Organized & Compiled: Deep Tide TechFlow

Guest: CZ (Changpeng Zhao), 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 crypto industry and the development of the Binance platform, and his views inevitably carry a position.

Key Points Summary

Binance celebrates its ninth anniversary, and CZ participated in a brief interview with Talking Tokens at the Binance event site. He reflected on the rough state of the exchange industry when he started in 2017, admitting that his biggest blind spot at the time was legal compliance and international politics. Binance reached the top globally just five months after its launch, which CZ attributes to product experience, user protection, and luck in riding the ICO wave.

The most forward-looking part of the interview concerns the intersection of AI and crypto. CZ predicts that AI agents will begin completing payments for humans within months (rather than years), and cryptocurrencies are the "native currency" for AI agents. He also believes that crypto penetration is less than 1% when calculated by wealth, and the biggest misunderstanding in the industry is treating crypto as a speculative asset rather than a foundational technology. After stepping down from the CEO position, CZ admitted he missed the rise of stablecoins, and is now spending considerable time studying RWA and tokenization.

Highlights of Key Opinions

On Entrepreneurial Reflection

• "I would tell my younger self: Spend more time learning compliance, learning politics. Before 2017, I was just a tech person focused on product and user protection, but I underestimated the importance of legal matters."
• "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 do it much earlier."
• "We reached the number one position globally within the first five months and maintained that position every day thereafter."

On Community

• "If you treat the community well, they will follow you to the ends of the earth."
• "Companies face regulatory, legal, and geopolitical attacks, and the community is almost immune to these. The community can even fight back for you."

On Crypto Cognition

• "People view crypto as a speculative asset, always thinking about when to exit. You will not exit the internet, will not exit AI. Crypto is the same; it is a technology."
• "When calculated by wealth, crypto penetration is probably less than 1%. The market is far from saturated."

On AI × Crypto

• "AI will eventually handle payments for us. Currently, AI can search for the best hotels and flights but cannot place orders for you. This capability will arrive within months, absolutely no need to wait years."
• "Once AI starts trading, it will need a native currency. Using a credit card is too clumsy; cryptocurrency is a natural choice."
• "Crypto payments are the biggest unlocking point for AI. Other uses like training data verification are still far away."

On Security

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

On Financial Integration

• "There should be no distinction between crypto finance and traditional finance. Just like you wouldn't say that postal and email are two separate systems, ultimately there will only be one financial system."
• "Which country does not want its stock market to be open to the world? Tokenization is just a matter of time."

Main Text

Nine Years Retrospective: The Exchanges of 2017 Did Not 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 2017 market and your own state at that time, what problems in the exchange industry do you think were not well solved by others that made you feel the need to do it yourself?

CZ: Before I started my own business, my entire career was focused on order execution and exchange systems. Looking at the exchange industry in 2017, I felt the product could be better, the technology could be better, the matching engine could be faster, security could be higher, and customer service could be more complete. Exchanges at that time did not truly place users first. I felt there was definitely room for improvement. Of course, we were also lucky to catch the wave of ICOs and benefited from that trend.

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

CZ: (laughs) Not really. I have aged a lot, but I may not be any smarter. I've experienced more challenges, let's put it that way. A lot has happened in nine years, and both my mindset and my body are different now.

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

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 and user protection, but I underestimated the importance of legal aspects. I also didn't understand international law well enough, and I didn't know that some US laws have global jurisdiction and a long statute of limitations. This is my first piece of advice.

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

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. We achieved global number one in the first five months and maintained that position every day thereafter.

Jacquelyn Melinek: Reaching the peak is easy; maintaining it is difficult. What do you attribute this to?

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

Of course, there was also an element of luck in 2017. That year was the genesis of ICOs, and as a new exchange, we quickly supported ICO tokens. Most other exchanges were still Bitcoin exchanges; some of the largest exchanges in the US hadn't even listed Ethereum at that time. We caught the turning point of the industry. But competition was fierce; Bittrex and Poloniex were major players at the time. We had great products and services, plus strong user protection, all of which were indispensable.

Community More Resilient than 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, crypto 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 out. They knew we protected them, so they followed their heart and their money.

As the community grew, Binance consistently protected users with practical actions. Many volunteers contribute to the Binance ecosystem, some are called Binance Angels, while others don't even have formal titles. The whole platform is truly community-driven; "Built by You" is exactly what that means.

Jacquelyn Melinek: You've said that sometimes the community is more resilient than the company. What can the community do that companies cannot?

CZ: If you treat the community well, they will follow you to the ends of the earth. Companies face various attacks, especially centralized ones; regulatory, legal, and geopolitical issues can all come knocking. The community is almost immune to these attacks because it is distributed, and in our case, it is global. It is difficult to launch an effective attack against a globally distributed community. The community can also fight back for you; the volume on social media is often larger than that of mainstream media. The community has immense power that can be mobilized.

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

Jacquelyn Melinek: In today's market, what can make a product that keeps users coming back?

