The $110 Billion Dollar Man - Binance Founder Opens Up | PBD #797

**Changpeng Zhao** (0:00)
President Trump gave me a pardon.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:01)
Who cares about getting a pardon?

**Changpeng Zhao** (0:02)
I'm labeled as a felon.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:03)
Binance founder sentenced to four months in prison.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:06)
You could tell they were interested in targeting a guy like you.

**Changpeng Zhao** (0:09)
The timing is coincidental. Today, US is pro-crypto.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:11)
The White House pledged to make America the crypto capital of the world.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:14)
You're not making friends with the Democratic Party.

**Changpeng Zhao** (0:16)
That's crazy.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:17)
Your tweet was one of the reasons that caused them to go out.

**Changpeng Zhao** (0:22)
Don't think those were my exact words.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:23)
There it is, that's the tweet. He was the biggest guy giving money to them. You just took that money away.

**Jack Ma** (0:28)
I said, many made off, the rest is.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:30)
Adam Back is Satoshi Nakamoto. Do you think there's a chance that it's him? In their eyes, would China look at you as they made you?

**Changpeng Zhao** (0:39)
Because I look Chinese, I'm part of the CCP or anything like that? That's completely false.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:43)
You make it seem like anybody can start a company and get to 100 billion.

**Changpeng Zhao** (0:46)
I'm a normal guy.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:46)
You're not a normal guy.

**Changpeng Zhao** (0:47)
I don't think I've ever sat in a Lambo yet.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:50)
Stop it.
Guy's worth 100 billion dollars, give or take. Never been in a Lambo. Enjoyed in his conversation with the one and only CZ. CZ, great to have you on a podcast.

**Changpeng Zhao** (1:03)
Thank you for having me. I'm glad you're here.

**Patrick Bet-David** (1:04)
I told my guys, I said, listen, I noticed everybody was going in the cigar lounge to meet you. I said, you better not ask him for a loan. You better not go and say you want a donation or a loan from this guy.
Because the first thing they found, what's his net worth? Is he really worth 110 billion dollars? That's the first thing people want to find out. And you're like, yeah, he's a pretty rich guy. But it's funny, I got all these things I want to go through with you, with your story. I was telling you earlier how your story is a movie. They could turn it into a movie at any time. And I hope it turns into a movie because you've lived an interesting life. But did you fly in from UAE?

**Changpeng Zhao** (1:36)
Yes.

**Patrick Bet-David** (1:36)
Okay. Is it true that you guys just got attacked or you got bombed yesterday by Iran at a couple of oil facilities?

**Changpeng Zhao** (1:42)
I don't know where they're attacked, but as we were leaving, they were missile alerts and the flight was on, off, on, off.

**Patrick Bet-David** (1:49)
When you were leaving.

**Changpeng Zhao** (1:50)
When we were leaving.

**Patrick Bet-David** (1:51)
Yeah.

**Changpeng Zhao** (1:51)
So just on my way to the airport, like no, the flight was off and then 20 minutes later, the missile warning was canceled, well, was resolved and was on again. And then it was off again and on again. And then, yeah, so that's how we fly. And we, we wait. So just before we were supposed to take off, there was off again. We said, well, let's just wait for 20 minutes. And it was, it was, yeah, so we had a 20 minute window.

**Patrick Bet-David** (2:15)
What did the pilot say? The pilot said, hey, we don't know. Are they giving a safety protocol or no? Hey, we're gonna take off. It's gonna be fine. It's gonna be a long flight. We're gonna be okay. There's gonna be a little bit of turbulence. What warning did the pilot give?

**Changpeng Zhao** (2:26)
So the pilot's just waiting for the, the pilot's just following instructions. So whenever there's a warning, they huddle everything into this, into a safe room that's like in the middle of the airport, away from glasses, windows and stuff like that. And whenever the, the word is off, you say, well, you can board the plane and then you fly off. And it was actually no turbulence. It was come day.
It was come day.

**Patrick Bet-David** (2:47)
No turbulence. Did you, did you, were you worried while you're taking off or no?

**Changpeng Zhao** (2:51)
No, I wasn't worried.

**Patrick Bet-David** (2:52)
Not worried. Okay.

**Changpeng Zhao** (2:53)
So like 99% interception rate and super safe. Yeah, it is worrying because that missile flying in, but it's super safe.

**Patrick Bet-David** (3:02)
So living there yourself, you feel safe living in UAE?