No, Binance Founder CZ Isn’t Free—But He Is in an LA Halfway House

As Changpeng Zhao would be the first to scold anyone sharing misinformation, one must always remember the number four—and that’s always been exactly how many months, from late May, the beleaguered Binance founder must serve in the U.S. prison system for violating American money laundering laws. 

Tell that to Crypto Twitter users, though, who mistakenly and prematurely celebrated the crypto entrepreneur’s freedom on Thursday. In reality, Zhao is set to be released on September 29, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. 

The confusion may have been caused in part by the fact that Zhao appears to have been transferred this week from a minimum security prison in Southern California to RRM Long Beach, a residential program that prepares inmates approaching the ends of their sentences for re-entry into society. 

RRMs, or residential reentry management offices, are often colloquially referred to as “halfway houses.”

Technically speaking, some Twitter users were correct in claiming that Zhao is now out of prison. But he is certainly still under the custody of the American government, and is not free to move or do as he pleases. 

Come the end of September, Zhao should regain that mobility, and likely return to his wife and two children in Dubai. He has been in the United States since November, when he pled guilty to violating criminal U.S. anti-money laundering requirements in a bid to keep his firm, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, alive. 

Thereafter, a federal judge in Seattle rejected Zhao’s request to return to his family while awaiting sentencing—so the crypto billionaire was stuck with an awkward, forced vacation in the Pacific Northwest for several months. 

Even after reaching a settlement with the U.S. government, Zhao remains the richest identified person in crypto, with an eye-popping net worth of $47.7 billion at last count. 

As an element of that settlement, however, Zhao was also banned from operating or managing Binance for three years. The entrepreneur has said he intends to use that timespan to focus on other ventures like education and passive investing.

Should he be curious about additional options for his future, Zhao now has access to job placement assistance and life skills training at RRM Long Branch.

Edited by Andrew Hayward