On April 20, 2026, the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival was grandly opened at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. During the afternoon roundtable discussion, Binance co-CEO He Yi and the head of Wanxiang Blockchain Lab, Du Yu, discussed the theme “From Crossovers to Reconstruction: Future Finance is being 'Reprogrammed'”.

Dialogue Transcript

Du Yu: Hello everyone! I am Du Yu from Wanxiang Blockchain Lab. Today, I can feel everyone’s enthusiasm as well. Sister Yi, please say hello to everyone.

He Yi: Hello everyone! I am He Yi, the “Chief Customer Service” of Binance. Thank you all!

Du Yu: This past year has been full of interesting developments in the industry, especially the impact and opportunities that AI brings to the entire sector. I think this is a moment of diverse convergence, and having a dialogue with you here is particularly intriguing.

Yesterday, I saw many people asking you specific questions during the AMA. Today, I want to discuss more about your vision for the whole industry. In the changing market environment over the past six months, what are your personal interests? What are the new changes in your schedule, or in your regular contemplation, that excite you or even give you a sense of urgency?

He Yi: As mentioned earlier, regarding AI, I currently divide my life and time distribution into three modules:

First, the nearing singularity of AI is definitely a moment that no one can ignore; it is truly a moment in human history. Therefore, I spend a lot of time contemplating what kind of revolutionary changes might occur between AI and the blockchain industry, and between AI and finance. That implies I need to consider what Binance’s products might look like ten years from now and what our services might entail.

Second, I feel I spend quite a bit of time thinking about organization and talent. Many times, we say that when a company is in its early stages, it may rely more on the Founder, Co-Founder, or personal strengths to drive the company's growth; however, when a company reaches a certain scale, it is about organizational effectiveness, figuring out how to enable the organization to sustain itself and foster its own growth. This is something I have been consistently thinking about and adjusting.

Third, people often say that there is further integration between crypto and traditional finance. Because at this special moment, we are seeing that both the U.S. and Hong Kong governments are very friendly toward promoting the blockchain industry. So, I believe we are likely to see revolutionary changes in the entire industry; often, when the singularity arrives, when the moment comes, we are ignorant and unaware. But when it happens, it could be just an ordinary day of eating, drinking, eating, and sleeping, yet the changes it brings to our lives and impacts us may mean that in the future, all foreign exchange happens on the blockchain, rather than the previous SWIFT system. We might see that in the future, all asset transactions are no longer limited to a few hours but could happen globally 24 hours a day, like in the crypto space.

So we will see the whole world rapidly entering a state of “push-feel”.

Du Yu: You just described a very exciting future. Often when discussing the future, we think about things three, five, or ten years ahead, but this year feels different; I feel like the inflection point is imminent, it could happen today or tomorrow. I think many people here might have a sense of urgency about that. Following what Sister Yi just said about AI and the future of finance, let's dive deeper into some interesting topics.

Starting again with AI, organizational importance is crucial, especially for a company like Binance, which is approaching ten years of history. Many of you might have seen that several tech companies have been laying off staff recently, but their stock prices haven’t fallen as a result, not because of poor performance but due to organizational improvements; there’s been a buzz about one-person companies lately, but I think it's a bit exaggerated or not that time yet. However, companies with three, five, or ten people can already do what used to take dozens or even hundreds of people, and this is definitely happening.

AI is rewriting everything. How has AI changed your personal thinking and decision-making, in turn affecting the entire Binance platform and even at a multinational level? I believe Binance faces more challenges than many other large companies, because you are a very globalized organization, and your customers are among the most globally distributed. What opportunities and challenges has AI brought you?

He Yi: First of all, Binance does not plan to lay off staff on a large scale like most tech companies nor will it cut costs through efficiency efforts. For us, AI is actually about making strong individuals even stronger. For example, in the past, many might think that a programmer writing code might have innovative and structural thinking, but they could be limited when writing code. However, today, with AI, writing code has become very smooth and mature, which can enhance efficiency tenfold.

