge not to define their father solely by this one incident.
Among these, perhaps the most distinctive letter came from Yi He, Binance co-founder and mother of three of CZ’s children. In her letter, she wrote:
“If the cryptocurrency industry is like the Wild West, then CZ is the guardian of this frontier.”
“For CZ, whether poor or wealthy, he takes charity seriously and embraces social responsibility because he is kind-hearted and driven by humanitarian values.”
Finally, Yi He stated, “Today, it is a sense of responsibility that leads him to face trial. But he absolutely should not be grouped with evil criminals—murderers, robbers, fraudsters. I sincerely hope Judge Jones will open the eyes of God, see the full truth, and render a fair judgment after seeing the complete picture of CZ.”
Below is the full text of Yi He's letter:
Dear Judge Jones,
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I am Changpeng Zhao (commonly known as CZ)’s business partner and also the mother of his three children. I hope this letter helps you understand a more authentic CZ.
In the spring of 2014, I met CZ at a public blockchain event hosted by a school. Unlike many in the space who use pseudonyms, “CZ” is simply the initials of his real name. Upon arrival, he was immediately invited on stage for an impromptu talk because the organizers learned he had worked for blockchain.info—the most popular Bitcoin wallet at the time. He passionately explained blockchain technology and the principles of Bitcoin. At that moment, he had just sold his house to buy Bitcoin, and due to the sharp drop in price, his net worth had significantly shrunk. Yet this did not dampen his obsession with blockchain technology. His speech radiated idealism about how blockchain could bring positive change to the world—an outlook that deeply influenced and inspired me. Later, CZ ventured into the crypto space and founded Binance. Of course, he wanted the company to succeed, but he is not someone whose ultimate goal is profit. He genuinely believes in using technology to advance the world.
In the summer of 2014, CZ’s deep expertise in trading and matching systems couldn’t be fully utilized at Blockchain.info. After repeated invitations from me, he joined OKCoin, where I worked. The crypto market was already in a downturn, and amid widespread despair in the community, a member was diagnosed with leukemia and could not afford treatment, so he launched a public fundraising campaign. Despite having lost much of his personal wealth, CZ actively donated. Unfortunately, the individual passed away. This tragedy inspired CZ and me to launch the “LoveBTC” charity initiative. He built a website and set up a public Bitcoin wallet address. We auctioned clothes and other items via social media, converted BTC directly into goods, and delivered them to those in need. CZ even wrote a paper explaining how blockchain technology could enable 100% transparent charitable giving—ensuring 100% of donations reached beneficiaries without being eroded by middlemen fees. That paper is available on GitHub, timestamped April 2014. This was the precursor to Binance Charity.
This was three years before Binance was founded, and CZ was far from wealthy. Many view charity as a way to gain fame, some use it as a tax strategy, and others say they’ll give back only after achieving financial freedom. But for CZ, whether poor or rich, he has always taken charity seriously and embraced social responsibility because he is kind-hearted and driven by humanitarian values.
In August 2017, my first month at Binance, a young user approached me saying he had sent several thousand dollars to a Binance wallet address, but Binance didn’t support that token, so the deposit couldn’t be processed—a common mistake in the early days of the industry.
Industry norms at the time dictated that users bear the consequences of their own errors. But for this early-20s user, those few thousand dollars might represent his family’s annual income, his entire college tuition, and his future hopes. After a brief discussion with CZ, he redirected our already limited development resources to recover the funds—a first-of-its-kind recovery in the industry. From that first case grew countless others. Under CZ’s leadership, Binance has since helped over 180,000 users recover assets totaling more than $441 million. It’s a resource-intensive project with little return on investment, but we can offer hope to users in despair. To this day, publicly listed platforms like Coinbase still do not offer such a service. In this emerging, lawless frontier, many players act as predators, but CZ has always insisted we do the right thing: protect our users.
In early 2018, when Bitcoin surged past $20,000, investor enthusiasm fueled rampant fraud. One day, a group of Chinese users approached me, saying they were lured by a social media account into investing in a project, sent money, and then the scammer disappeared. Public blockchain data showed the funds had just been transferred into a Binance account. Under standard procedures used by most platforms today, users would need to file a police report first, and authorities would issue a request before any action could be taken. But at that time, China banned crypto trading, so local police wouldn’t accept such cases. CZ told us: “Do the right thing.” We temporarily froze the illicit funds and arranged multiple phone calls between victims and the scammer. Eventually, the scammer returned the money and shut down the account. This is just one of countless examples of CZ’s commitment to fighting bad actors. In 2023 alone, Binance cooperated with law enforcement agencies worldwide in over 58,000 investigations—many of which were initiated proactively by Binance itself. This is why, despite mainstream media attempts to paint CZ as a villain, millions of users and ordinary people regard him as a hero of the industry. Because CZ has always held firm to his own sense of justice. If the crypto industry is the Wild West, then CZ is the guardian of this frontier.
