Binance Founder CZ Sees Major Changes Ahead For Crypto

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said crypto may be entering a new phase shaped by AI agents, tokenized real-world assets, stablecoin competition and a more favorable regulatory backdrop in the United States. Speaking on ARK Invest’s FYI podcast with Cathie Wood and Lorenzo Valente, CZ argued that the industry is moving faster than many traditional financial firms may be prepared for.

CZ said some parts of crypto have developed differently than he expected. Payments, in his view, have been slower to reach mainstream use, even as crypto cards have made digital assets easier to spend indirectly. By contrast, institutional participation in the US has accelerated faster than expected, helped by what he described as a “180 degree turn” in the country’s crypto stance.

“I was very surprised by the 180 degree turn in the US,” CZ said. “I think this speaks to the strength of the constitution, right? So you can change presidents every four years and then even if there’s a period where there’s a suppressive regime, you can change pretty quickly.”

He argued that the previous US regulatory environment pushed many builders away from utility-focused applications and toward memecoins, leaving the market with fewer strong new crypto products than he would have expected. With a more pro-crypto policy backdrop, he said the industry could begin filling that gap.

AI Agents And Stablecoins Could Drive New Crypto Demand

One of CZ’s strongest claims centered on the overlap between crypto and artificial intelligence. He said AI agents are likely to transact far more frequently than humans and will naturally favor crypto rails over slower traditional systems.

“AI agents are going to transact 10,000 times more transactions than humans can do,” CZ said. “And AI is going to use crypto. They’re not going to use Swift or Visa cards.”

He also said AI could accelerate crypto development itself, from application design to wallet security and blockchain performance. While he stopped short of saying AI can already replace developers entirely, he said the technology can “assist dramatically in the speed of writing code.”

Stablecoins were another area where CZ said the market exceeded his early expectations. He described them as initially appearing to be a temporary bridge for traders seeking fiat-pegged value during volatile periods. Instead, stablecoins have become one of the central components of crypto market structure.

CZ said he personally believes stablecoin issuers should be able to pass yield to users, though he acknowledged regulatory resistance in some markets. He also argued that stablecoin issuers and crypto exchanges should preserve one-to-one reserves rather than replicate the fractional-reserve model used by banks.