Podcast Notes | The Sharpest Conversation Since CZ's Release: Responding to Criticism Over Last October's Crash, Directly Confronting Hyperliquid Competition

Organized & Compiled by TechFlow

TechFlow Summary: From an immigrant teen in Vancouver to the creator of the world's largest crypto exchange, then to imprisonment and a presidential pardon four months later. In this episode's video podcast, CZ systematically reviews for the first time Binance's rise, the tweet that brought down FTX, the truth behind his jail term and pardon, and his genuine assessments of Hyperliquid, DEXs, and the next bull market. He has no regrets, but also draws a "red line" he will never cross.

Guest: CZ, Founder of Binance

Host: Kevin, Host of When Shift Happens

Podcast Source: When Shift Happens

Original Title: CZ Binance Founder: This Crypto Bull Run Could Make You Rich | E187

Air Date: September 25, 2026

Key Takeaways

• FTX was not brought down by a single tweet: When Binance exited its stake in FTX, it recovered approximately $2.1 billion in cash, BUSD, and FTT equivalents. What truly crushed FTX was the misappropriation of hundreds of millions of dollars in client funds. Coindesk had already reported its potential insolvency three to four days before CZ posted his tweet.
• Sentenced to jail for a single BSA violation, unprecedented in U.S. history: CZ received a four-month sentence for this one charge. His greatest fear in prison was having charges repeatedly added and being detained indefinitely. He received a presidential pardon from Trump in 2025, with zero direct contact throughout the entire process.
• Binance started as a 15-to-20-person B2B team: Its predecessor, BG Tech, sold trading systems to collectibles markets. Eighty to ninety percent of clients were not crypto exchanges. In May 2017, a decision was made in a meeting room to pivot to a crypto-to-crypto exchange, relying on a solid team to become the world's largest within six months.
• "Red button" protocol for security incidents: In May 2019, Binance was hacked for $40 million. CZ immediately paused all withdrawals but kept trading active. Withdrawals were paused for a week, providing an opportunity to migrate architecture from servers to serverless. He believes anyone in an exchange should be able to press the red button to halt everything.
• Crypto penetration is still under 1%, now it's time to grow the pie together: Based on holders, penetration is around 5% to 15%, but in terms of net worth, actual investment is less than 1%. Therefore, he welcomes DEXs like Hyperliquid with open arms and opposes treating peers as enemies.
• The "villain" narrative for the 10/10 crash was amplified by competitors: The timeline showed Trump's tariffs causing a stock and crypto market crash first. Binance's problematic stablecoin had a tiny market cap. During that period, Binance still saw net inflows and voluntarily offered about $800 million to compensate affected users, despite having no obligation to do so.
• CZ acknowledges he can't move a $3 trillion market: He tweets five to ten times a day, always bullish. The timing of one tweet right before Trump's positive remarks was purely coincidental probability. When he actually holds advantageous information, he refrains from tweeting.
• Focusing on education and regulation after stepping back from the front lines: Giggle Academy has reached approximately 1.3 million children, showing exponential growth compared to 100,000 in early 2026. He believes AI-customized free education is the most impactful long-term positive investment.

II. Key Insights

• "If a single tweet from a competitor could bring down your company, it means you don't have a real company in the first place."
• "In my case, there has never been anyone in U.S. history who went to jail solely for violating the Bank Secrecy Act once, up to today."
• "Diligence means different things to different people. But I feel that delivering results and being efficient are more important than working long hours."
• "In Asian culture, once people follow a leader, they follow almost blindly, which sometimes makes it difficult for you to seek feedback for your ideas."
• "In terms of penetration rate, we haven't even reached 1%. Moreover, the current market size isn't the future market size."
• "We view exchanges as helping to grow the pie. Because right now, the market is far from saturated."
• "I really hope they pave their own path, go down the road they're taking in the U.S. That's great. It's actually good for the industry."
• "If you're bullish and tweet five times a day, one of those will inevitably coincide roughly five hours before positive news drops."
• "Positive impact brings joy. Knowing you're contributing and helping others makes you happy from within."
• "If you're good at math but poor at English, you'd spend less time on math and more time on English to pull your grades to the average."

III. Transcript

I. From Second-Generation Immigrant to Founding Binance

Kevin: What happened in your life that explains how you became one of the top 20 richest people globally before age 50?

