The New York Times Follows Changpeng Zhao: In 2021, He Went to Dubai, and a Minister Came to Offer a Ten-Year Golden Visa

New York Times reporter David Yaffe-Bellany reports from Abu Dhabi, print edition on October 4, 2026. Changpeng Zhao, 49, is estimated to have a net worth of $114 billion and remains a major shareholder of Binance. One morning in June, he drove a white Nissan SUV to the St. Regis Hotel, with his phone mounted on the windshield for navigation, jokingly saying it was his Lamborghini. The villa has nine bedrooms, four bodyguards, one chef, and a yacht named Da Moon.

In July 2013, he was first suggested by a colleague to look at Bitcoin during a card game in Shanghai. After studying for several months, he sold his three-bedroom apartment in Shanghai, where he lived with his wife and two children, for about $900,000, using all the proceeds to buy Bitcoin. His reasoning was that if it all went wrong, he could return to traditional finance for a high-paying job. He moved to Canada with his family at the age of 12, attended McGill University, and later worked in tech roles between New York, China, and Japan. He founded Binance in July 2017, quickly becoming the largest exchange in the world and has not relinquished that position since.

In its early days, Binance did two things: offered margin trading, allowing people to borrow money to bet on Bitcoin and other tokens; and for the first four years, did not require basic Know Your Customer (KYC) information for account openings. His memoir, "Freedom of Money," states that the company's profits quickly reached $1 billion. U.S. prosecutors have cited his words to subordinates in court: "Do first, ask for forgiveness later." The indictment also claims he privately discussed how to cover up services for U.S. users and instructed subordinates not to leave written records. Court documents describe Binance as a hub for Russian money launderers, Iranian sanction evaders, and ISIS terrorists. He told reporters he never intended to break the law, attributing the loose controls to inexperience.

On a Saturday morning in October 2021, he arrived in Dubai. A few hours later, Minister Omar Sultan Al Olama came to offer him a ten-year golden visa, a doctor was called to draw blood, and the visa was approved in less than 12 hours, while similar applications usually take weeks. On the fourth day, he viewed two properties and purchased the second one. By the end of that year, Binance signed a memorandum of understanding with the local government, sending three employees to help draft crypto regulations, with a draft completed in January 2022 and legislation following weeks later. He had previously left China overnight when the government was preparing to crack down on exchanges, and faced difficulties obtaining visas for Japan and Singapore. A friend, Gabriel Abed, Barbados' ambassador to the UAE, suggested he consider Dubai.

In November 2022, after CoinDesk questioned FTX's finances, he announced plans to sell about $500 million worth of FTT in Dubai, leading to a bank run. Two days later, he announced plans to acquire FTX but withdrew the next day. Sam Bankman-Fried later said he was played and played well. Zhao told reporters he did not intend to take down the other party, initially planning to sell gradually over months, and claimed he lost $500 million. Bankman-Fried was later sentenced to 25 years. After FTX's collapse, a royal family member asked him at a dinner if he wanted UAE citizenship; he submitted the paperwork, and months later, the passport arrived at his home. The UAE has no extradition treaty with the U.S. He admitted that when the Department of Justice investigation was nearing its conclusion, he seriously considered not returning to the U.S. if negotiations failed.

In 2023, he returned to the U.S. to plead guilty, admitting to violating anti-money laundering laws, resigned as CEO, and Binance paid about $4.3 billion in settlement costs. The judge sentenced him to four months in a low-security prison in California, Lompoc II, where Bankman-Fried was later also housed. Before going to prison, he assembled a team of advisors, communicated with former inmate Michael Santos and arranged for someone to meet him inside. He explained to fellow inmates that there was no fraud and no direct victims, to which the response was that everyone says that when they come in. He was released in September 2024, and it took only 26 minutes from leaving prison to the private jet taking off, with his sister driving him to the airport, headed for Abu Dhabi. In October 2025, Trump pardoned him, which was widely criticized as a quid pro quo.

After returning to the Middle East, he took a private jet to meet with the government to discuss stablecoins and regulation. The President of Kyrgyzstan took him skiing in February, originally intending to gift him a large tent, which he declined, opting instead for a Central Asian Taigan dog; he named another dog Broccoli because the pronunciation is close to blockchain. UAE's MGX agreed to invest $2 billion in Binance, with insiders valuing it at $75 billion, and the payment was made in Trump family’s World Liberty's USD1. The Wall Street Journal reported that Binance requested to use USD1, but he stated that the decision was made by MGX. World Liberty brought Trump $799 million last year, surpassing his real estate and social media earnings. At a private event at Emirates Palace, attended by Ray Dalio and Masayoshi Son, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed approached him and asked how he was doing and how the government could help.

This is jurisdictional arbitrage, not a new round of exchange financing. The buyers are governments and sovereign funds seeking crypto licenses and stablecoin channels, while the seller is Zhao, who still holds Binance equity and can write regulatory texts into local laws. The money flows back to Abu Dhabi for residence, visas, and the $2 billion investment from the U.S. settlement and imprisonment. Beneficiaries include the UAE, with zero income tax, no extradition to the U.S., and completing the investment with USD1, along with Trump family’s crypto business; under pressure are the anti-money laundering gaps acknowledged in his 2023 guilty plea, and Binance, which is still reported to have not stopped the flow of dirty money. His home ceiling leaks and has not been repaired, and his Steinway piano has never been played; when Iranian missiles were fired at the UAE, he went to the balcony to see the smoke trail and then returned to bed to continue working.

Source: Public Information