Organized & Compiled: Deep Tide TechFlow

Guest: CZ (Zhao Changpeng), Founder and former CEO of Binance

Host: Jacquelyn Melinek, Talking Tokens Podcast (Strata Media)

Podcast Source: Talking Tokens Podcast

Original Title: Binance Founder CZ on what it took to build the world's largest crypto exchange and stay #1

Broadcast Date: July 16, 2026

Disclosure: CZ is the founder and major shareholder of Binance. This episode discusses overall trends in the cryptocurrency industry and the development of the Binance platform, and opinions inevitably carry a position.

Summary of Key Points

Binance celebrates its ninth anniversary, and CZ participated in a brief interview with Talking Tokens at a Binance event. He reflected on the rough state of the exchange industry in 2017, admitting that his biggest blind spots at the time were legal compliance and international politics. Binance reached the top of the global market in just five months, which CZ attributes to product experience, user protection, and luck in capitalizing on the ICO wave.

The most forward-looking part of the interview is the intersection of AI and cryptocurrency. CZ predicts that AI agents will begin completing payments for humans in a matter of months (not years), and that cryptocurrency is the "native currency" for AI agents. He also believes that the penetration rate of cryptocurrency, based on wealth, is less than 1%, and the biggest misconception in the industry is treating cryptocurrency as a speculative asset rather than a foundational technology. After stepping down from the CEO position, CZ admits to having missed the rise of stablecoins and is currently spending a significant amount of time researching RWA and tokenization.

Highlights of Insights

On Reflecting on Entrepreneurship

• "I would tell my younger self: spend more time learning compliance and politics. Before 2017, I was just a tech person, focused on product development and user protection, but I underestimated the importance of the legal aspects."
• "The second piece of advice is to run faster. Binance's futures contracts were launched two years later; if I could do it again, I would have done it much sooner."
• "In the first five months, we achieved global number one and maintained that position every day afterward."

On Community

• "If you treat the community well, they will follow you to the ends of the earth."
• "Companies will face attacks from regulators, laws, and geopolitics, but communities are almost immune to these. Communities will even fight back for you."

On Cryptocurrency Perception

• "People treat cryptocurrency as a speculative asset, always thinking about when to exit. You don’t exit the internet, you don’t exit AI. The same goes for cryptocurrency; it is a technology."
• "The penetration rate of cryptocurrency, in terms of wealth, is less than 1%. The market is far from saturated."

On AI × Cryptocurrency

• "AI will eventually handle payments for us. Right now AI can search for the best hotels and flights, but it can't place an order. This capability will come in a matter of months, you definitely don't need to wait years."
• "Once AI starts trading, it will need a native currency. Using a credit card is too clumsy; cryptocurrency is the natural choice."
• "Cryptocurrency payments are the biggest unlocking point for AI. Other areas like validation of training data are still far off."

On Security

• "AI will fundamentally change the security landscape. It can find vulnerabilities, which is useful for both developers and hackers. There will be some attack incidents in the short term, but long-term, systems will become more secure."
• "The latest Anthropic's Methuselah model is incredibly powerful, and I hope to have a version available soon for developers to use to fortify systems."

On Financial Integration

• "There shouldn’t be a distinction between crypto finance and traditional finance. Just as you wouldn't say that postal and email are two separate systems, ultimately there will only be one financial system."
• "Which country wouldn’t want to open its stock market to the world? Tokenization is just a matter of time."

Body

Looking Back After Nine Years: Exchanges in 2017 Didn't Do Well Enough

Jacquelyn Melinek: This year marks Binance's ninth anniversary. Before founding Binance, you also worked at major exchanges. Looking back at the market in 2017 and your situation at that time, what issues did you see in the exchange industry that others weren't solving well, prompting you to start your own?

CZ: Before starting my entrepreneurial journey, my entire career was focused on order execution and exchange systems. In 2017, looking at the exchange industry, I felt that the products could be better, technology could be better, matching engines could be faster, security could be higher, and customer service could be improved. Exchanges at that time didn't truly prioritize users. I saw plenty of room for improvement. Of course, we were also lucky to coincide with an ICO boom and benefited from that market.

Jacquelyn Melinek: Do you think CZ in 2017 and CZ in 2026 are the same person?

CZ: Laughs. Not the same anymore. I've aged a lot, but not necessarily become wiser. I've faced many more challenges, let's put it that way. A lot has happened over nine years, and my mindset and body have changed.

