Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao commented on the state of the crypto industry and market during an interview with Bankless on May 29.
Zhao expels FUD
First, Zhao discussed the recent controversies surrounding his company. Binance has recently attempted to refute reports from Forbes, the Financial Times and Reuters on issues such as alleged misuse of funds and alleged ties to China.
Zhao suggested that mainstream news sources tend to report negatively on cryptocurrency and that Binance specifically attracts FUD due to its large size. He said:
“If you write a negative article about a smaller exchange, nobody cares… but if… you put Binance’s name in the title, and hopefully something negative, people will click more.”
Zhao also stated that his ethnicity makes him a target. Zhao, although born in China, is a Canadian national. Although Binance itself was founded in China, due to regulations it no longer operates in the country and insists it has relocated Chinese staff.
Zhao said Binance aims to be “as transparent as possible” despite FUD and said Binance is currently providing proof-of-reserve reports.
He acknowledged that there are limits to transparency. He argued that if Binance disclosed all of its own wallet addresses, it would reveal Binance’s suppliers and partners, compromising privacy and security and impacting competition.
CZ on global regulations
Zhao said Binance is dealing with global regulation. He said again that due to its size, regulators were putting Binance “under the microscope” to a greater extent.
However, he also suggested that the crypto sector is becoming less competitive and more cooperative when it comes to regulation. He said companies like Coinbase and Kraken are working with regulators, and he said collective engagement could redistribute Binance’s need to deal with regulators to other companies.
More broadly, Zhao said the Middle East and Europe are currently implementing the most promising crypto regulations. Zhao said in a previous AMA discussion that his company has a growing presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Zhao also noted that Binance at one point considered acquiring a bank, but found that doing so would require extensive compliance with local regulations. He also said that banks are very expensive, high risk and often not very profitable.
Zhao about the state of the market
Zhao also commented on the current state of the cryptocurrency market. He said the market is recovering from the 2022 bear market. Zhao said this gives the market a “mixed mood” as it is unclear what will drive the “explosive growth” going forward:
What will drive next [cycle]? … that’s what everyone is looking for right now … and if we’re not sure, this is probably why a lot of people are stacking memecoins … it shows that there are funds out there ready to be deployed.
Zhao acknowledged that he was wrong about positive trends and later gave advice to investors who started investing in crypto during a market downturn.
He said those investing during a bull market should only invest in what they feel comfortable losing and not look for overinvestments. Zhao said he “learned this lesson the hard way” when he first started investing in stocks and crypto.