I found something quite interesting; we used to have an employee who was found to be working multiple jobs because the efficiency of writing code with AI improved tremendously. At that point, he felt that work was easy to handle and thought he could take on another job, but of course, he was eventually fired.

Overall, my thinking is to hope to further enhance the output capability and innovation capability of the entire organization, rather than just seeking to reduce costs and enhance efficiency on the existing scale. This year, I proposed an idea that others might see as a bit crazy: in the past, we said we wanted to pursue 1 billion users, but this year I told everyone we should pursue 3 billion users, because we now have 300 million users. What does being a company with 3 billion users mean? It means that Binance is not just an exchange; Binance is global financial infrastructure, which means our services are aimed at ordinary people, at the general public, at everyone. Our services could involve daily payments, personal finance needs, even the minutiae of everyday life, which will push me to encourage employees to be more innovative and try new things.

While constantly expanding business boundaries, their infrastructure needs to be stable enough because I have also received complaints from many friends that our products could be smoother, so I have spent a lot of time optimizing products this year. Give me a few more months, and I will improve it further.

The second point regarding the impact of AI: I believe a larger impact is that in the past, we understood AI as a high-aspiration child, but if you have a younger child at home, you might find that children sometimes talk nonsense. I wonder if anyone has seen the movie “A Little Red Flower,” where kindergarten kids say their teacher is a monster. You will notice that AI has very similar traits to a young high-IQ child; it may not have structural logic, and its memories could be discontinuous. With this kind of logic, we found a tremendous leap. The previous cycle (2025) showed us AI as a high-IQ brain, but today, in just a few months, I feel like AI has grown its own hands.

For instance, the recent popularity of lobsters and the current skills have seen most top-tier models equipped. This means that AI is no longer just a concept; it has truly begun to enter everyone’s lives. Of course, the most apparent case is writing code. Why writing code? Because programmers are currently the highest-earning group in the world. When people ask how to use AI, they first replace the most expensive group.

Therefore, I think in the longer future, today’s work is a bit like workers in a candle factory back when electricity hadn't come; the electric light has arrived, and the huge shock and contemplation it brings isn't just about the old paradigm, but in the face of a new technological revolution, what kind of responsibilities do you hold as an individual or as a company within society and organization? However, I think that regarding individual and company matters, it’s not too unusual.

If you look back at the influencer age and personal IP, for example, the previous streamer Li Jiaqi was able to reach a scale of over a hundred million by himself, far surpassing many companies. But I believe more contemplation lies in the responsibility you bear for the public within the entire society and organization.

Du Yu: You mentioned transforming from 300 million users to 3 billion users, and quite frankly, I think you might be too conservative. Why? With AI’s development, we also feel that Crypto itself isn’t really meant for people but for AI. Many say that in the future, whether you’re wealthy or not will depend on how many robots you possess, how many AIs you have, and how much computing power you can leverage. Therefore, have you considered that in designing Binance products, not just Binance but the entire Web3 industry from the startup perspective aims at AI users and AI Agents? At that point, the number of users isn’t just 3 billion or 30 billion; it could be in the hundreds of billions or trillions. The architecture would be different, and the opportunities brought to Web3 would also be different. Standing at this moment, it seems like all the traffic and capital have been attracted by AI, but what excites me is the combination of AI with Web3, along with robotics and robotic dogs; this is the next generation of the internet that is truly thrilling. I’d like to know your thoughts on this trend.

He Yi: I feel that AI has now entered two different branches, of course, with conflicts and discussions. For example, the path from large language models to Web Coding is one route, while physical AI has made many breakthroughs. If we must look to the future, you shouldn't consider Crypto purely as Crypto; it should be seen as a more efficient and lower-cost financial system. On top of such an optimized structure, how can AI more efficiently serve the public?

Recently, there was a discussion on Twitter where it was noted that Western AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are mocking each other, while China’s AI competition is merely about delivering milk tea.

