Organization & Compilation: Shenchao TechFlow

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

Moderator: 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

Statement of Interests: CZ is the founder and major shareholder of Binance. The content of this issue involves the overall trend of the encryption industry and the development of the Binance platform, and the views inevitably include opinions.

Key points summary

Binance celebrates its ninth anniversary, and CZ accepted a brief interview with Talking Tokens at the Binance event. He reviewed the rough state of the exchange industry when he started his business in 2017, and admitted that his biggest blind spots at the time were legal compliance and international politics. Binance ranked first in the world within five months of its launch. CZ attributed this to product experience, user protection and luck in catching up with the ICO wave.

The most forward-thinking part of the interview is the intersection of AI and encryption. CZ believes that AI agents will start completing payments for humans within months (not years), and that cryptocurrency is the "native currency" of AI agents. He also believes that crypto penetration is less than 1% by wealth and that the biggest misunderstanding in the industry is that crypto is a speculative asset rather than the underlying technology. After retiring as CEO, CZ admitted that he missed the rise of stablecoins and is now spending a lot of time studying RWA and tokenization.

Summary of highlights

About entrepreneurship review

• "I would tell my younger self: spend more time studying compliance and studying politics. Before 2017, I was just a technical person, focusing on making products and protecting users, but I underestimated the importance of the legal aspect."
• "The second suggestion is to run faster. Binance's futures contract was launched two years after it was launched. If I had to do it again, I would do it much earlier."
• "We were number one in the world in the first five months, and we have stayed at this position every day since then."

About the Community

• "Be kind to your community and they will follow you to the ends of the earth."
• "Companies will come under regulatory, legal, and geopolitical attack, and the community is almost immune to these. The community will even fight back on your behalf."

About encryption awareness

• "People treat encryption as a speculative asset and always think about when to exit. You will not exit the Internet, you will not exit AI. The same is true for encryption, it is a technology."
• "Crypto penetration is probably less than 1% by wealth. The market is far from saturated."

About AI × Encryption

• "Sooner or later, AI will process payments for us. Right now, AI can search for the best hotels and flights, but it can't yet place a reservation for you. This capability will come in a few months, not a few years. 2"
• "Once the AI starts trading, it will need a native currency. Credit cards are too clumsy, cryptocurrencies are the natural choice."
• "Encrypted payment is the biggest unlocking point for AI. Others, like training data verification, are still far away."

About security

• "AI will completely change the security landscape. It can find loopholes and is useful to both developers and hackers. There will be some attacks in the short term, but in the long term the system will become more secure."
• "The latest Anthropic's Methuselah model is extremely powerful, and I hope there will be a version soon that developers can use to harden their systems."

About financial integration

• "There should be no difference between crypto finance and traditional finance. Just like you wouldn't say that postal and email are two systems, there is only one financial system in the end."
• "What country doesn't want its stock market to be open to the world? Tokenization is only a matter of time."

Text

Nine-year review: Exchanges did not do well enough in 2017

Jacquelyn Melinek: This year marks Binance’s ninth anniversary. You also worked at major exchanges before starting Binance. Looking back at the market in 2017 and your situation at that time, do you think there were any problems in the exchange industry that no one could solve at that time, so you had to do it yourself?

CZ: Before I started my business, I spent my entire career working on order execution and exchange systems. Looking at the exchange industry in 2017, I think the products can be better, the technology can be better, the matching engine can be faster, the security can be higher, and the customer service can be better. Exchanges back then didn’t really put users first. I think there is definitely room for improvement. Of course, we were also lucky enough to catch up with the ICO craze and take advantage of that wave of market prices.

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

CZ: Laugh. It’s different. Much older, but not necessarily wiser. Been through more challenges, let’s put it that way. A lot has happened in nine years, and my mentality and body are all different.

Jacquelyn Melinek: If you could give one piece of advice to yourself in 2017, what would you say?

CZ: Knowing what I know now, I would tell my younger self: spend more time studying legal compliance and politics. Before 2017, I was a technical person, focusing on building products and protecting users, but I underestimated the importance of the legal aspect. I don’t know enough about international law to know that some U.S. laws have global jurisdiction and have a long retroactive period. This is the first advice I give myself.

The second tip is to run faster. There were many products that I hesitated to launch at the time. Looking back, entrepreneurs should launch products into the market as early as possible to get feedback. For example, Binance’s futures contract was launched two years after its launch. If I could do it over again, I would have launched it much earlier.

Five months to the top: product, mission and a little luck

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

CZ: First year. We were number one in the world in the first five months, and we have stayed at this position every day since then.

Jacquelyn Melinek: It’s easy to get to the top, but difficult to hold on. To what do you attribute this?

CZ: There are many factors that contribute to a company’s success. The product must be good, the customer service must be good, and more importantly, it must have a mission. Our mission is to increase monetary freedom, and one of our core values ​​is protecting users. Protecting our users has helped us maintain our position after becoming number one.

Of course there was an element of luck in 2017. That year was the first year of ICO. We were a new exchange and natively supported ICO listing quickly. Most other exchanges were still Bitcoin exchanges, and some of the largest exchanges in the United States did not even list Ethereum at the time. We have caught up with the turning point of the industry. But competition was fierce, with Bittrex and Poloniex both giants at the time. We have good products and services, as well as good user protection, all of which are indispensable.

Communities are more resilient than companies

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

CZ: Nine years ago, encryption was still a very niche industry. When we started, Bitcoin was about two to three thousand dollars. The user base is small but very loyal, early adopters and know the product inside and out. They know we protect them, so they follow their heart and follow their money.