Jacquelyn Melinek: If you could give your 2017 self one piece of advice, what would you say?

CZ: Knowing what I know now, I would tell my younger self: spend more time learning legal compliance and politics. Before 2017, I was just a tech person focused on product development and user protection, but I underestimated the importance of legal aspects. I also didn’t understand enough about international law, not knowing that certain U.S. laws have global jurisdiction and long statutes of limitations. That's my first piece of advice.

The second piece of advice is to run faster. There were many products I hesitated to launch at the time, but looking back, entrepreneurs should push products to market early to get feedback. For instance, Binance's futures contracts were launched two years later; if I could do it again, I would have done it much sooner.

Reaching the Top in Five Months: Product, Mission, and a Bit of Luck

Jacquelyn Melinek: Binance surpassed dozens of exchanges and quickly reached the top. Was it in the first year or the second year?

CZ: The first year. In the first five months, we achieved global number one and maintained that position every day afterward.

Jacquelyn Melinek: It’s easy to reach the peak, but hard to maintain it. What do you attribute this success to?

CZ: The success of a company is due to many factors. The product must be good, customer service must be good, and more importantly, there must be a mission. Our mission is to increase the freedom of money, and one of our core values is user protection. User protection helped us maintain our position after becoming number one.

Of course, there was also a luck factor in 2017. That year was the start of the ICO boom, and we were a new exchange that quickly supported ICO tokens. Most other exchanges were still primarily Bitcoin exchanges, and some of the biggest U.S. exchanges didn't even list Ethereum at the time. We caught the turning point in the industry. But competition was fierce; Bittrex and Poloniex were both giants at the time. We had a good product and service, combined with strong user protection—these elements were all essential.

The Community is More Resilient than the Company

Jacquelyn Melinek: The theme for Binance's ninth anniversary is "Built by You." How would you describe the community culture you want to cultivate?

CZ: Nine years ago, cryptocurrency was still a very niche industry. When we started, Bitcoin was about two to three thousand dollars. The user base was small but very loyal, consisting of early adopters who knew the product inside and out. They knew that we were protecting them, so they followed their hearts and their money.

As the community grew, Binance has consistently taken action to protect users. Many volunteers contribute to the Binance ecosystem; some are called Binance Angels, while some don’t even have formal titles. The entire platform is truly community-driven, and "Built by You" reflects that.

Jacquelyn Melinek: You’ve mentioned that communities are sometimes more resilient than companies. What can communities do that companies cannot?

CZ: If you treat the community well, they will follow you to the ends of the earth. Companies can face various attacks, especially centralized companies, as regulators, laws, and geopolitics will come knocking. Communities are almost immune to these attacks because they are distributed, and in our case, they are global. It's hard to launch an effective attack against a globally distributed community. The community can also fight back on your behalf; often their voice on social media is louder than mainstream media. The community has immense power that can be mobilized.

Less than 1% Cryptocurrency Penetration: The Biggest Misunderstanding is Treating Technology as Speculation

Jacquelyn Melinek: In today’s market, what creates a product that keeps users coming back?

CZ: Products in any industry can be improved. The friction in fiat currency gateways remains high; whoever can achieve lower fees, less friction, and cover more regions will have an advantage.

Stablecoins are also an issue; the most popular ones do not pay interest to users, and those that do offer poor trading opportunities. If there is a stablecoin that offers good interest while being freely tradable, that is a point of improvement. Tokenization of RWA is still new; there are only a few stocks that have been realistically tokenized, and they are centered around the U.S. Why wouldn’t other countries want to tokenize their stock markets to allow global participation? The penetration rate of cryptocurrency, based on wealth, is around 1%. We are still in the early stages.

Jacquelyn Melinek: We’ve been talking about the "next billion users" for many years, yet we haven’t even reached the first billion. What do you think is the industry's biggest misunderstanding about mainstream adoption?

CZ: Many people treat cryptocurrency as a speculative asset rather than a foundational technology. Once they buy Bitcoin, they are always thinking about when to exit. You don't exit the internet; you don’t exit AI. Cryptocurrency is the same; it is a technology. Cryptocurrency blockchain will stay; it’s one of the three foundational technologies of my life, along with the internet and AI. I suggest that people consider the long-term prospects of projects.

AI Agents for Payments: Will Arrive Within Months

Jacquelyn Melinek: Where do you see AI and cryptocurrency seriously intersecting?