This question made me ponder for quite some time; I believe we should not possess technological arrogance. Regardless of how extraordinary or advanced AI technology may be, for individual humans, the most important question is how this technology can serve us and help improve our lives. Whether it's Doubao or Qianwen, when it can inform an elderly person in rural China that the third-party health supplements recommended to them are fake and not to buy them, I think that is the value and meaning technology brings to humanity. When a lonely elderly person in a rural area can chat with someone daily thanks to Doubao, I feel that is the significance technology brings to humanity. No matter where humanity goes, we must still look back at being human and be sympathetic to all living things.

Du Yu: Particularly for those of us with a technical background, there’s often an instinct to show off our skills. Including many entrepreneurs and projects within Web3, they might feel that this is some very cool product or technology, but ultimately discover there are no users, or the service targets a very narrow user base. You often say you are “customer service” or “the first customer service”, but in reality, you’re also the first product manager. It is important to understand human nature; all technological advancements, including the evolution of financial tools, are to better serve humanity. We are ultimately not here to serve robots; robots are also here to serve people, and AI is used to serve people.

Earlier, you mentioned financial infrastructure. I also believe the core of Web3 is financial infrastructure or the next generation of financial infrastructure. Recently, I saw you post on Binance’s Twitter with two pie charts: the left one is Crypto, and the right one is traditional TradFi, and the area in the middle is Binance. I remember when I first encountered Binance in 2017, I thought the name was really fantastic. I don’t know how you came up with that name, but you wrote about it in "Binance Life," albeit simply. In my understanding, “Finance” is easily understood as the existing finance, but “B” could be Bitcoin or the entire digital world. Within this overlapping process or area, why do you think Binance exists in this overlap? What do you want to express about Binance's future in the financial system?

He Yi: Back in 2014, the slogan was “Down with Wall Street.” Today, as your industry continues to grow, with increasing numbers of institutional users and traditional finance beginning to embrace Crypto, you will find that this is actually a process of merging. In this merging process, there are some countries and some regulators that are ahead; they say, “I understand what this is.” I understand its significance for the financial system. Today, some people are encouraged to experiment and innovate. For instance, in Hong Kong, there are companies like Futu and Tiger that now simultaneously hold stock assets and Crypto assets; in the U.S., companies like Robinhood also have a large number of Crypto assets and traditional stock assets.

Binance likely does not want to limit itself to Crypto or so-called stock assets. Recently, we launched several commodities, including crude oil, gold, silver, and others. Our platform’s commodity trading volume has already taken a very high proportion within the traditional scale. They might currently see us as a threat, perhaps even saying “down with Crypto.”

But for the longer future, when you aim to become financial infrastructure, you don’t need to worry too much about whether you're Crypto or TradFi, because labeling ourselves is akin to drawing boundaries. When you break the boundaries and return to the starting point, it's about what you have done for the financial freedom of this world, what you have done for financial equality, and whether you have made ordinary people's lives better, which is a very fundamental principle.

Du Yu: You mentioned that the starting point of fundamental principles is great and important, but it can sometimes be idealistic. Because when we are doing concrete things, there are always compromises regarding reality and regulation. I want to ask a question from two perspectives. One is that many mainstream traditional financial institutions are embracing Crypto today, including the two stablecoin licenses issued by Hong Kong last week, which are held by mainstream financial institutions and banks. However, at times we may have doubts about whether mainstream financial institutions are living comfortably and whether the innovations they create are just a small notch that either succeeds or fails; even their creation of stablecoins might affect their revenue because they may require investment, and that investment doesn’t necessarily lead to success.

The other perspective is from the outsiders, from those native to the internet and Crypto. Initially, everyone thought about Bitcoin and Crypto, the ups and downs. I joined Wanxiang Blockchain in 2015, and for over ten years, I often felt embarrassed to tell my friends that I worked in blockchain because this industry was often stigmatized. Whenever I mentioned blockchain, I’d feel compelled to say I was in tech, but that would often lead to labels about speculation or controversy. Things have improved a lot over the years; now mentioning Bitcoin no longer immediately attracts negative terms.