CZ: First, I think that ranking is inaccurate. I'm probably in the top 100 or top 500. Also, my social circle at the higher end skews heavily toward the crypto community.

Kevin: Where does that drive come from internally?

CZ: I don't recall traumatic childhood experiences, but I grew up in a fairly poor environment. My family immigrated to Canada, both of my parents earned salaries near minimum wage, and many of my friends were wealthy investment immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong, which gave me some pressure.

Kevin: You mentioned your sister. What does she do now?

CZ: She's also a tech professional. She worked at a startup in Tokyo, then became one of the Managing Directors at Morgan Stanley. There are about 400 MDs globally out of nearly 100,000 employees. She retired around age 42 and now advises people experiencing depression.

Kevin: You said second-generation immigrants often watch their parents work hard and push forward, but third and fourth generations "decline". How do you prevent this from happening to your kids?

CZ: I still don't know of a working solution. I don't have a second or third generation yet, so I can defer the problem further. I believe it comes down to education, but that's incredibly difficult.

Kevin: Take me back to Day 1 of Binance. If I was sitting in your living room then, what would I see or hear?

CZ: Binance's start was a bit different. We had a team of 15 to 20 people running a company called BG Tech, selling trading systems to other exchanges. In May 2017, I gathered everyone in a meeting room and said maybe now is the right time to build a crypto-to-crypto exchange. That moment was that moment.

Kevin: What does "diligence" mean to you?

CZ: Delivering results and being efficient are more important than working long hours. Many people work extremely long hours but produce nothing. Passionate people measure not by hours logged, but by how deeply they invest themselves and how high-quality results they can deliver in a short timeframe.

Kevin: What is the biggest misconception about Binance?

CZ: Some think it's a Chinese company; it's not. We just have a large number of Chinese employees. Others think centralized exchanges are bad or evil in the industry, but we're actually heavily investing in decentralization. Most people today prefer centralized exchanges, but I believe the future is decentralized.

II. The FTX Collapse and That Tweet

Kevin: FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried claimed your tweet brought down FTX. Did you ever feel even slightly that he might be right?

CZ: No, absolutely not. If a single tweet from a competitor could bring down your company, it means you don't have a real company in the first place. If he were running a company that a single tweet from me could destroy, he couldn't possibly own that company in the first place.

Kevin: So did you completely fail to foresee it, or underestimate the impact your tweet could have?

CZ: I didn't think my tweet caused that much impact. It was more of a public disclosure. As part of Binance exiting its stake in FTX, we recovered approximately $2.1 billion in cash, BUSD, and FTT equivalents. I said we wanted to liquidate all remaining FTT on our balance sheet. At the time, I actually didn't know they would run into problems, nor did I expect any major fallout.

Kevin: What happened right before you tweeted?

CZ: Coindesk published an article stating they might be insolvent, roughly three to four days before my tweet. The reality is they lied to customers and misappropriated client funds. Alameda's CEO tweeted 20 minutes after mine, and many said her tweet potentially revealed more information than mine.

Kevin: Regarding that week of FTX's collapse, what's a truth others don't know?

CZ: They misappropriated billions of dollars in client funds to buy other assets. Then when the market turned downward, clients couldn't withdraw their money. That's it in simple terms.

III. Imprisonment and Trump's Pardon

Kevin: You spent several months in jail. What belief did you enter with that disappeared when you left?

CZ: It wasn't really about a belief. I was very worried about being locked up indefinitely, finding another charge against me, facing endless allegations. In my case, there has never been anyone in U.S. history who went to jail solely for violating the Bank Secrecy Act once, up to today. Most people weren't even charged.

Kevin: Was there anyone who disappeared when things got tough that surprised you?

CZ: No one has ever disappeared from Binance. All the 2017 co-founders are still here. Not a single person left. It was an incredibly cohesive team. In the industry, many people promise the whole world and disappear after a few months.

Kevin: The U.S. President issues roughly 10 to 40 presidential pardons annually. You received one last year. Walk us through the pardon process, from the first call to the final signature.