CZ: AI will eventually handle payments for us. Right now, AI can help you find the best hotels and flights, but it can't place an order. This capability will come in a matter of months; you definitely don't need to wait years. Once AI starts trading for people, it will need a native currency. Using a credit card is too cumbersome; cryptocurrency is the natural choice.

Traditional fiat payments work fine within a country, but they perform poorly on a global scale. You will see more and more global citizens needing to pay someone on the other side of the planet, needing to book tickets in different regions; cryptocurrency payments are much more convenient. Cryptocurrency payments are the biggest unlocking point for AI. Other applications, like blockchain for validating training data, are still far away. AI companies are large, profitable, and highly valued, and for the time being, they won’t pay much attention to decentralization.

Jacquelyn Melinek: Do you think cryptocurrency payments are a near-term thing, or will it be three to five years later?

CZ: I guess it will be one to two years. Once people start using AI to make cryptocurrency payments, they will discover that it is much faster. Moreover, the early adopters in the cryptocurrency space and those for AI overlap significantly.

AI Changes the Security Landscape: Use the Strongest Models to Fortify Systems

Jacquelyn Melinek: How does AI impact Binance's internal operations and the crypto infrastructure?

CZ: I view AI similarly to the internet. Can you really say that you don’t use the internet? That probably isn't a good idea. Every company and person should fully utilize AI but must also avoid misuse. AI is very good at helping people write code, debug, and perform code analysis; it is also useful in design and video. But we shouldn’t let AI do everything; we live in a human world, and people still want human touch. AI is good at creativity, but raw creativity still better belongs to humans.

Jacquelyn Melinek: Besides payments, where else will AI change cryptocurrency?

CZ: AI will completely alter the security landscape. AI is very good at finding vulnerabilities, and developers can use it to quickly identify weaknesses in systems. The latest Anthropic Methuselah model is extremely powerful, and I hope to have a version soon that allows developers to use it to strengthen systems. In the short term, there might be some hacking incidents, but in the long run, systems will be much more secure.

Moreover, the throughput of blockchains is still insufficient; we need chains that are faster and have larger capacities to reduce usage costs. AI will play an important role in accelerating this development. There is also a more fundamental trend: AI will push us towards a more digital world, an order of magnitude deeper than what the internet achieved. The more digital we become, the more we will need digital currencies. The concept of paper currency has become outdated, and AI will push us beyond that tipping point.

Stepping Back Perspective: Missed the Rise of Stablecoins, Now Focused on RWA

Jacquelyn Melinek: You’ve stepped down from CEO to a different role. Have you noticed any different discoveries in the industry after stepping back?

CZ: The perspective is indeed different. When I was CEO, everything revolved around Binance—twenty-five meetings a day with various issues constantly arising, my vision was actually quite narrow. Now, being forced to step back, I can take a broader view of the entire industry. I have time to learn new things, study AI, and explore biotechnology, and I can dive deeper into new directions in the crypto space.

When I was CEO, I actually missed the opportunity with stablecoins. I thought stablecoins were just a transitional technology used to bridge between exchanges. It turned out to grow significantly. Now I’m spending a lot of time looking at RWA and tokenization, and I’m also advising governments in this area. To be honest, stepping back has allowed me to learn more quickly.

If Starting from Scratch: I Would Still Choose to Build an Exchange

Jacquelyn Melinek: If you were starting from zero today, without Binance, without reputation, only your experience, what would you choose to do?

CZ: If I were to build something new, I could only choose something I understand. My experience points only in one direction: to build an exchange. Laughs. I always tell people to find what they are good at, what interests them, and what provides value for others—these three intersections. What I am good at is trading systems. If I were to lead an AI team, it would probably be a disaster.

Jacquelyn Melinek: Do you think traditional finance, on-chain finance, and trading ecosystems will ultimately merge into one?

CZ: It will definitely happen. There shouldn't be a distinction between crypto finance and traditional finance. Just as you wouldn't say postal and email are two parallel systems. Most people today don’t use postal services for communication anymore. Crypto blockchain is just a new technology within the financial system. Because it is new, it initially created a niche, but integration is already happening. Stocks are being tokenized on-chain, and traditional banks and financial institutions are also using blockchain. Ultimately, there will not be two parallel lines; there will only be one financial system.

Jacquelyn Melinek: Thank you very much for your time, CZ, and congratulations to the Binance team on your ninth anniversary.

CZ: Thank you, and thank you for the invitation.

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