A long-running dispute between OKX founder Star Xu and Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao resurfaced on Thursday, with Xu calling CZ a “habitual liar” in a series of posts on X that revisited allegations dating back more than a decade.
The clash dates back to Zhao’s brief tenure at OKCoin, founded by Xu, when he was accused in 2015 of “harmful acts of conduct” and misleading statements related to a contract dispute involving Roger Ver, claims Zhao has previously disputed.
This latest surge also follows an earlier public disagreement in January, when Xu blamed Binance-related market dynamics for amplifying the October 10 crypto crash, a claim disputed by Binance and other market participants. The latest surge was sparked by CZ’s memoir, published earlier this week, Xu said.
He revived the decade-old issues, saying he had no “intent on revisiting these old issues involving CZ.” [..] but since I found myself dragged into this again because of the book, let us restate the facts,” he wrote.
“Out of the blue, Star [Xu] I said I sort of forged a contract when I worked there [at OKCoin]”, CZ said in his book. “…In May 2015, I got angry and posted a public message on Reddit, obviously denying that I had tampered with any contracts…while I was there, I detailed some problems I saw at OKCoin.”
Xu, in his recent posts, pointed to a video that he said shows evidence of conflicting contract versions and reiterated that Zhao had misled the public on the matter.
“After spending four months in prison, he continues to make false statements to the world,” Xu wrote, adding that “a habitual liar never changes his nature.”
The dispute escalated when Xu questioned whether Zhao had misrepresented his marital status, referencing an earlier CoinDesk report in which Zhao’s wife was described as his “wife” in a letter submitted to a judge. Xu said he would apologize if Zhao could produce a divorce agreement signed by both parties.
Zhao responded that he was “officially divorced” and challenged Xu to bet $1 billion, or whatever amount Xu chose, that the divorce had been finalized, saying lawyers could verify the agreement while refusing to release documents.
Xu rejected the bet, citing compliance considerations of running a regulated exchange, and instead asked Zhao whether his stake in Binance had been legally separated in a divorce.
Zhao dismissed the series of questions, saying his stake in Binance was none of your business and accused Xu of embezzlement.
