The richest man had a quarrel with his former boss

Author: Gu Yu, ChainCatcher

I. The Origin of Grievances: A "Blood Incident" Triggered by a Memoir

The event was triggered by the official release of the personal memoir "The Life of Binance" by Zhao Changpeng, the founder of Binance and the richest person in the Chinese crypto circle, yesterday. The memoir comprehensively discloses his personal experiences and many industry insider stories, with multiple references to Xu Mingxing, the founder and former boss of Binance's main competitor, OKX.

Years ago, Zhao Changpeng and another co-founder of Binance, He Yi, served as Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, respectively, at OKCoin, founded by Xu Mingxing. Due to various reasons, both left the company in 2015 and co-founded Binance in 2017, building it into the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.

In the book, Zhao Changpeng wrote that months after leaving, Xu Mingxing accused him of "forging business contracts" without basis, damaging his personal reputation, and referred to it as "personal attacks." Additionally, he revealed that Li Lin once told him at a dinner that he had seen a screenshot showing Xu Mingxing reporting him to the Chinese police, which led to him being controlled by the police.

These materials portray Xu Mingxing as a scheming individual, triggering the first round of confrontation between the two.

Xu Mingxing, after digging up video recording evidence from that year, fiercely criticized Zhao Changpeng on the X platform, stating, "After spending four months in prison, a person still talks nonsense to the world. I can only say that a habitual liar's nature can never change. These lies include the history of joining and leaving OKCoin, the Roger Ver contract dispute, whether he personally manipulated the market... his marital status, etc."

Meanwhile, discussions about Zhao Changpeng's marital status have become increasingly heated in the X community. Although Zhao Changpeng mentioned his parents, children, and other relatives, as well as important work and life partners in the book, he only briefly referred to his current marital status and current wife, stating that he has divorced.

However, it is well known that Zhao Changpeng and He Yi have been in a marital relationship for many years and have multiple children. Zhao Changpeng's vague attitude on this matter quickly prompted Xu Mingxing's second round of attacks.

"If the richest man can present a divorce agreement signed by both parties as of today, I will immediately apologize publicly. If he cannot produce such an agreement but claims in the media and the book that he is divorced, then he is openly lying to the public," Xu Mingxing said.

In response, Zhao Changpeng stated he could wager $1 billion that he had officially divorced before that day. Xu Mingxing did not accept the bet, saying that such a public wager was unprofessional and shifted the issue to another dimension: "Has your Binance equity been legally separated from your ex-wife? Proving just this point is enough."

At this point, He Yi also joined the debate, demanding Xu Mingxing to "either apologize like a man or involve lawyers to notarize the payment, or admit to being a liar?"

II. Various Parties Competing to Voice Opinions and Take Sides

The public feud among top figures has also sparked many industry professionals to take sides and discuss the event from different angles, adding more heat to the situation.

The founding partner of [ArkStream Capital](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Investors/detail/ArkStream Capital?k=MTA3MDI=) stated that CZ's book is worth reading, but CZ's character and vision are significantly different from top entrepreneurs, whether it is the insider trading and relationship-based listings tolerated by Binance, or avoiding discussions on major mistakes after 1011, or being stabbed by early Binance investors, and turning partners into enemies, etc. The book has a lot of embellishments, but industry practitioners are well aware of the truth. Character and vision determine the ceiling. If the industry leader were to change, I believe the crypto market cap would be far more than $3 trillion.

Well-known KOL FTWBITCOIN911 said, "CZ revealed what was said at a private dinner with Boss Li, directly exposing it without the permission of Boss Li and Boss Xu, which shows a lack of understanding of Chinese social customs. What was said privately should not be written down without permission. This behavior is very passive, and besides, you have no real evidence for the reporting issue. Writing this down is childish behavior; CZ is not stupid, he is truly bad!"

On the other hand, several industry professionals expressed that Xu Mingxing's denunciation strategy is inappropriate, reflecting his identity anxiety and imbalance.

For example, Zhu Su, the former co-founder of Three Arrows Capital, believes that Xu Mingxing's current stance is somewhat autistic. "In my view, he seems to have not truly accepted the fact that his former employees left in a relatively short time to establish a much larger exchange, and that CZ's geographical strategy is superior to that of Chinese peers. His tone still resembles that of an older man scolding a younger man," Zhu Su stated.

Additionally, many voices pointed to Xu Mingxing's private life, such as well-known X bloggers like "Crypto Circle Encyclopedia" exposing Xu Mingxing's immoral behaviors, such as keeping a mistress and deliberately deleting user compensation announcements, dragging both parties into an awkward and difficult-to-verify "quagmire."

III. The Missing Decorum and Vision

Regarding the details of the various events, both Zhao Changpeng and Xu Mingxing hold their own views, arguing from 2018 to 2026. As for who is right and who is wrong, the cryptocurrency community has long felt aesthetic fatigue from the endless verbal battles—everyone is unable to distinguish, and gradually loses interest in discerning.

Private life is inherently a dark place and should not become a bargaining chip in business games. Yet, in 2026, we still see billionaires "running naked" in public spaces, indicating that the Chinese crypto circle has yet to complete its coming-of-age ceremony from "grassroots heroes" to "industry leaders," lacking in vision and decorum.

Disputes among internet industry giants are not uncommon; entrepreneurs like Jack Ma, Pony Ma, Robin Li, and Liu Qiangdong have had varying degrees of clashes, with frequent verbal wars, but they are more focused on personal styles and corporate development strategies.

In contrast, this incident, with its $1 billion wager, personal life attacks, and old grievances being stirred up, resembles more of an emotional outburst rather than constructive dialogue. Extending the timeline, the voices of these crypto industry giants are more concentrated on supporting their own businesses, with very few discussions or unique perspectives on industry strategy.

As the crypto industry transitions from wild growth to regulatory compliance and institutional entry, this shortcoming in vision is particularly glaring. The era where "traffic equals justice" has passed; user trust, capital confidence, and global reputation are becoming the industry's most scarce assets. If the two most influential entrepreneurs in the Chinese crypto circle can transform their "Binance Life" and "OK Life" into a shared pursuit of product excellence, user responsibility, and industry accountability, they may truly deserve the labels of "richest" and "leader."

What is true entrepreneurial spirit? What does the responsibility of being an industry leader mean? In the crypto industry, the answers to these questions remain quite vague.

This ongoing war of words essentially has no winners. It consumes the personal images of the two top billionaires, dilutes the brand assets of the platforms, and undermines the hard-won trust foundation of the entire industry. It serves as a mirror, reflecting the deep-rooted grassroots nature of the Chinese crypto circle as it strives to reach the pinnacle of commercial civilization.

To some extent, this is not a contest of who wins or loses, but a magnifying glass—magnifying the unresolved structural contradictions in the Chinese crypto circle as it matures: when wealth has reached the trillion-dollar level, but the mode of expression remains in the grassroots era, what is lost is not just decorum, but the ticket to true commercial civilization.