Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao Almost Lost 46 BTC

SNEAK PEEK

Changpeng Zhao took to his Twitter account to share how he sent 46 BTC to a wrong address.
Luckily, he got back the coins after a year.
Zhao’s tweet was quickly responded by users.

According to Binance’s policy, if one transfers assets to a wrong deposit address, i.e. an address not owned by Binance.US, the transaction cannot be reversed and the deposit can’t be recovered. The individual will have to contact the owner of the support staff of the address where the assets were sent to.

The leading cryptocurrency exchange further states not being liable for any losses if one deposits an unsupported asset or deposits an asset via an unsupported network or transfers an asset to an address not owned by Binance.US.

Not exactly similar, but similar to an extent, happened with Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao’s, as per his recent tweet; however, his luck supported him. According to the tweet, in 2014, he sent 46 BTC to a wrong address. No one has the private keys for that address on the BTC blockchain.

True story: in 2014, I sent 46 BTC ($40k then, a lot for me) to a wrong address, a deposit address on an exchange for a different coin that uses the same address format as BTC. Of course, no one has the private keys for that address on the BTC blockchain. Did I recover it? https://t.co/OnL3LruNon

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 5, 2022

Continuing further, he tweeted:

I mentally wrote it off. A year later, on a random day, I realized if the address format is the same, the same private key for that coin should work in a bitcoin wallet. I wrote to the exchange (not MtGOX) with all the details. A week of silence later, I got 46 BTC back. 😆

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 5, 2022

Sharing about getting back the 46 BTC, he expressed the feeling to be a relief and how he felt like winning a million bucks.

46 BTC was about $9,000 when I got it back in 2015, 😂, but felt like I won a million bucks.

Coincidentally, today… hahaha

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 5, 2022

Users were quick to respond to his tweet and congratulated him for being luck to get back his coins.