However, with these years of development, Crypto-native companies are also beginning to accept regulation and embrace the mainstream. From your perspective, which path does Binance lean towards? Or is it that Binance originally emerged from Crypto-native, finding it hard to take that path? How do you see a practical step-by-step approach towards achieving the vision of fundamental principles?

He Yi: The path we are taking today went through a stage that the entire internet has already been through. The whole internet, when it first emerged in Silicon Valley, had a very strong “hippie culture.” In that era, many thought that those engaged in the internet and technology were geeks and outcasts. However, during that time, the internet saw a tremendous amount of branching. Those who veered left focused on the dark web, advocating total freedom; those who went right established Google and Amazon, forming commercial companies that serve ordinary people globally.

If you ask me where Binance will head, we will certainly steadfastly march towards being a commercial company serving the public. However, at the same time, when we serve the public, technological innovation remains very important. Regardless of blockchain technology or AI technology, many will feel the stigmatization or public opinion against the crypto industry is very normal because of the emergence of new things. If everyone could understand it without dispute, how would there be so many difficulties, challenges, and innovations continuing to arise? Looking back, when we used to go to net cafés, my mom wanted to break my legs.

When we see today that the blockchain is being embraced by Wall Street and traditional finance with a 180-degree turn, it signifies that this industry is maturing, and the early benefits of this industry are gradually diminishing. As the early benefits decrease, complaints from everyone often increase. For example, why does everyone wonder why Bitcoin isn't continuing to drop? It's because I can't bottom-feed. Why doesn't Bitcoin keep rising? That's because the early benefit period for the industry has passed. Once the early benefit period is over, it enters a so-called maturity period, where you must cross the chasm to truly provide valuable and grounded products.

I have great respect for many professional technical experts in this industry, but I often ask them one question: what is your technology for? What problems can it solve? Is there someone willing to pay for it? I remember discussing this topic in a similar setting last year where the essence of business remains a constant understanding. However, I feel that innovation and continuous iteration of technology know no bounds.

Du Yu: In the past two years, what people are increasingly discussing in the industry is no longer technology itself; even to a certain degree, technology belongs to a bottleneck. Currently, technology is sufficient for the majority of businesses. What we need to study more is how existing technologies, such as Layer 1 and Layer 2 in Web3, can be utilized to change everyone’s lives and how we can gradually build applications. This is very important. You also mentioned that the industry is slowly entering the mainstream. Events like this year’s Hong Kong Web3 Festival, or the activities we have consistently done in the past few years, aim to attract more traditional industries, allowing mainstream industries to view Web3 and Crypto as valuable tools that can assist their further development, just as the internet once changed nearly every industry. I believe that Web3, as a new financial infrastructure, will significantly enhance all existing business models.

Finally, we have some time left. I want to discuss some recent topics mentioned in "Binance Life." This new book by CZ allows more people to understand his journey, especially from the start of his involvement in the circle to now. His growth story is Binance's growth story and also the growth story of the entire industry. He wrote many stories in the book, and today, we would like to hear your perspective. From another personal experience perspective, looking ten or twenty years into the future, when you reflect on the events of the past decade, how would you narrate this story? It is an important entrepreneurial journey.

He Yi: If we go back to 2017, you would see from my social media that from 2017 to now, I keep repeating a phrase: “We are not just starting a business; we are creating history.” So, whether in the past, present, or future, what we are doing by employing technology to shape the future is how to create history. In the process of history, every path you take will naturally not be a straight line, nor will it be smooth, no matter the stigmatization of the crypto industry, saying “you all are just speculators,” or the public's recognition of technological innovation during the process, represents the portion you need to bear. You can't simply perceive life as a straightforward, trouble-free journey. In this respect, if you choose to be the one who creates history, you also need to bear the responsibilities of history. This might be how I would describe Binance ten years later: “We are not just starting a business; we are creating history.”

