On April 30th local time, at a hearing held at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Judge Richard Jones announced that former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison. At this point, the Changpeng Zhao case, which has attracted great attention from both inside and outside the crypto industry, has finally come to an end.

When reporting the news, many foreign media said that Zhao Changpeng would be the richest prisoner in the history of the United States and even the world. The report cited data from the Forbes list, saying that Zhao Changpeng's total personal assets were about 33 billion US dollars (about 239 billion yuan), ranking 50th on the 2024 Forbes Global Rich List, and his imprisonment meant that he would become the richest prisoner in the world.

Why did Zhao Changpeng receive an extremely low sentence?

In fact, Zhao Changpeng and FTX founder SBF are very different, because neither Binance nor its founder Zhao Changpeng plundered customer funds.

Furthermore, whereas SBF chose to conduct a silly defense trial rather than hand himself over to the court, Zhao Changpeng reached a plea agreement early on, agreeing to pay a fine of up to $4.3 billion and express regret.

During the 2.5-hour sentencing hearing, the 47-year-old billionaire Zhao Changpeng was no longer an ordinary criminal defendant, but a philanthropist, do-gooder, first-time offender and family man who turned himself in and accepted whatever might happen.

Zhao Changpeng's reputation as a "good guy" influenced the judge's final verdict. Compared with the US Department of Justice's strong recommendation for a three-year sentence for Zhao Changpeng, the judge finally gave him a very light sentence of four months.

Judge Richard Jones said he read all 161 letters submitted because it was important to understand who Zhao Changpeng was. He also mentioned that he had never seen so many letters, not only from family members, but also from people who had known Zhao Changpeng for a long time.

Richard Jones noted that the letters portray a character driven by drive, passion, and determination, with Zhao Changpeng risking his entire net worth just to make Binance successful. The letters clearly show that Zhao Changpeng is a man dedicated to his family and cite examples of Binance's philanthropy.

Has Zhao Changpeng started planning for his release from prison?

Zhao Changpeng was sentenced to four months in prison, which may be just a small episode in his life story, because long before the verdict was announced, Zhao Changpeng had already begun to build a network of contacts across the United States to plan his next move.

After admitting to money laundering violations in November 2023, Zhao Changpeng did not sit still. Although he could not return to Dubai, UAE, Zhao Changpeng could still walk freely in the United States, which gave him plenty of time to travel around the United States, build connections with local entrepreneurs and lay the foundation for his next move.

According to disclosed information, Zhao Changpeng enjoyed a home-cooked dinner with a former US senator in Montana, visited the town of Telluride in Colorado and a resort in Utah, and more importantly, met with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Last month, Zhao Changpeng announced that he would launch a new project to promote online education. He also expressed interest in investing in artificial intelligence and biotechnology. Two people familiar with the matter said that Zhao Changpeng exchanged contact information with Sam Altman as early as the end of last year to discuss the adjustments encountered when startups expand globally.

People familiar with the matter said Zhao Changpeng met with Sma Altman about a year ago, and the two contacted each other again during the leadership battle of OpenAI in November 2023.

A month later, in December 2023, Zhao Changpeng had a hot pot meal in Los Angeles with Gu Ronghui, a professor of computer science at Columbia University and co-founder of CertiK. In an interview, Gu Ronghui confirmed that Zhao Changpeng had communicated with Sam Altman, and both believed that artificial intelligence would greatly help the development of technology and human knowledge (CertiK is a Web3 security company funded by Binance). Zhao Changpeng even revealed that he is currently "looking for opportunities" to invest in large data centers that support AI applications.

As of now, Zhao Changpeng and OpenAi representatives have declined to comment on their meeting with Sam Altman.

On the other hand, Zhao Changpeng revealed in a letter submitted to the court that he has also talked with some biotechnology start-ups in recent months and plans to make disease prevention the focus of the next chapter of his life. Zhao Changpeng said: "I want to help fund small research laboratories with the goal of curing diseases once and for all and using blockchain technology to provide medical services to billions of people in the world."

In March of this year, Zhao Changpeng announced on the X platform that he was launching a project called Giggle Academy, a free online learning platform for children. A seven-page "concept document" has been published on the Giggle Academy website, stating that the platform will involve artificial intelligence and automation, as well as NFT digital collectibles. It is reported that Giggle Academy is not for profit, and Zhao Changpeng is recruiting a small team to work directly with him - this means that once Zhao Changpeng is released from prison, he is likely to devote himself to this work, and it may even be realized within a year.

How did the market react after Zhao Changpeng was sentenced to four months in prison?

During Zhao Changpeng's hearing, BNB rose and currently remains in the $580 range. As of press time, the decline in the past 24 hours has narrowed to 2.8%.

Zhao Changpeng's wife He Yi only responded with two words on social media: "Got it.", which means "I understand" in Chinese - perhaps everyone understands.

Four months after being sentenced, CZ, the former CEO of Binance, responded to the concerns of crypto community users on the X platform. Some community users believe that CZ is the person who has contributed the most to the crypto world since Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, but CZ is the one who brought Bitcoin to the world.

In response, CZ said: “I’m not that important myself, but I do try to make a positive contribution to Bitcoin.”

In addition, he expressed his gratitude for everyone's concern and support in the post, whether it was letters, support on the X platform, or other forms, which inspired him to stay strong. CZ also said that he would continue to be a passive investor (and holder) of cryptocurrencies, and our industry has entered a new stage where compliance is very important. CZ also talked about the silver lining of the whole process, that Binance has been under the microscope, and the funds are SAFU (i.e. safe). Finally, he emphasized that protecting users is of vital importance.