CZ is Busy: After 170 Days Out of Prison, I'm Returning to the Crypto Throne
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CZ is Busy: After 170 Days Out of Prison, I'm Returning to the Crypto Throne
363 tweets: Can the former leader of Binance successfully reinvent his persona?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Bright, Foresight News
Since returning from California, CZ has been busy.
It has been 170 days since his comeback. In nearly half a year, CZ has posted a total of 363 tweets. Although he stepped down as CEO of Binance in November 2023, his enthusiasm for posting, attending events, and trying new things has only intensified compared to when he was leading the exchange.
Recently, Binance announced a $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi-based MGX. The resulting meme coin MUBARAK—nicknamed “headscarf guy”—surged to a market cap of $157 million thanks to CZ’s frequent engagement. A single tweet and one BNB transaction involving a BNB Chain meme marked a striking shift for CZ, once the champion of "BUIDL," now embracing controversial meme culture.
This raises an intriguing question: After shedding the title of "leader of the world's largest crypto exchange," is CZ reconstructing his influence network with greater freedom?
The former Chinese首富 (richest person) immediately resumed his long-standing persona as a "tech evangelist" after release from prison, clearly stating that he will dedicate more time and capital to philanthropy and education, while continuing to focus on blockchain/decentralized technologies, AI, and biotech. Yet in a market where VC narratives are generally sluggish, rather than stubbornly pushing BUIDL rhetoric, CZ has become a capable "Chief Community Officer of BNB," riding the wave of meme fever and internet banter.
Returning to Crypto: From DeSci Advocate to Meme Master
CZ’s first major move upon return was promoting DeSci—a field that had long been quiet. His endorsement brought immediate attention to this niche sector, particularly at the intersection of VC-style investments in decentralized science and biotech, which resemble real-world paradigms being moved on-chain.
In November 2024, CZ attended the DeSci conference in Bangkok alongside Vitalik Buterin, instantly turning the obscure DeSci (decentralized science) space into a magnet for capital and spotlight. Shortly afterward, Binance Labs (now renamed Yzi Labs) officially announced its investment in Bio Protocol, a project aiming to use blockchain for research data ownership, transparent funding allocation, and revenue sharing from scientific outcomes.
Today, Yzi Labs includes biotech investment in both its website and Twitter bios. Four.meme, the most popular meme launchpad on BNB Chain, even offers a "DeSci" tag during token creation.
DeSci’s rise has captured significant attention from researchers. Just as DeFi attracted traditional finance professionals and NFTs drew artists into Web3, scientists of all levels may now be poised to enter en masse, bringing fresh narratives and growth to Web3.
Beyond investing in sectors CZ supports, he frequently extends his influence by personally engaging with emerging trends.
Take meme coins: CZ evolved from openly dismissing them as valueless, to acknowledging their existence in interviews, to passively observing degens fighting over naming rights for his dog Broccoli, to joking that TST test tokens should pay licensing fees for using the Binance logo, to publicly sharing donation addresses and reigniting meme donation trends, to retweeting fan-made celebrity tokens on BNB Chain—which caused controversy—and finally to the recent MUBARAK meme sparked by Abu Dhabi's investment in Binance. Indeed, it is CZ’s active presence that has single-handedly fueled every high-market-cap BNB Chain meme phenomenon.
Notably, CZ’s handling of the MUBARAK event was textbook-level execution: On March 13, after Binance announced the MGX investment, CZ retweeted the Mandarin Binance account’s Middle Eastern-themed post with the word “mubarak.” The next day, he shared a community-made meme saying “MUBARAK = CZ.” On the 15th, he posted a dynamic image featuring the Mubarak character, triggering a 150% surge in the token’s price within a day. On the 16th, he bought 1 BNB worth of both MUBARAK and TST on-chain, directly pushing MUBARAK’s market cap past $100 million.
