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Public clash shifts from old OKCoin claims to divorce and Binance stake challenge
TL;DR
- Changpeng Zhao’s Freedom of Money, released on April 8, 2026, revived old allegations involving OKCoin, Roger Ver, Li Lin and Star Xu.
- Star Xu answered by calling Zhao “a habitual liar” and then publicly challenged Zhao’s claim that he is divorced.
- Zhao said he is “officially divorced” and offered a $1 billion bet, while Xu shifted the dispute to whether Zhao’s Binance stake was legally separated from his ex-wife.
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Changpeng Zhao’s memoir Freedom of Money reopened a long-running dispute with OKX founder Star Xu, and the latest phase of the feud is now centered not only on old allegations tied to OKCoin and Huobi founder Li Lin, but also on Zhao’s divorce status and whether his Binance stake has been legally separated from his ex-wife.
The book, described as a 457-page memoir released on April 8, 2026, revisits Zhao’s time at OKCoin in 2014 and 2015, his departure after a dispute over a 10% equity stake, and a later fight over the Bitcoin.com domain arrangement involving Roger Ver. Zhao says he joined OKCoin as chief technology officer in mid-2014 and left in early 2015 after Star Xu tried to renegotiate that stake. The contract dispute remained central because two versions of the Roger Ver agreement were said to exist, with Zhao and Ver alleging that OKCoin forged a modified version containing a six-month termination clause.
Roger Ver’s earlier accusation appears directly in the dispute record cited in the report. Ver said, “I have cryptographic proof of @OKCoinBTC forging my signature onto a fake contract, and then trying to present it as the truth.”
The same dispute also included a $570,000 suit by Ver against OKCoin and Zhao’s public accusations that the exchange inflated volumes with bots and manipulated a proof-of-reserves audit. Star Xu rejected Zhao’s version and relied on older materials, including OKCoin’s 2015 rebuttal and a notarized chat video that purportedly showed an OKCoin accountant’s QQ account being accessed before a notary.
That notarized video, as described in the report, showed Zhao sending version 7 and version 8 of the Bitcoin.com agreement on Dec. 16, 2014, with the disputed six-month termination clause appearing in version 8. The feud widened further because Zhao’s memoir also claimed that, during a 2025 dinner, Huobi founder Li Lin told him he had seen a screenshot showing Star Xu personally reporting him to Chinese police, which Zhao said led to Li’s arrest. Star Xu rejected that allegation as false.
Old allegations resurfaced before the dispute turned personal
The report says OKEx suspended withdrawals indefinitely on Oct. 16, 2020, while Star Xu was reportedly under soft detention in China, and withdrawals were halted for about five weeks. Zhao’s book says Star Xu alone held the wallet keys. Zhao also contrasted that episode with Li Lin’s case, saying Huobi avoided a similar freeze during Li’s detention roughly a month later. The same timeline adds that Li Lin and other executives were detained during a public event on Nov. 28, 2020, and that Li spent roughly 90 days in soft detention before later exiting the sector.
That chronology in the report continues beyond the detentions. Li Lin later sold Huobi to About Capital Management in October 2022 in a deal reportedly valued around $1 billion. The transaction later became a source of conflict with Justin Sun over an alleged $30 million shortfall and trademark litigation before the exchange was rebranded as HTX. Another part of the dispute record cited in the report ties Star Xu’s attack on Zhao to Zhao’s U.S. anti-money-laundering case, stating that Zhao served time in a federal facility after pleading guilty, paid a $150 million personal fine, and that Binance paid $4.3 billion.
Star Xu’s direct response to the memoir moved sharply beyond the historical claims. He wrote, “After spending four months in prison, he continues to make false statements to the world. All I can say is: a habitual liar never changes their nature.”