Our slogan has actually remained unchanged; it has always been “Exchange The World,” not just the largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the world.

When you look at it through a longer historical lens, you will realize that we are currently discussing how AI siphons off Crypto or the impact of AI on Crypto; all this is normal. Because the impact of AI is not only on Web3 and Crypto, but it is omnipresent and inevitable. However, the impact and transformation that Web3 brings to the entire financial system are also undeniably real. Many may say that you crypto folks ultimately still deal with transactions or finance; isn’t finance a significant industry? If we can enhance the efficiency of all finance just a little, that would indeed be remarkable innovation. There's no need to pursue a so-called all-or-nothing result; instead, progress each day, making slight improvements is sufficient.

Du Yu: The original intention is significant. While creating history, some may stray from this path, and you will find that few in this industry can persist for over a decade. In "Binance Life," I also noticed many frequently mentioned phrases; a specific media outlet even listed them, such as customer, integrity, etc. These truly stem from the heart’s desire to accomplish something in its entirety, a theme that runs throughout the book. Only when your original intention is correct, and you persist in doing the right thing, perhaps difficult but correct actions, will you achieve mighty success after five years, ten years, or even longer.

He Yi: When undertaking challenging yet correct actions, many will say that you all say such nice things, you’re not saints. We are naturally not saints. However, for both parties to win-win, the larger your platform and the more users there are, on that foundation, as the industry grows larger, we naturally will become a company with greater commercial value and public value. I do not believe in a purely zero-sum game; I believe that when what you are doing is valuable to society and people are willing to pay for it, you earn the money you should earn. This process is certainly a spiraling process, accompanied by controversy and pain. Yet, only that small group of individuals achieving financial freedom will then say, “I still want to see how far I can go.”

Du Yu: Today, many present are already engaged in Web3, and there’s an interesting phenomenon where many attendees come from various traditional industries; many have heard of Web3 but have never entered this industry. We will find many individuals from traditional mainstream industries. To those just beginning to explore or who are interested in Web3, if you were to share one insight that only those who have truly experienced this will understand, what would you say? What advice would you give to them?

He Yi: Let’s get down to some practical advice. Many friends enter the crypto space because someone told them a certain coin skyrocketed 10 times, so hurry up and buy. Warren Buffett’s value investment theory is indeed very applicable to any industry. If you don’t understand this field, simply buy the leading assets. Your choices don’t need to be complex; you just need to select some leading assets to kickstart your understanding of this industry.

I often say Bitcoin is the largest decentralized asset, while BNB is the largest centralized asset; under this logic, a small allocation can be made. However, many friends state that they came into the crypto space to “take a gamble, hoping a bike turns into a motorcycle.” In that case, you definitely need to manage your risks properly. I often say, don’t be afraid, but you must understand whether your decisions are like revolving doors or one-way doors. A revolving door means that after making a choice, even if you fail, you can still return to the original point; you either gain or learn. However, some choices, once made, leave no way back, so those should be approached with caution.

For example, I really wouldn’t recommend behavior like that of CZ, who sold his house to gamble.

Du Yu: The best way to understand an industry or a company is to buy its stock. I also tell my friends that they can try a little bit themselves; that’s how you really get the hang of things.

He Yi: A small allocation is fine; do more research; make fewer impulsive decisions.

Du Yu: AI is the same; you have to use it first to see its practicality; it’s not that deep.

He Yi: One concerns execution; the other is cognition. In the process of executing, iterate your understanding, but you must grasp whether your cost is controllable.

Du Yu: Due to time constraints, thank you, Sister Yi. We will end our discussion here. We look forward to having more engaging and deeper discussions with Sister Yi on the same stage next year. Thank you, Sister Yi, and thank you, everyone!

He Yi: Thank you, everyone!

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