CZ: I discussed with my lawyers what the process would look like. Trump promised during his campaign to pardon Ross Ulbricht, and later Arthur Hayes received a pardon too; his case was more similar to mine. Through a friend, I contacted the same lawyer who handled their pardons and filed a petition in April 2025, shortly after Arthur Hayes was pardoned in March.

Kevin: Did you need to meet Trump in person?

CZ: I have never met Trump in person. No phone calls, no emails, no phone number. The closest I got to seeing him was at Davos. He was on stage, I was in the audience. We never shook hands; he had no idea I was in the audience.

Kevin: Some view the pardon as proof that political influence matters more than anything else. Where are they wrong?

CZ: In my case, obviously my perspective is biased. I'll let others judge. Many have said I was treated unfairly and should receive redress. I was charged because Binance's KYC program wasn't strong enough, but I personally never handled any transactions. The current administration is discussing how Polymarket operates without KYC, merely geo-blocking international markets. They're likely to apply the same approach to perp DEXs. If judged by today's standards, there'd be no issue.

IV. The Security Incident "Red Button"

Kevin: We interviewed Bybit's Ben Zhu last year, just two days after their $1.5 billion hack. You publicly recommended pausing withdrawals while Ben chose not to. Looking back, was Ben right and you wrong?

CZ: I believe there's no absolute right or wrong in that situation; it's just a judgment call. Ben clearly knew more details about that incident than I did. My style is to take a much more conservative approach: pause withdrawals first.

Kevin: What did you do when Binance was hacked for $40 million in 2019?

CZ: In May 2019, Binance was suddenly hacked for $40 million. The first thing I did was pause all withdrawals—in fact, pause the entire system. I had a mental virtual big red button: when a security incident occurs, hit it first, then figure out what happened and the extent of the damage.

Kevin: How exactly does that red button work?

CZ: Anyone, literally anyone on the exchange platform, should be able to press that red button and say stop everything. Only after you analyze the situation more clearly and are highly certain do you slowly restart it. In 2019, we paused withdrawals for a week but kept trading active because we didn't want prices to diverge from other exchanges. During that week, we also migrated our systems from a server-based architecture to a serverless architecture.

Kevin: If Bybit had followed your advice, would the outcome have been vastly different?

CZ: Not really, the difference wouldn't be huge. The hack already happened once. Pausing withdrawals or not only makes a massive difference if a second hack occurs, fortunately it didn't. It's a tough call, purely subjective.

V. Competitive Views on Hyperliquid and DEXs

Kevin: Many in crypto believe Binance sees Hyperliquid as its first true rival, and that some of your public comments were attempts to slow their momentum. What would you say to those people?

CZ: No, they're mistaken. I encourage more crypto exchanges to innovate. We view exchanges as helping to grow the pie. In terms of penetration rate, maybe only 5% to 15% hold some crypto, but in terms of net worth, their allocation to crypto is tiny. Calculating by capital and value, we're still below 1% penetration.

Kevin: So you welcome decentralized exchanges like Hyperliquid?

CZ: We welcome more decentralized exchanges. Pioneers in a field aren't necessarily the long-term winners. Look at Google; it wasn't the first search engine. Binance wasn't the first centralized exchange either. Even with first-mover advantage, it doesn't guarantee perpetual victory. Growing the industry is far better than growing a single platform.

Kevin: Where does Hyperliquid excel over Binance today?

CZ: Well, they don't require KYC, but that's a minor point.

Kevin: Why hasn't $HYPE been available for spot trading on Binance, yet it's been one of the best-performing assets over the past two years, up roughly 25x and in the top 10?

(Note: This podcast was recorded a few days before HYPE launched on Binance Spot)

CZ: By the time Hype gained traction, I had already stepped back to the sidelines at Binance. I no longer manage Binance. My understanding is that for a long time, the Hype token wasn't circulating. Binance had a policy requiring holdings of those tokens to mitigate counterparty risk. Today that may no longer be an issue, but I don't know the current status.

VI. The 10/10 Crash and the "Villain" Narrative

Kevin: Another event happened last year: October 10th, or 10/10. On October 10, 2025, most altcoins dropped to zero or near-zero in minutes, creating the largest liquidation event in crypto history. Every financial crisis has its villain. Why do you think the market wanted one, and why pick you?