Star Xu said the alleged falsehoods extended to Zhao’s time at OKCoin, the Roger Ver dispute, whether Zhao personally manipulated the market, whether he acted as a tainted witness against Justin Sun, and Zhao’s current marital status. Zhao’s side said the memoir was “not intended to be an investigative book on legacy disputes” and that readers could assess Zhao’s perspective alongside the disclaimer on page 4.
Changpeng Zhao also introduced a separate claim related to his legal situation in the United States, stating that some U.S. crypto exchanges spent significant resources in an effort to block a potential pardon. He wrote that he had been told by “a few friends” that the effort was tied to competitive concerns about Binance re-entering the U.S. market.
Zhao referenced coverage by The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, describing it as “false news” and “smear articles,” and linked those reports to what he characterized as coordinated lobbying activity. He wrote, “A few friends told me that those smear articles were funded by U.S. crypto exchanges fearing that a pardon would allow Binance to re-enter the U.S. market.”
Zhao added, “They paid millions in lobbying fees to block the pardon, in fear of business competition,” framing the alleged effort as a strategic attempt to limit Binance’s ability to return to the U.S. market.
Latest exchange focused on divorce status and asset separation
The newest stage of the feud, which happened on X, centers on Zhao’s divorce claim. Star Xu wrote, “If the richest man can produce a divorce agreement up to today that has been signed and confirmed by both parties, I will immediately issue a public apology.” He added, “If he cannot produce such an agreement, yet claims in the media and books that he is already divorced, that is openly lying to the public. This is just another example of him brazenly lying to the public with a straight face.”
Star Xu then repeated the challenge in slightly revised language, writing, “If he can produce a divorce agreement signed by both parties as of today, I will immediately issue a public apology.” He added, “If he cannot, yet claims in the media and in his book that he is already divorced, then that is a clear misrepresentation to the public — yet another example of him making such claims with confidence.” Zhao answered directly. He wrote, “I typically ignore all these false claims attacks. But...” and then added, “You can apologize now. I am officially divorced.”
Zhao also said, “I won't post any legal docs online, as I respect privacy of my ex-wife, and I appreciate the time we spent together.” He continued, “I am happy to bet $1 billion USD (or any number you choose) that: I am officially divorced (way before today).” Zhao then wrote, “If you agree to take the bet, we can get lawyers to validate my divorce agreement, which should be dead simple.” He added, “This bet offer is valid permanently, whenever you feel ready. But if you don't take it within 24hrs, it clearly shows who has been mis-representing to the public. Moving on to better things to do.”
Star Xu did not accept Zhao’s framing and shifted the argument from divorce status alone to separation of ownership. He wrote, “Both OKX and Binance are regulated by multiple regulators. As the UBO of a regulated company, publicly offering a $1 billion bet is hardly professional conduct. I would be curious whether Binance’s regulators consider that acceptable.” Star Xu then wrote, “As for whether you have misled the public and lie to world, the test is actually simple: has your Binance stake been legally separated with your ex-wife or not? Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have already shown what proper asset separation looks like in a divorce.”
Star Xu added another public statement expanding on his accusations and explaining why he chose to respond directly. He wrote, “[...] the problem is that he publicly discusses matters related to me in the media and in his own book, attacking me with a ton of lies and fabricated facts to build his own persona as this glorious, great figure. That's the real root of this whole storm.” He added that “the content in those interviews and the book is packed with outright falsehoods to begin with—for instance, he blatantly lies about something as basic as his marital status, openly declaring to the entire world that he's already divorced.”
Star Xu framed his response as corrective, writing, “As the person being slandered, I feel it's necessary to set the record straight.” He also dismissed potential reputational attacks, saying, “As for the so-called "black material" that the richest man's organization has dug up on me, I couldn't care less.” He continued, “I'm just an ordinary person to begin with—a founder focused on product, tech, and internal company governance,” adding that he has “made plenty of mistakes, gone through a ton of hardships in the Crypto industry, had my share of embarrassing moments, and lost face ages ago—it's been on the floor for good.”
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