CZ: Products in any industry can be improved. Today, friction in fiat on- and off-ramps is still very high. Whoever can achieve lower fees, lower friction, and cover more areas will have an advantage.

Stablecoins are also a case in point; the most popular ones do not provide interest to users, and those that do are hard to trade. If there is a stablecoin that offers good interest and can be freely traded, that would be a point of improvement. RWA tokenization is still very new; there are only a few stocks that are genuinely tokenized, and they are centered around the US. Why wouldn't other countries want to tokenize their stock markets so that the world can participate? When calculated by wealth, crypto penetration is probably less than 1%. We are still in the early stages.

Jacquelyn Melinek: We have talked about "the next billion users" for many years, but 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 crypto as a speculative asset rather than a foundational technology. They buy Bitcoin and are always thinking about when to exit. You will not exit the internet, will not exit AI. Crypto is the same; it is a technology. Crypto blockchain will remain; it is one of the three foundational technologies in my life, the other two being the internet and AI. I advise people to look at projects from a long-term perspective.

AI Agent Payments: Will Arrive Within Months

Jacquelyn Melinek: Where will the two worlds of AI and crypto truly intersect?

CZ: AI will eventually handle payments for us. Currently, AI can help you search for the best hotels and flights but cannot place orders for you. This capability will arrive within months; absolutely no need to wait years. Once AI starts trading for humans, it will need a native currency. Using a credit card is too clumsy, cryptocurrency is a natural choice.

Traditional fiat payments work okay within their own countries, but they perform poorly in global payments. You will see more and more global citizens who need to pay people on the other side of the planet and book tickets in different regions; crypto payments are much more convenient. Crypto payments are the biggest unlocking point for AI. Other uses, like blockchain for training data verification, are still far away; AI companies are large, profitable, and highly valued, and they will not be too concerned with decentralization for now.

Jacquelyn Melinek: Do you think crypto payments are something that will happen soon, or will it be three to five years later?

CZ: I guess one to two years. Once people start using AI for crypto payments, they will find it much faster. Moreover, the early adopters in the crypto space and the early adopters in AI overlap significantly.

AI Changes the Security Landscape: Using the Strongest Models to Strengthen Systems

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

CZ: I see AI as akin to the internet. Can you say you don't use the internet? That probably isn't a good idea. Every company and every person should use AI to the fullest but should not abuse it. AI excels at helping people write code, debug, and conduct code analysis; it is also very useful in design and video. But we shouldn't let AI do everything; we live in a human world and still want a human touch. AI is good in terms of creativity, but raw creativity is still stronger in humans.

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

CZ: AI will fundamentally change the security landscape. AI is very good at finding vulnerabilities, and developers can use it to quickly identify system weaknesses. The latest Anthropic's Methuselah model is extremely powerful, and I hope to have a version available soon for developers to use to enhance systems. In the short term, there may be some hacking incidents, but looking long-term, the system will be much more secure.

Additionally, the throughput of blockchain is still insufficient; we need faster and larger-capacity chains to reduce usage costs. AI will play an important role in accelerating this development. There is also a more fundamental trend: AI will drive us toward a more digital world, going tenfold or even a hundredfold deeper than what the internet achieved. The more digital it becomes, the more we need digital currencies. The concept of paper currency has become obsolete, and AI will push us past that critical point.

Stepping Back Perspective: Missed Stablecoins, Now Focused on RWA

Jacquelyn Melinek: Your role has shifted from CEO to your current position; have you made any different discoveries about the industry after stepping down?

CZ: The perspective is indeed different. When I was CEO, everything revolved around Binance; there were twenty-five meetings a day, and numerous problems erupted. My vision was actually quite narrow. Now, forced to take a step back, I can view the entire industry. I have time to learn new things, study AI, and explore biotechnology, allowing for a deeper understanding of new directions in the crypto space.

When I was CEO, I actually missed the rise of stablecoins. At that time, I thought stablecoins were just a transitional technology used to bridge exchanges. But it grew significantly. Now I spend a lot of time looking at RWA and tokenization, also advising governments in this area. Honestly, stepping back has allowed me to learn new things faster.

If Starting from Scratch: I Would Still Build an Exchange

Jacquelyn Melinek: If you started from scratch today, with no Binance and no reputation, only your experience, what would you choose to do?

CZ: If I were to create something new, I can only choose what I understand. My experience points in only one direction: building an exchange. (laughs) I always tell people to find where they excel, what they are interested in, and what adds value to others—those three intersections. What I excel 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 eventually merge into one?

CZ: They definitely will. There should be no distinction between crypto finance and traditional finance. Just like you wouldn't say that postal and email are two parallel systems. Today, most people no longer use postal services for messaging. Crypto blockchain is merely a new technology within the financial system. Because it is new, it formed a niche initially, but integration is already happening. Stocks are being tokenized on-chain, 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: CZ, thank you very much for your time, and congratulations to the Binance team on your ninth anniversary.

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