Binance Founder CZ's New Book Sparks Renewed Clash With OKX's Star Xu Over Alleged Document Fraud and Huobi Incident
The publication of CZ's memoir has reignited a years-long conflict with Star Xu, the founder of OKX, who has publicly branded the Binance creator as dishonest in multiple social media statements.
The recently published memoir by Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao has sparked a renewed conflict with Star Xu, the founder of OKX, who has publicly challenged the Binance executive's account of their intertwined history and previous conflicts, branding him a dishonest narrator.
Within the pages of Freedom of Money, which hit shelves on April 8, CZ recounts a contractual disagreement during his time at OKCoin and alleges that competing platforms attempted to sabotage his reputation through campaigns of "fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD)", painting him as an incompetent chief technical officer.
The memoir also includes CZ's assertion that Leon Li, Huobi's founder, conveyed to him in 2025 his suspicion that Xu had previously filed reports against him with government authorities. Xu has rejected any suggestion that he reported Li and, through multiple Wednesday posts on the social platform X, labeled CZ "a habitual liar," challenging numerous assertions made in the memoir while resurrecting previous claims that CZ had fabricated contractual documentation.
The memoir additionally revisits events from October 2020, a period when OKX (operating as OKEx at the time) suspended customer withdrawal capabilities for a five-week duration while Xu was allegedly under "soft arrest" within China, implying that "Xu alone held the keys" to the exchange's digital wallets, and drawing a comparison with Huobi's choice to maintain withdrawal operations during Li's detention the following month, characterizing the exchange as having "had a better wallet setup."
Xu disputes memoir's account
According to Xu, the memoir contains significant misrepresentations of crucial story elements, encompassing CZ's period of employment at OKCoin, the contractual disagreement involving Roger Ver, claims regarding market manipulation activities, allegations of informant conduct connected to Justin Sun, and remarkably, his "current marital status."
Xu brought back into public view OKCoin's 2015 response to CZ's prior accusations and a legally notarized video recording of chat conversations that the platform made public during that period. The video recording, which remains accessible to the public, demonstrates an OKCoin accountant's QQ messaging account being opened before a notary official and allegedly shows CZ transmitting two different versions of the Bitcoin.com agreement (v7 and v8) on Dec. 16, 2014, with the disputed six-month termination provision making its appearance in v8.
According to Xu, CZ's justification during that time period was that he seldom utilized QQ messaging and that a different OKCoin staff member could have accessed his account credentials and manufactured the conversation record, an explanation Xu challenged with the question: "Do you believe such an explanation?"
The corresponding Reddit declaration from OKCoin leveled accusations against CZ including forging the signature of Roger Ver on the v8 contractual document, exaggerating his technical accomplishments in the role of chief technical officer, operating his personal trading algorithms, and conducting a public relations offensive of "lies and desperate nonsense" following his departure from the organization.
Memoir revives older allegations
The narrative presented within CZ's memoir offers a dramatically contrasting story, depicting himself as the victim of orchestrated assaults from competing cryptocurrency exchanges attempting to impede Binance's expansion, including eleventh-hour withdrawals of financial backing during the platform's 2017 initial coin offering.
The newly written chapters expand the competitive conflict to encompass the 2020 custody-related incidents, with CZ asserting that Li held the belief that Xu had filed reports about him with regulatory authorities.
Xu characterized the assertion as "purely false information," contending that formal complaints directed at major cryptocurrency platforms are routine occurrences and do not dictate regulatory enforcement decisions. He further stated that Li "shouldn't believe this kind of nonsense that defies common sense."
Xu additionally charged CZ with making false statements regarding whether he "personally manipulated the market" and whether he "acted as a tainted witness to report Justin Sun," though he has thus far depended on OKCoin documentation released previously instead of presenting fresh evidence.
By the time this article went to press, CZ had not issued any public response addressing Xu's most recent social media posts that dispute the memoir's content. Cointelegraph made contact attempts with both CZ and Xu requesting commentary, but had not obtained responses from either party by the time of publication.