Starting in 2019, our team expanded rapidly, becoming highly globalized and diverse. Our team included Ivy League-educated Wall Street professionals, European dropouts, African frontline NGO activists, and Southeast Asian village youth who didn’t want to become fishermen. CZ truly treated everyone equally regardless of race, faith, gender, education, or background. Whether it was a junior employee in Southeast Asia whose home was destroyed by fire, employees lacking protective gear during the global pandemic, or staff endangered by the war between Russia and Ukraine—CZ spared no cost in helping them. For a CEO, spending millions to relocate high-value talent and their families from unstable regions and providing ongoing stipends may not seem unusual. But CZ made these decisions without considering seniority, title, or potential replaceability—even extending support widely to entry-level employees who are typically easy to replace. His sole criterion was simple: they needed help.
CZ’s leadership style may not conform to traditional expectations of a CEO. His commitment to transparency and fairness often clashed with the power expectations of a small group accustomed to elite corporate hierarchies. This led some employees to leave resentfully and make false accusations to the media. While these reports sometimes frustrated me, CZ carried the burden silently, continuing to champion fairness and equality because he understands that true equity can feel unfair to a privileged few.
One weekend in November 2022, FTX faced collapse. Sam (SBF)’s final call for help went to CZ. Before receiving any valid financial statements or documents from SBF, CZ convened a management meeting to decide whether to rescue FTX. He said: “We don’t need the FTX company. We’re saving FTX to save the industry. We should save FTX.” Ultimately, the deal fell through. Later public disclosures revealed that multiple entities linked to FTX had misappropriated customer funds—something that shocked CZ. Believing transparency was the better solution, he publicly shared Binance’s exchange wallet addresses and launched a product allowing users to verify their account balances against on-chain data—further promoting industry self-regulation.
To date, CZ and I have weathered ten stormy years together in this industry—a decade of dramatic transformation, during which Bitcoin rose from a few hundred dollars to over $40,000. We’ve seen once-celebrated figures disgraced and major institutions collapse overnight. Most of these individuals were brilliant, self-proclaimed geniuses who disregarded the law, believing they could deceive the public or evade punishment. But CZ is different: he is upright, kind, sincere, intelligent, and incredibly hardworking. Due to work-related health issues, CZ underwent two spinal surgeries in 2020 alone. Even during 18 months of recurring hospitalizations, he never stopped working a single day. Over the past six years, as CEO and largest shareholder, he accepted a salary lower than many executives hired later, and never took a single dividend or personal payout. This time, to ensure Binance could continue operating, he chose to fly to the U.S. voluntarily and plead guilty. Between personal interest and public good, CZ always chooses to sacrifice himself for Binance. And between Binance and its users, he will always choose the users.
As CZ’s partner, I know exactly how he earned the community’s respect: perhaps when China banned Bitcoin exchanges and other projects seized the chance to profit, CZ chose instead to refund users at above-market prices; or when Binance suffered a hack, CZ immediately disclosed everything and took full responsibility; or when countless project founders launch tokens only to get rich by selling them, CZ dedicates himself to tracking down scammers and hackers—even in cases unrelated to Binance—driven purely by his mission and sense of duty toward the industry.
As CZ’s life partner, having known him for nearly a decade, I understand his lesser-known side. He knows nothing about the luxuries the wealthy obsess over—jewelry, designer goods, luxury cars, art auctions. He lives simply: buying affordable clothes on Amazon, riding a hoverboard to meetings, proudly showing journalists his Toyota minivan—only to be mocked publicly later. He buys things based on efficiency and interest, not status. He has no obsession with money, fame, or indulgence. He wants to live a meaningful life.
At the same time, he is deeply considerate of his friends, regardless of their profession or social standing. He makes every effort to spend quality time with his three young children despite his demanding schedule. They are very close to him. Lately, they keep asking: “Why isn’t Dad at home? When will Dad come back?”
Of course, I’m not saying CZ didn’t make mistakes. His greatest error was ignorance. As a startup without elite credentials, the founding team lacked legal expertise. Early management—including myself—couldn’t even read English fluently, apart from CZ. With limited experience and legal knowledge, CZ won users’ trust through fairness, integrity, and a strong sense of responsibility toward the industry—and yes, he also made mistakes. Regardless, the errors have been made, and both Binance and CZ have paid a heavy price.
CZ once said: “No one wants to be a hero, because no one is born wanting to stand in front and take the arrows. A hero is simply someone who, placed in that position, feels compelled to protect family, community, people, or country by doing the right thing—and thus becomes a hero in the process.”
I humbly ask Judge Jones to consider that in the extremely early and chaotic days of cryptocurrency—when even the definition of jurisdiction and regulatory framework remains unsettled—for a founder with no prior experience managing a company of this scale, blind spots were inevitable. Had CZ understood the severity of the situation, he would have blocked all U.S. users from day one. He never wanted to be a hero, and certainly never intended to become a criminal. All his actions have followed universal humanitarian principles, and he did his best under the circumstances.
Today, it is a sense of responsibility that leads him to face trial. But he absolutely should not be grouped with evil criminals—murderers, robbers, fraudsters. I sincerely hope Judge Jones will open the eyes of God, see the full truth, and render a fair judgment after seeing the complete picture of CZ. Should you need further details, please feel free to contact me at any time.
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Yi He
