Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, discussed his career, regulatory lessons, U.S. imprisonment, investment principles, Bitcoin and his continuing work in interviews with Meanders host Han Yang and Hong Kong 01, including a recent appearance at Bitcoin Asia 2026, as reported by PANews on Sept. 1. He said Binance paid a $4.3 billion penalty in November 2023 for violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, while he personally paid a $150 million fine and resigned as CEO; he was sentenced to four months in prison in 2023 and later received a pardon from Trump last year. CZ said his four investment rules are to avoid stocks, property speculation, short-term cryptocurrency trading and excessive cash, while holding crypto for the long term and selling portions when necessary. After selling his home in 2013 and investing the proceeds in Bitcoin, he held through a two-thirds price decline and 18 months of largely sideways trading. He attributed his success partly to luck but emphasized repeated sound decisions and quickly correcting mistakes. He also discussed regulatory communication, stress management, Bitcoin’s value, limited crypto-payment adoption, blockchain certification, founder resilience, Gogo Academy’s growth from more than 100,000 to about 1.2 million children, and Binance’s rise to the world’s largest crypto trading platform within five months of its 2017 founding. Most of the first draft of his 374-page autobiography, Binance Life, was written during imprisonment in 15-minute computer sessions without copying and pasting.