Aside from CZ’s new book, which biographies of cryptocurrency industry figures are worth reading?

By Biteye

On April 8, 2026, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) officially released his new book Freedom of Money, instantly igniting a reading frenzy across the entire crypto community.

The crypto world has never lacked overnight rags-to-riches legends—but behind the candlestick charts and lines of code lies an even more gripping drama of human nature and power struggles.

If you finish CZ’s new book still craving more, then the following reading list—curated from both Western and Chinese perspectives—and in-depth investigative reports will undoubtedly help you see clearly through this surreal decade of crypto江湖 (rivers-and-lakes underworld).

I. The Western Perspective: From Hacker Utopia to Wall Street’s Global Narrative

Western biographies tend to emphasize clashes between technological idealism, regulatory battles, and capital market mania.

1. Digital Gold – Bitcoin’s “Genesis”

• Key Figures: Satoshi Nakamoto, the Winklevoss twins, early hackers and cypherpunks
• Highlights: If you want to know how it all began, this is the foundational must-read. Author Nathaniel Popper meticulously reconstructs, through extensive oral histories, how Bitcoin evolved from a hacker experiment on a cypherpunk mailing list into a phenomenon attracting Silk Road dark web operators, Silicon Valley VCs—and ultimately drawing the Winklevoss twins back into the fold.

2. The Infinite Machine – Ethereum’s Chaotic Birth

• Key Figures: Vitalik Buterin (“Vitalik”) and Ethereum’s co-founders
• Highlights: This vividly portrays how Vitalik assembled a motley crew of brilliant yet eccentric minds to build the Ethereum empire amid chaos. It meticulously recounts the early DAO hack and the ensuing hard fork crisis—revealing how technological idealism negotiates compromise and holds firm in the face of real-world interests.

3. Going Infinite – The Collapse of a Mega-Bubble

• Key Figure: Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)
• Highlights: Written by Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short, this chronicles SBF’s absurd descent from “genius billionaire” to convicted felon. Read alongside CZ’s new book—which includes CZ’s own assessment of SBF—and you’ll gain deeper insight into how Alameda’s financial black hole swallowed billions.

4. Kings of Crypto – A Compliance Blueprint Embracing Regulation

• Key Figure: Brian Armstrong (CEO of Coinbase)
• Highlights: Unlike Binance’s early “nomadic” path, Coinbase pursued strict compliance with U.S. regulators. This book documents how Armstrong built Coinbase from grassroots beginnings into a Nasdaq-listed company—all under the watchful eye of the SEC—making it an essential reference for understanding the evolution of crypto power dynamics in the U.S.

II. The Chinese-Language Perspective: Grassroots Ascent, Internal Strife, and the Dark Web’s Underworld Chronicles

Compared to the West’s technology-centric narratives, China’s crypto history reads more like a gritty, wuxia-style chronicle of self-made outlaws. Due to regulatory sensitivities, formal autobiographies by prominent Chinese crypto figures remain rare—but top-tier in-depth investigative features are no less compelling.

5. The Self-Cultivation of the “Lettuce” – Retail Investor Enlightenment & Self-Mockery

• Key Figure: Li Xiaolai
• Highlights: Once the most controversial “Bitcoin billionaire” in the Chinese-speaking world, Li Xiaolai’s short but blunt book lays bare the logic of market manipulators—and the fatal psychology of retail investors (“lettuce”). It encapsulates early Chinese-language crypto investment philosophy.

6. The Mining War: Bitmain’s Internal Power Struggle (In-Depth Investigative Series)

• Key Figures: Wu Jihan vs. Zhan Ketuan
• Highlights: Hash power once served as the Chinese-speaking world’s strongest weapon for global dominance in crypto. This series details the dramatic rift between Bitmain’s two founders—from comrades-in-arms to bitter rivals fighting over corporate seals and suing each other in court. Understanding this “Wu-Wu Split” means understanding the power vacuum and bear-market truths of the mining sector.

“Wu Jihan: The Beauty of Hash Power”

“Bitmain’s ‘Immortals’ Go to War—and the Ones Who Get Hurt Are Their People”

“Bitmain Finally Settles Down—Wu Jihan Leaves Gracefully, With Love”

7. The Sun Yuchen Story & OK’s Life Journey (In-Depth Investigative Collection)

• Key Figures: Sun Yuchen, Xu Mingxing, Li Lin
• Highlights: Whether it’s Sun Yuchen—the marketing genius who bought the Buffett dinner auction—or Xu Mingxing—who steered OKX through school-dropout controversies and investor rights crises—or Li Lin—who quietly sold Huobi—these three stories, when combined with major media retrospectives from 2026 and revelations from CZ’s new book, collectively form a complete ten-year blood-soaked history of Chinese CEXs (centralized exchanges).

“This World Is Both Cruel and Kind”, Sun Yuchen’s 2026 B.AI Interview

Xu Mingxing’s “OK Life”

8. The Collapse of Huivang Empire: A $24-Billion Underground River (2026’s Latest Investigative Report)

• Key Figures: Gray-economy tycoons and money laundering networks
• Highlights: As regulators worldwide tightened enforcement in 2026, Southeast Asia’s crypto black-market empire surfaced. This investigative series exposes the operational mechanics of Telegram-based dark-web marketplaces, USDT money laundering networks, and scam parks—offering the most sobering real-world warning about crypto’s “underground river risks.”

“The Collapse of Huivang Empire: A $24-Billion Underground River”

Conclusion

These past dozen years of cryptocurrency did not emerge overnight—and they are far more than just a casino. Western biographies map out the industry’s technological contours and capital logic, while Chinese-language investigative reports flesh out its anatomy of power, desire, and humanity.

From the hacker idealism in Digital Gold, to the prison-cell reflections in Freedom of Money, to the world-shaking alarm bell sounded by The Collapse of Huivang Empire: after reading these works, you won’t just understand the logic behind candlestick charts—you’ll truly see through this mad world built upon “cryptography + human nature.”