CZ responds to taking on the $4.3 billion fine: "I took the hit for the industry, it was worth it"

Binance founder CZ recently attended Bitcoin Asia 2026 in Hong Kong and gave an exclusive interview. He revealed that most of the first draft of his 374-page autobiography *Binance Life* was completed in prison, where he was only allowed to use a computer for 15 minutes at a time, with no copy-paste function, forcing him to queue multiple times to write in fragmented time. CZ said the most tormenting part of his detention was not the writing conditions, but the persistent "uncertainty". The fine amount changed from $800 million to $4.3 billion, and his sentence shifted from the originally expected home confinement to 4 months in prison; during his detention, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued detention orders three times, with the last one coming when only 14 days of his sentence remained. Regarding Binance paying a $4.3 billion fine in 2023, his personal payment of a $150 million fine, and his resignation as CEO, CZ said this move at least took on a major incident for the entire industry. He argued that against the backdrop of the FTX collapse and Bitcoin dropping to $16,000, if Binance had not taken responsibility, the exchange and the entire industry could have suffered severe impacts, so "bearing it was a cost-effective move for the whole industry", adding that he believed it was worth it. CZ also stated that his prison experience strengthened his belief in "financial freedom", but also made him realize that real-world freedom is very fragile. He believes there is no such thing as 100% freedom, that society still needs constraints, and the key is to maximize freedom as much as possible without compromising safety and the rights and interests of others.