CZ’s Memoir Captures the Defining Rise of Crypto’s Most Consequential Era
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has released his autobiography, Freedom of Money, which he describes as a first-person account of his life, the founding of Binance, the company’s rise, and the legal fallout that followed. The official release says the book covers his early life, Binance’s launch in 2017, the exchange’s rapid growth, industry crises, and his time in prison. That is what makes this book significant. Crypto has produced plenty of market commentary, interviews, and documentaries, but very few firsthand accounts from a founder who sat at the center of a company as influential — and controversial — as Binance. What started as a startup in 2017 became one of the most powerful platforms in digital assets, and the memoir arrives after years in which Binance was shaped not just by growth, but by intense regulatory scrutiny and a historic settlement with U.S. authorities. CZ previously served a four-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program, a case that became one of the defining legal moments in crypto’s relationship with regulators. That gives Freedom of Money a weight most founder memoirs do not have. This is not simply the story of building a successful company. It is also the story of what happens when a business grows faster than the rules around it — and when a founder becomes the face of both innovation and accountability at the same time. Bloomberg’s coverage of the memoir notes that the book discusses prison time and earlier relationships across the regulatory landscape, showing that CZ is not presenting the Binance story as a clean victory lap. There is also a broader reason the release matters now. Crypto is no longer in the phase where exchange growth alone defines the industry. The market has matured into something more political, more regulated, and more institutional. In that environment, a memoir like this becomes more than personal branding. It becomes part of the historical record of how one of crypto’s largest empires was built, challenged, and reshaped. The official release says the book is “part memoir and part manifesto,” which suggests CZ wants it read not only as recollection, but as a statement about money, freedom, and the future of financial systems. The biggest takeaway is simple: Freedom of Money is likely to be read as one of the most important insider accounts crypto has produced so far. Not because it ends the debate around Binance or CZ, but because it brings the debate closer to the source. For supporters, critics, and anyone trying to understand how crypto reached this stage, that alone makes the book worth paying attention to.
This chart lines up with the bigger takeaway from Chainalysis: stablecoins are moving from crypto plumbing to real payment infrastructure.
Chainalysis says adjusted stablecoin volume reached about $28T in 2025 and could grow to $719T by 2035 on its baseline path. In a more aggressive scenario that includes generational wealth transfer and broader payment-rail adoption, it says annual volume could approach $1.5 quadrillion.
What the chart is really showing is how that growth might happen:
The dark base layer is the organic growth path. The middle layer reflects added demand from younger investors inheriting wealth. The top orange layer represents stablecoins becoming normal in payments.
The most important point on the graphic is around 2032, where Chainalysis suggests crypto merchant services could reach Visa-scale. That does not mean Visa and Mastercard disappear. It means onchain payments may become large enough to compete with traditional card rails in a serious way.
Why this matters:
Stablecoins already solve a few things the old system struggles with well — 24/7 settlement, faster global transfers, and fewer middle layers. If merchant adoption keeps growing, stablecoins stop being just a trading tool and start becoming everyday money rails.
The big caveat is that this is still a projection, not a guarantee. The upper-end number depends on regulation, user adoption, and payment integration actually showing up at scale. But even the baseline path is massive enough to show the direction clearly.
The simple read:
Stablecoins are no longer a niche crypto product. They are starting to look like a real competitor to global payments infrastructure.
Track my real-time futures trades and performance over time
I’ve been tracking my Binance Futures copy trading performance closely, and the last 90 days have been a strong reminder that consistency matters more than hype.
Right now, the account is showing +123.53% ROI and +617.66 PnL over 90 days. But what stands out even more is the structure behind those numbers. The win rate is 77.78%, with 42 winning positions out of 54 total trades. To me, that shows the results are not coming from one lucky trade, but from a strategy that has been working across multiple setups.
The Sharpe ratio of 2.32 adds another layer of confidence because it suggests the returns have come with solid risk-adjusted performance, not just random volatility. At the same time, I’m not ignoring the 44.17% max drawdown. That number matters. It’s a reminder that futures trading always comes with risk, and even strong performance can include real swings.
That’s why I believe tracking performance in real time is so important. ROI may grab attention first, but metrics like drawdown, win rate, and total positions tell the real story. That’s what serious traders should pay attention to.
I’ll keep sharing the journey as the data develops. Strong numbers are great, but what matters most is whether the performance can remain consistent over time.
NEW: Charles Schwab is getting ready to offer direct Bitcoin and Ethereum trading,
and that is a bigger signal than it may first appear. Schwab has started publicly promoting Schwab Crypto as “coming soon,” describing it as a new account that will let clients buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum. On Schwab’s site, the company says the product will be offered by Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB, and invites users to sign up to be notified when trading goes live. That matters because Schwab is not some niche broker testing a side feature. As of the end of February, the firm reported $12.22 trillion in total client assets. In other words, one of the biggest names in traditional finance is moving closer to direct spot crypto access.
Until now, Schwab clients could already get crypto exposure through related stocks, futures, and exchange-traded products. Schwab’s crypto pages highlight access to crypto ETPs and futures, but not direct coin ownership. Schwab Crypto changes that by pointing toward actual buy-and-sell access for $BTC and $ETH inside Schwab’s own ecosystem. The bigger story is what this says about the market. For a long time, traditional brokerages were willing to offer “crypto-adjacent” products while avoiding direct spot trading. That approach let them participate in demand without stepping too far into custody, settlement, and compliance risk. Schwab now looks ready to go a step further. Reuters reported last year that CEO Rick Wurster said the firm planned to offer spot crypto trading for Bitcoin and Ethereum within 12 months, and more recent reporting says Schwab remains on track for a first-half 2026 rollout. That shift matters because it lowers the barrier for a different kind of user. A lot of investors still do not want to open a crypto-native exchange account, manage wallets, or move funds through unfamiliar platforms. But they are comfortable with Schwab. If direct crypto trading appears inside an environment they already trust, that could bring in a fresh wave of participation from investors who were interested in Bitcoin and Ethereum but never wanted the friction of going outside their normal brokerage setup. That is an inference from the product design and Schwab’s existing client base, not a company forecast. Still, it is a reasonable one. It also says something about the direction of regulation. Big firms usually do not move like this unless they believe the policy climate is getting more workable. Schwab’s own educational materials still describe crypto as speculative, but the company is clearly preparing for a market where direct access is no longer treated as off-limits. The takeaway is simple: When a firm with more than $12 trillion in client assets gets ready to launch direct Bitcoin and Ethereum trading, crypto stops looking like a side market and starts looking more like standard financial infrastructure. This is not just another product launch. It is one more sign that the line between traditional finance and crypto keeps getting thinner.