Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has been suggested to “enjoy life and give up the scamming” in a heated social media back-and-forth with BlockTower founder Ari Paul.
The spat started when Paul responded to an X put up by Zhao that challenged The Wall Avenue Journal’s declare that “As part of Zhao’s plea deal, he agreed to give evidence on (Tron founder Justin) Sun to prosecutors.”
Within the put up, Zhao stated, “WSJ (The Wall Avenue Journal) is actually TRYING right here. They appear to have forgotten who went to jail and who didn’t.
“Individuals who change into gov witnesses don’t go to jail. They’re protected.
“I heard someone paid WSJ employees to smear me.”
Nonetheless, Paul identified, “You (Zhao) didn’t get 25+ years for money laundering and terrorism financing charges and stealing customer assets because DoJ wanted your dirt on everyone else in crypto, and didn’t want you vanishing in Dubai with $60b of customer assets.”
He added, “Massive sentence reductions in return for dirt on your colleagues and assets returned is pretty common.”
That’s not true, it’s not binary…you didn’t get 25+ years for cash laundering and terrorism financing costs and stealing buyer belongings…as a result of DoJ wished your filth on everybody else in crypto, and didn’t need you vanishing in Dubai with $60b of buyer belongings. Large…
— Ari Paul 
(@AriDavidPaul) April 12, 2025
The pair then argue about whether or not or not Zhao was topic to cash laundering costs or anti-money laundering costs. In response to Zhao, “To be clear, there have been NO ‘money laundering’ or ‘fraud’ costs.
“You are confusing ‘ANTI-money laundering’ with ‘money laundering.’ One is a failure to prevent/police. One is doing it yourself. Two very different things.”
He then accused Paul of “trying to make up non-existent fraud charges” earlier than claiming that “all customer assets were 100% safe and untouched.”
Paul hit again, nonetheless, telling Zhao, “We have the on-chain proof of the opposite… We can all see the transfers from Binance to Merritt peak. And yes, as I said, you avoided many criminal charges, the DoJ had you dead to rights with your plea deal.”
“The only ‘interesting’ thing here,” he provides, “is that anyone believes a word you say when in just the last 48 hours you’ve lied in provable ways on at least three separate issues.”
He then paid Zhao one thing of a backhanded praise, including, “I give credit score the place it’s due… You performed this complete sport brilliantly. I assumed you’d should ‘vanish’ to maintain most of your freedom and monetary beneficial properties.
He rounds off with a warning to Zhao. “I’m at the very least hoping you aren’t capable of idiot so many the subsequent spherical. For those who don’t have ambitions past the monetary, I don’t know why you’d run the danger once more.
“Enjoy your billions and freedom. Your next con, you may be the guy turned on instead of the rat. Better not to risk it and enjoy life and give up the scamming.”
Zhao was sentenced to 4 months in jail in April 2024 after he pleaded responsible to costs associated to violations of the Financial institution Secrecy Act (BSA).
The sentence was far lower than the three years really useful by prosecutors of their sentencing memo and greater than the no jail time really useful by Zhao’s protection.
Zhao’s sentence was additionally considerably lower than the 25 years handed all the way down to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Bankman-Fried didn’t plead and was convicted on a number of felony costs, together with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and cash laundering.
