Changpeng Zhao, Binance cofounder, addressed his 8.9 million army of X followers to give them a crucial warning.

Since CZ was released from prison recently, this has been his second warning about scammers trying to use his persona for defrauding crypto users.

CZ spots "his" fake verified accounts on X

Zhao published a warning, urging the community to beware of “fake CZ accounts out there.” The former Binance chief stated that he uses only the @cz_binance handle, while all other X handles that start with “cz” are fake, even if marked by a blue tick, meaning the are verified. CZ named two particular accounts that users should avoid.

After Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and turned it into X, verification checks of various colors (depending on whether this is an individual or an entity) can be bought and maintained for a monthly paid fee.

Many top celebrities then felt indignant at that move, including legendary horror writer Stephen King. Musk agreed to pay for King’s blue tick out of his own pocket, according to his tweet. Since then, King continues to oppose Musk, insisting that Twitter was a much better space before the Tesla boss purchased it for $44 billion.

Beware of fake "cz" accounts out there. I am only using this (@cz_binance) X account. All other accounts with "cz_..." are fake, imposters, or scammers.Please report them as you see them. I hope X do a better job on cleaning these fake accounts. https://t.co/bCft2hI5XZ

— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) October 21, 2024

This was a strategy implemented by Musk in order to make his new acquisition less dependable on advertisers, who later declared war on Musk by boycotting X and removing advertisements from it. In response to that last year, Musk publicly told them where to go, in particularly mentioning the Disney CEO. The conflict between Musk and advertising giants arose from the Tesla CEO’s efforts to fight against their imposing what he calls the “woke virus” on Western society.

Earlier this month, CZ published a warning to the X crypto community, stating that social media platforms other than X show deepfake videos of him, advertising crypto coins he had never heard of.

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CZ's first statement after his release from jail

When CZ came out of prison in late September, he published a tweet, saying it was a “luxury” to have “one piece of fruit per day” now.

The influencer stated that he wanted to “chill for a bit” before figuring out his next steps. “There are always more opportunities in the future than there were in the past,” he tweeted.