This three-step pattern—tweet interaction, community co-creation, on-chain action—has turned CZ’s personal influence into direct market momentum. Data shows MUBARAK went from concept to over $100 million market cap in just four days, with peak daily trading volume reaching $88.1 million, despite liquidity pools under $5 million—highlighting how “attention equals capital” in the CZ-driven meme economy. This contrasts sharply with the earlier Broccoli naming dispute, where CZ merely observed community arguments and triggered only a brief $20 million market spike. Now, BNB Chain memes have evolved into systematic traffic operations centered around CZ as the focal point of attention.
While CZ consistently distances himself from direct involvement with these meme tokens, his shifting attitude toward memes reflects broader changes in his relationship with the community and the crypto industry at large—offering a masterclass for top KOLs on leveraging "attention economics" to maintain ecosystem热度 (heat) during bear markets.
Entering Education: The Billionaire’s Social Experiment
Yet the project CZ talks about most is his new venture, Giggle Academy—an open educational platform that represents a strategic pillar in his post-Binance transformation. On March 3, CZ tweeted: “One kid at a time, times 6000 now,” celebrating a milestone in user adoption.
Launched on March 19, 2024, Giggle Academy gamifies core subjects like math, literature, science, physics, biology, finance, programming, and AI using blockchain technology. It also reimagines learning credentials through NFTs and on-chain badges in a decentralized framework.
Giggle Academy aims to solve two key problems: First, improving learning retention via gamification—the platform reports a 23% increase in average daily study time compared to traditional online courses. Second, combating degree inflation—by immutably recording learning journeys, talent evaluation can shift from credential packaging to actual skills. In interviews, CZ emphasized: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for life.” He believes education is a critical tool for addressing global inequality, and blockchain provides a transparent, verifiable solution.
Still, CZ stresses that Giggle Academy will not issue any tokens and will be fully self-funded. It won’t adopt the common Web3 model of “Learn to Earn,” which he says “could lead to many issues.” On March 14, CZ announced a referral points system—but clarified these points would not be cryptocurrencies. This “anti-Web3-bubble” design underscores his pragmatic approach to real-world tech adoption. Clearly, CZ isn’t just rethinking learning assessment—he’s envisioning a more inclusive global education model powered by blockchain.
Crypto Leader: Finding the Balance Between Industry and Self
In just 170 days, CZ’s average daily post count on X reached 2.135—up 37% from his time as Binance CEO—with over 60% of content covering industry trends, project incubation updates, and personal investment views. This high-frequency engagement feels less like leisurely retirement and more like a calculated identity reconstruction—by downplaying the “Binance founder” label, CZ is steadily transforming his personal brand from “centralized exchange authority” to “ecosystem enabler.”
Prior to incarceration, CZ, as both an early crypto evangelist and de facto leader of the world’s largest centralized exchange, operated under intense regulatory scrutiny. In 2023, he explicitly stated he “would not invest in such projects (memes),” a stance closely tied to Binance’s compliance image at a time when the exchange faced global regulatory pressure and needed distance from high-risk assets. Thus, CZ presented himself primarily as a builder, urging others to BUIDL Web3. Ironically, he once admitted in an interview that he had never used DeFi. Similarly, on February 23, CZ tweeted that it was his first time using a DEX (decentralized exchange)—sparking widespread surprise.
Now, after his release, Binance having fully paid its settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, and CZ stepping away from official management roles, CZ has objectively become the biggest KOL for the BNB Chain and the wider Binance ecosystem—whether he wants to or not. When BNB meme activity heats up, everyone turns to CZ, hoping he’ll carry the torch from Solana and ignite the BNB Chain ecosystem. Indeed, CZ’s response to memes and community engagement has gradually shifted from cautious probing to systematic orchestration.
Nonetheless, it’s undeniable that regardless of whether he holds the CEO title, CZ cannot escape his deep ties to the crypto empire he built. As the 90% shareholder, though not involved in day-to-day operations, he still requires board consensus for major strategic decisions. And as founder, the market’s overinterpretation of his words continues to trigger chain reactions. As the crypto saying goes, “The source of profit is also the source of loss.” CZ’s influence—and constraints—both stem from his greatest creation: Binance.
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