As the community grows, Binance has always taken practical actions to protect users. Many volunteers contribute to the Binance ecosystem, some are called Binance Angels, and some do not even have official titles. The entire platform is truly community-driven, and that’s what “Built by You” is all about.

Jacquelyn Melinek: You said that communities are sometimes more resilient than companies. What can communities do that companies can’t?

CZ: If you treat your community well, they will follow you to the ends of the earth. Companies will be subject to various attacks, especially centralized companies, and regulation, law, and geopolitics will all come to their doorstep. Thecommunity is almost immune to this attack because it is distributed and, in our case, worldwide. It's difficult to launch an effective attack against a globally distributed community. The community will also fight back on your behalf, and its voice on social media is often louder than that of mainstream media. Communities have tremendous power that can be mobilized.

Crypto penetration rate is less than 1%: The biggest misunderstanding is to treat technology as speculation

Jacquelyn Melinek: In today’s market, what can we do to create a product that keeps users coming back again and again?

CZ: Products in any industry can be improved. Today's fiat currency deposit and withdrawal channels still have high friction. Whoever can achieve lower fees, lower friction, and cover more areas will have an advantage.

The same goes for stablecoins. The most popular ones do not give users interest, and those that do give interest are not easy to trade. If there were a stablecoin that both gave good interest and could be traded freely, that would be an improvement. RWA tokenization is still very new, there are only a few stocks that are truly tokenized, and they are US-centric. Why don’t other countries want to tokenize their stock markets so that the whole world can participate? Crypto penetration is probably less than 1% by wealth. 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 yet. What do you think is the biggest misunderstanding about mainstream implementation in the industry?

CZ: Many people treat crypto as a speculative asset rather than the underlying technology. When I buy Bitcoin, I think about when to quit. You’re not exiting the internet, you’re not exiting AI. The same goes for encryption, it's a technology. Crypto-blockchain is here to stay and is one of the three fundamental technologies in my life, the other two being the Internet and AI. I advise people to look at projects with a long-term perspective.

AI proxy payment: coming in a few months

Jacquelyn Melinek: Where will the two worlds of AI and encryption really intersect?

CZ: Sooner or later AI will process payments for us. Now AI can help you search for the best hotels and flights, but it can’t place the order for you. This ability will come within months, definitely not years. Once AI starts trading for people, it will need a native currency. Credit cards are too clumsy, cryptocurrencies are the natural choice.

Traditional fiat currency payments are fine in the home country, but cross-global payments are very poor. You will see more and more global citizens who need to pay people on the other side of the world and book tickets in different regions. Encrypted payments are much more convenient. Crypto payments are the biggest unlocking point for AI. Others like blockchain used for training data verification are still far away. AI companies are big, profitable and highly valued, so they won’t care too much about decentralization for the time being.

Jacquelyn Melinek: Do you think crypto payments are a thing in the near future, or three to five years from now?

CZ: I guess one to two years. Once people start using AI to pay with crypto, they will find that it is much faster. And there is a high degree of overlap between early adopters in the crypto community and early adopters of AI.

AI changes the security landscape: Use the strongest model to strengthen the system

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

CZ: I think of AI like the Internet. Can you say that you don’t use the Internet? That's probably not a good idea. Every company and every person should use AI to its full potential, but not abuse it. AI is very good at helping people write code, check errors, and do code analysis. It is also very useful in design and video. But don’t let AI do everything. We live in a human world, and people still want human touch. AI is good at creativity, but humans are still stronger in raw creativity.

Jacquelyn Melinek: Beyond payments, where will AI change crypto?

CZ: AI will revolutionize the security landscape. AI is very good at finding loopholes, and developers can use it to quickly discover system weaknesses. The latest Methuselah model from Anthropic is extremely powerful and I hope there will be a version soon that developers can use to harden their systems. There may be some hacking incidents in the short term, but the system will be much more secure in the long term.

In addition, the throughput of the blockchain is not enough, and a faster and larger capacity chain is needed 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 into a more digital world, ten or even a hundred times deeper than the Internet has achieved. The more digital it becomes, the greater the need for digital currencies. The concept of paper money is obsolete, and AI will push us past that tipping point.

The perspective of retirement: Missed the stablecoin, now focus on RWA

Jacquelyn Melinek: You stepped down from CEO to your current role. Did you find anything different about the industry after you stepped down?

CZ: The perspective is indeed different. When I was CEO, everything revolved around Binance. There were twenty-five meetings every day, and various problems kept popping up. My vision was actually very narrow. Now that I am forced to take a step back, I can look at the industry as a whole. Have time to learn new things, learn AI, learn biotechnology, and gain a deeper understanding of new directions in the field of encryption.

I actually missed stablecoins when I was a CEO. At the time, I thought stablecoins were just a transitional technology, used to bridge exchanges. As a result it got bigger. Now I spend a lot of time looking at RWA and tokenization, and I am also advising the government in this regard. To be honest, quitting will make you learn new things faster.

If you start from scratch: you will still do exchanges

Jacquelyn Melinek: If you were to start from scratch today, without Binance, without reputation, and only with your experience, what would you choose to do?

CZ: If I want to build something new, I can only choose what I know. My experience only points in one direction: doing exchanges. laugh. I always tell people to find the intersection of what you are good at, what you are interested in, and what is valuable to others. 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 the trading ecosystem will eventually merge into one?

CZ: Definitely. 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 the postal service to send messages. Cryptoblockchain is just a new technology for the financial system. Because it is new, it has formed a segment first, but integration is already happening. Stocks are tokenized on the chain, and traditional banks and financial institutions are also using blockchain. Ultimately there will be no two parallel lines, just one financial system.

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

CZ: Thank you, thank you for the invitation.