CZ: Obviously, a competitor aggressively promoted that narrative, blaming Binance. In reality, price movements first appeared at that specific exchange. The sequence was Trump announcing tariffs, stocks and crypto crashing, then a technical issue arose on Binance related to a small stablecoin—not USDT or USDC, but Athena USD—which had a market cap in the low billions. It was absolutely not the cause of the 10/10 crash.

Kevin: But a lot of media pinned the blame on Binance anyway.

CZ: Chinese-language media picked it up, and a Chinese competitor running a centralized exchange tried very hard to amplify it. Dragonfly's Hasib posted a timeline showing prices starting to drop after Trump's tariff announcement, while Binance's issue came much later. Cathie Wood later frankly admitted she didn't think Binance caused the entire crash, just noting a technical glitch at Binance was a component.

Kevin: What did Binance do at that time?

CZ: Binance put out about $800 million to compensate users who suffered losses on its platform, even though it had no obligation to do so. Throughout all the periods where Binance was badmouthed, Binance still saw net inflows and lost zero market share. Look at the money; Binance's users know Binance didn't cause that problem.

Kevin: Did you post a "4"?

CZ: No. I usually only post a "4" when a mainstream media outlet runs a negative article. When it's just small community outlets or a few KOLs potentially getting paid to tweet, that's not enough to trigger a "4" from me.

Compiler's Note: CZ's "4" originates from his New Year's resolution in 2023 to ignore FUD (false news and negative narratives). The community later used "4" to respond to negative coverage.

VII. Long-Term Bullish Stance

Kevin: You're known for always being bullish. On August 19th, when Bitcoin traded around $60k to $64k, you tweeted that if you want your future self to thank you for what you're doing today, it was a clear signal to buy Bitcoin. The market then rallied roughly 20% in a few days. Does CZ have the power to move the roughly $3 trillion crypto market?

CZ: No. The short answer is no, I don't have that power. I've tweeted so many bullish messages. My tweets are consistently bullish. I tweet about five times a day. It just so happened that one tweet landed roughly five hours before President Trump spoke about the crypto summit, and I absolutely did not know that would happen.

Kevin: So you were pumping based on inside knowledge?

CZ: Whenever I feel I possess advantageous information, I don't tweet about it. That tweet was just sent randomly while I was reading a book. Someone quoted something, and I thought I could adapt it into a positive crypto quote. God knows, five hours later Trump said they were bringing Hyperliquid to the U.S. The whole speech was highly positive, but I had zero prior knowledge of that content.

Kevin: If you're bullish and tweet five times a day, one of those will naturally align five hours before positive news. Does that explain the market move?

CZ: Yes, but nobody complains today; everyone's making money. Crypto follows a four-year cycle. I just happened to send that tweet before October arrived.

VIII. Giggle Academy Education Charity

Kevin: If Binance disappeared tomorrow, what contribution to crypto would you hope remains?

CZ: I don't know. I just do what I can. Even though Binance still exists today, I actually don't spend any time on that centralized exchange anymore. I dedicate all my time to discussing crypto regulatory frameworks with various countries. We still allocate 70% to 80% of our investments in Web3, and I also spend time on Giggle Academy.

Kevin: What are you optimizing for most in life right now?

CZ: Positive impact. Knowing you're contributing and helping others makes you happy from within. Short-term, it's helping different nations establish crypto regulatory frameworks. More long-term, I believe Giggle Academy delivers the greatest positive impact. It's free education for everyone worldwide, growing rapidly. Early this year we reached 100,000 children; now we're at 1.3 million. Less than seven months, and the growth is exponential.

Kevin: Any unique thoughts on education?

CZ: I feel today's education system wants to produce average, predictable individuals. If you're good at math but weak in English, you'd spend less time on math and more time on English to pull your performance to the average. But in tomorrow's fiercely competitive world, you need to be in the top 1%, ideally the top 0.1%. Just being 0.1% better could multiply your earnings by 10x. So you need to specialize in the few things you excel at.

Kevin: What about teachers?

CZ: The teaching system is extremely expensive and mediocre. Average teacher salaries in the U.S. are $30,000, the highest worldwide, meaning overall quality is quite low. I believe an AI-driven, app-delivered, personalized curriculum would be far more effective. Robots are still a bit clumsy today, but app delivery is free. Once built, whether 100,000 or 1.3 million use it, the marginal cost is essentially zero.