TL;DR:
- CZ’s memoir reopened an outdated OKCoin dispute by revisiting a contract battle, the 2020 OKEx withdrawal freeze, and claims tied to Leon Li and Star Xu.
- Xu answered by calling Zhao a liar, disputing the ebook’s account, and reviving OKCoin’s 2015 rebuttal plus a notarized chat video.
- The conflict has revived forgery claims, custody questions, and wider credibility disputes from crypto’s early alternate period once more.
CZ’s new memoir has reopened certainly one of crypto’s oldest disputes, dragging an OKCoin-era battle again into view and drawing a response from OKX founder Star Xu. In Freedom of Cash, Changpeng Zhao revisits a contract dispute from his time at OKCoin and argues that rivals labored to wreck his status with concern, uncertainty and doubt. What appeared like a closed chapter in alternate historical past has immediately develop into energetic once more, with memoir type giving outdated accusations a contemporary platform. That issues as a result of the quarrel reaches again into unresolved claims about forgery and credibility in crypto’s early years.
For those who learn Freedom of Cash, please assist depart a assessment on Amazon.
— CZ
BNB (@cz_binance) April 8, 2026
Why the dispute escalated so sharply once more
The sharpest response got here from Xu, who accused Zhao of mendacity about episodes within the ebook. He challenged the memoir’s model of Zhao’s time at OKCoin, the contract dispute involving Roger Ver, allegations of market manipulation, claims of informant exercise tied to Justin Solar, and even private particulars unrelated to alternate operations. The rebuttal was sweeping sufficient to counsel Xu noticed the memoir not as selective revision, however as a rewriting of shared historical past. In doing so, he revived older supplies that when shaped OKCoin’s protection.
These older supplies are central to the renewed battle. Xu resurfaced OKCoin’s 2015 rebuttal and pointed once more to a notarized chat video launched on the time. The video purportedly exhibits an OKCoin accountant’s QQ account being accessed earlier than a notary and displaying Zhao sending two variations of the Bitcoin.com settlement on Dec. 16, 2014, with the disputed six-month termination clause showing solely in model eight. That proof sits on the core of the forgery allegation, as a result of it’s getting used to argue that the controversial contract language didn’t seem within the earlier model.
The memoir additionally reopens the October 2020 withdrawal freeze at OKX, then generally known as OKEx. Zhao suggests Xu alone held the keys to alternate wallets and contrasts that episode with Huobi’s dealing with of Leon Li’s detention a month later. He additional writes that Li advised him in 2025 he believed Xu had reported him to authorities years earlier. Xu’s response exhibits the feud is now not about paperwork, however about management, informant claims, and reputational warfare throughout a number of eras of alternate historical past. By publication time, Zhao had not publicly answered Xu’s newest posts.
