"I Built The World's Biggest Bitcoin Exchange Then Lost Everything... So I Told The Truth" | CZ

**Scott Melker** (0:00)
This isn't just another crypto story. This is the man who built the largest exchange in the world and then went to prison and is now back telling the full story for the first time.
CZ's memoir, Freedom of Money, just went live globally, and what's inside isn't what most people expect.

**CZ** (0:17)
From growing up in extreme poverty with no running water, I understood the impact of technology innovation, right? So from like dirt floor to cement floor, no running water to like a pump, to like a tap with only cold water.

**Scott Melker** (0:30)
To coding trading systems, to building Binance into a global giant in just months, to writing parts of this book from a prison computer with just 15 minutes a day.

**CZ** (0:39)
I didn't want to play dominoes with the other inmates. I didn't want to just do the normal things. I just want to keep myself busy. And then I thought that might be a good time to share that experience.

**Scott Melker** (0:49)
This is the raw, unfiltered reality behind one of the most controversial figures in crypto. And here's the bigger question.
What does his story tell us about the future of money itself? Because if he's right, in five years, we won't even be calling it crypto anymore. It'll just be the system.

**CZ** (1:06)
I'm hoping that we don't talk about crypto as crypto in five years. Just as like we don't talk about internet anymore. I think in five years, I'm hoping that we'll just use crypto. It's just money.

**Scott Melker** (1:16)
We're diving deep into the man, the mistakes, the mission, and what freedom of money really means for all of us.
So let's get into it, CZ. The moment obviously, as I said, is finally here. Freedom of Money has gone live globally on Amazon. And I think for months, been kind of teasing this, so people have been guessing as to A, what the title would be, and B, what the content would be. So first, how does it feel to finally hit publish on your life story? And how did you ultimately settle on Freedom of Money as the title?

**CZ** (2:02)
I think the title is easy because that was our mission statement from the beginning. So for the whole time, when you want to build something, you want to be more than just laying bricks in your wall. You want to be building a cathedral. You want to have a mission. You want to be slightly less than saving the world, but within your reach of what you can help, as many people as you can. So freedom of money has always been the mission statement of finance as the core value. So that part is easy. Finishing the book took a long, long time. I'm just so happy. Press the publish button, it's done. Otherwise, we just keep editing it. And every edit is two weeks. Just like, if you want to edit a 350-page document, just reading it once and making edits is two weeks. So there's a lot of back and forth, etc. But I'm just really glad you put it out there.
It is what it is.
I hope people enjoy it. I think it's pretty authentic. It's pretty real. So I hope people like it.

**Scott Melker** (3:05)
Yeah, I had no idea really of your story and I kind of want to start there. So obviously, the book opens in rural China. As a child, your home had a dirt floor, no running water. I mean, I think we talk about people being successful and coming from humble beginnings, but I had no idea that that was your backstory. I mean, it's really a long way from building the world's largest crypto exchange.
I'd like to know just how did growing up with so little shape the way that you think about money now and about financial freedom?

**CZ** (3:36)
Yeah, to be honest, I did not understand money until I learned about Bitcoin. I just didn't think about it. I work in the financial field, like I worked in Bloomberg, futures trading systems. I worked in Tokyo doing Tokyo exchange trading systems, etc.
But I didn't really understand money. But what I did is I understood the impact of technology innovation, right? So from like third floor to cement floor, no running water to like a pump, to like a tap with only cold water, and then with like warm water. So all of those are technology innovations that improve people's lives. So I'm always a tech guy. So I believe strongly that any technology innovation that improves efficiency without sacrificing other things are usually good. I think blockchain is a huge technology. So that's why, yeah. So I think those shaped my thinking.