The richest men have nowhere to run

In troubled times, the richest men have nowhere to run.

On December 18, Changpeng Zhao was bitten by another piece of meat, and the CFTC announced that he would be fined 2.85 billion US dollars (about 20.4 billion yuan).

Counting the $4.366 billion (about 31.2 billion yuan) settlement reached with the U.S. Department of Justice, Binance and Changpeng Zhao have been fined a total of $7.216 billion (about 51.5 billion yuan) by the United States.

The problem is that even after paying the sky-high fine, it is still uncertain whether Binance's Changpeng Zhao will land safely.

Changpeng Zhao is a legend, and last year he accurately blasted FTX, forcing its founder SBF to kneel down and beg for a takeover.

But how did he plant it?

Weakness 1: Cryptocurrency projects are inherently decentralized, which is contrary to the regulation of all countries.

So, despite the size of the planet, there seems to be no place for Binance.

For example, Binance was founded in China, but in September 2017, Binance moved its headquarters to Japan, and later moved its headquarters to Malta, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Dubai, and so on.

By 2020, Binance simply canceled its headquarters, and its employees worked globally, and Changpeng Zhao went wherever Binance's headquarters were.

What is the excuse for the U.S. sanctions on Binance? Binance is suspected of money laundering, unlicensed remittance, sanctions violations, illegal solicitation of U.S. customers, and so on.

Binance's daily trading volume is 90 billion US dollars, and there are hundreds of millions of users around the world, which is the same size as our Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, so in the face of such accusations, Changpeng Zhao is also difficult to speak.

Therefore, when facing the accusations of the US Department of Justice, Changpeng Zhao hesitated for a long time, weighed the pros and cons, and cut his meat to ensure safety.

The CFTC and other institutions in the United States saw that they were profitable and also caught Changpeng Zhao's attention, but Changpeng Zhao believes that it is beyond its jurisdiction to try to regulate foreign entities and individuals operating and residing outside the United States.

As a result, Changpeng Zhao lost and still had to face a fine.

It can be expected that Changpeng Zhao will be targeted by other countries and other institutions in the future, he is like a piece of fat, and everyone wants to take a bite.

Hard injury three: the richest man in China.

Changpeng Zhao, with a strong Chinese color, was born in Lianyungang, Jiangsu, immigrated to Canada with his parents at the age of 11 and has Canadian citizenship.

His early activities were mainly in Chinese mainland, and the funds to enter the cryptocurrency industry were also obtained by selling his Shanghai house.

Standing on the cusp, he became the richest Chinese in the world in only 5 years, with a net worth of 94.1 billion US dollars in 2022, surpassing Nongfu Spring's Zhong Sui.

No matter what nationality Zhao Changpeng has, what passport he holds, and no matter how he justifies it, foreigners will treat him as Chinese whenever they see his face.

What is the trend now? Global populism is rampant, global trust is being undermined, and rules are being broken.

To put it simply, now everyone's eating appearance is ugly, and they don't talk about martial arts, and the richest man at this time is very eye-catching, after all, the scale is too big, and the head cat is up and the butt is leaking outside.

As the "richest man", it is even more insecure to escape from his own cultural circle.

That's the big problem Changpeng Zhao is facing.

Note that we are talking about the super-rich here, and the middle class with a few small goals will not be affected wherever they go, so don't sit in the right seat.

Look at another case, the Russian plutocrats.

In 2022, the Russian-Ukrainian war broke out, and Russian billionaires fled frantically, and within a year, 15,000 billionaires chose to emigrate, mainly to the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Turkey and some Asian countries.

Do these rich people really think that if they go out, they will be safe?

For example, Chelsea's owner Abou, yachts, mansions, and private yachts were directly confiscated by Europe, and Chelsea Football Club was also sold to others.

Of course, he felt that he had been wronged, but even though Abu sued all over Europe, no one paid attention to him, and all his claims were dismissed.

Let's take another look at Li Ka-shing's actions.

At that time, Li Ka-shing was all betting on the United Kingdom, controlling 1/4 of the electricity distribution market, nearly 30% of the natural gas supply market, nearly 7% of the water supply market and more than 40% of the telecommunications market, 1/3 of the British terminal and more than 500,000 square meters of land assets.

What have you done in the past two years? First, it sold UK Power Networks, and also listed the UBS Group's London headquarters building, as well as the UK headquarters building of Cheung Kong Group, and so on.

What did Li Ka-shing see? He didn't feel safe enough in Britain either.

One sign is that in 2022, the British will have great inflation, and the prices of energy, electricity, water and other bills will rise, and the British people will be angry and complain that Britain has returned to the "Stone Age".

And these are his inheritances.

Now that the British people are simply complaining about rising prices, their anger and spearhead may be directly aimed at Li Ka-shing himself.

This makes Li Ka-shing feel insecure.

Li Ka-shing looks at the whole world, and the only place that can bring him safety is Hong Kong.

So, he returned to the mainland two years ago to participate in the land auction, and actually acquired land in Hong Kong. There are also rumors on the Internet that 93-year-old Li Ka-shing spent 50 billion yuan to exchange for Chinese nationality.

Turning the page of history, when the rules are broken, the society is in an extreme situation, and the situation of immigrants outside their own cultural circle will be very difficult.

During World War II, Japanese Americans, regardless of the generation they belonged to in the United States, Americans regarded these people as Japanese, not Americans.

Therefore, the United States directly confiscated the assets of these people and drove them to "concentration camps". Only when Japanese Americans hate Japan more can they have any hope of coming out.

Has the situation changed now? Not at all.

Before the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, can you imagine that the United States would dare to directly confiscate the assets of Russians in the United States?

However, this kind of thing happens.

In a word, with the dregs of populism rising and all the rules broken, the richest men have nowhere to run.

The "richest man of another race" is like a lamb to the slaughter, which is the fate of Changpeng Zhao who carries huge wealth and goes away.

Because in troubled times, the super-rich class can only be "safe" if they stay in their own cultural circle.