CZ Dubai Q&A full text: I actually cried when I stepped down as Binance CEO

At the 2025 Binance Blockchain Week held in Dubai on December 3–4, Binance founder CZ participated in a group interview. The Q&A covered topics such as crypto payments, digital asset treasuries, US policies, Giggle Academy, life ambitions, and more. CZ believes that payments remain an unsolved core use case, and future successful Web3 founders need to focus on product and user-centricity with a long-term mindset. The DAT model is feasible but its risks depend on the management team. The reopening of US regulations will present huge opportunities for the industry. Mainstream adoption of crypto technology depends on regulatory clarity, infrastructure, and enterprise-level integration. Crypto has significantly improved financial accessibility in developing countries, and education, philanthropy, and ecosystem development are his future personal priorities.

This content reflects the personal opinions of the guest and does not represent Wu’s views. The audio transcript was generated by GPT and may contain errors.

Why has the crypto industry still not fully solved the “payment” problem?

CZ: I think payments are still the most obvious yet unresolved core scenario. Bitcoin’s white paper defined it as an “electronic cash payment system.” Over the years, countless teams have attempted crypto payments, but we still haven’t perfected it.

There are projects like Binance Pay, BitPay, etc., but the “chicken or egg” problem persists. First is the price volatility — Bitcoin and most crypto assets are too volatile. While stablecoins exist now, ideally, users should be able to pay directly with crypto. But due to various factors, crypto payments still haven’t become mainstream offline.

A viable approach is integrating crypto payments into traditional payment systems, like Binance Card. These cards are popular because: when users pay with a card, merchants see fiat in their accounts, while behind the scenes, the user pays with crypto, and the entire crypto-to-fiat exchange process is seamless. Unfortunately, during the Biden administration’s tightening regulations, most of our Binance Card projects had to be halted. But the situation is improving, and we hope these solutions will regain popularity in the coming years.

In summary, despite various technical paths, “payment” remains one of the biggest unresolved challenges in crypto.

What was Binance’s original vision? How has it evolved over time?

CZ: Predicting the future is really hard. When we founded Binance, I set a goal to be among the top ten exchanges globally within three years, and we became number one in just five months.

Initially, we considered setting up an offline office, but quickly realized it wasn’t a good idea. So we tried to make Binance a “decentralized company”—no headquarters, no fixed office. But then we realized this caused issues with regulators, who need to know where a company is registered. So we had to pivot.

External forces have always pushed us forward and forced us to change direction. Looking back now, centralized exchanges must be fully regulated entities with clear headquarters and physical locations. Meanwhile, on-chain solutions are becoming increasingly popular. I believe that in the long run, both centralized and decentralized forms will coexist.

If I could go back, on the second attempt, I might have a clearer view of the path.

In the next cycle, what kind of founders will stand out?

CZ: That’s a big question, but I think the most critical trait is “product-oriented”—those who genuinely focus on building products and creating things users will actually use, and who truly understand their users will be the ones who endure. Mission-driven founders with strong values will also continue to exist.

The crypto industry is inherently volatile. We might currently be in a bull market, but bear markets will come again, then another bull, and so on. Regulatory environments in different countries will continually shift—sometimes favorably, sometimes with crackdowns—these are cyclical swings. Founders who can navigate these cycles and persist are the ones who will ultimately succeed.

In summary, those who build real products, focus on users, and are prepared for long-term commitment will be the most successful.

If you could make a wish, what would you most want?

CZ: I’d be very content with just one wish (laughs). Honestly, I don’t have many wishes. Life is interesting because it’s full of unknowns. When you don’t know what will happen next, you’re motivated to work hard, strive, and learn to face uncertainty.

Like playing a game, if you’re told you will definitely win from the start, it’s not fun. The real meaning of the game lies in the struggles, careful responses, collaboration, and doing things well. Challenges in life are part of the joy.

The only real hope I have is that everyone stays healthy. Health is the most important, and even if you maintain good habits, it’s not entirely within your control. Health truly is critical.

Beyond that, I think the world is already fascinating enough. I also believe that because life isn’t infinite, it makes us cherish it more. If you could live forever, time would become less meaningful, and life wouldn’t be as precious.

When you might lose something, you truly understand its value. So I don’t have many special wishes; I feel very fortunate already. The only thing I ask for is not to fall into prolonged bad luck. Other than that, I’m quite satisfied with my current life.

Is the DAT (Digital Asset Treasury) model sustainable?

CZ: First, I believe the DAT model’s underlying logic is sound. It allows traditional companies—especially those that are not yet able to directly buy large amounts of crypto—to access and hold crypto assets. Many companies, many CFOs are allowed to buy stocks with company treasuries, but there’s no mechanism for purchasing tokens, so DAT fills that gap.

However, there are many different implementations of DAT. MicroStrategy’s success has inspired others to copy its model. But just because one internet company succeeds doesn’t mean all can manage it effectively. Management fee structures vary, but I prefer lower fees and simpler structures.

MicroStrategy’s approach is straightforward: buy Bitcoin. BNB’s treasury, if managed well with Launchpad, Launchpool, airdrops, etc., can generate quite substantial yields (10–50% annualized), which is very high compared to traditional stock markets.

Some aim to do it “more complex” or “more valuable,” like allocating 10% of the treasury to invest in various crypto assets. That becomes a different business altogether, requiring professional asset management skills. Different portfolios carry different risk profiles; the level of risk depends on the management team’s expertise.

The industry shows great variance. DAT is not risk-free; it involves significant risks, heavily reliant on management quality, governance, and investment philosophy. Fundamentally, it’s reasonable for a publicly listed company to buy top-tier crypto assets and hold long-term for appreciation. Simply executing this can create enormous value.

In my view, holding Bitcoin long-term is one of the best strategies. Its 10-15 year returns have beaten 99% of startups and most other investment strategies. Even a public company simply doing “buy and hold” can generate significant value over time. The model itself is feasible—execution and management are key.

Of course, when a narrative becomes popular, it can lead to overhype. Many rush to establish DATs, leading to market overcrowding, some failing or being淘汰. After the initial hype, only the well-managed, steady ones will continue to grow.

Will the US become Binance’s key market after Trump’s pardon?

CZ: First, I have no private dealings with Trump’s family. But I am very grateful for the presidential pardon because it allows me and our team to operate more freely worldwide—including in the US. Honestly, I hope to help make the US a global crypto capital.

For us, the US is now more like an “emerging market.” Over the past few years, under regulatory pressure from the previous administration, we pulled back as much as possible: avoiding US users, not investing in the US, withdrawing where we can. Binance US still exists but on a very small scale. When SEC sued it in 2023, it had about 35% market share; now it’s close to zero.

Back then, banking access was blocked, and state licenses limited us. But now, as I understand, the US market has fully reopened. The US is an extremely important market—leading in tech, AI talent, etc.—but in blockchain, the biggest companies are currently not in the US. I hope to promote more crypto business back into the US.

Many US investors, especially institutions, lack exposure and channels to invest in BNB ecosystem. We also want to change that. Everything is moving toward openness. I fully intend to support the US crypto industry—through investments, helping startups, and integrating more projects into the BNB Chain ecosystem.

How do you maintain mental health amidst public opinion pressure and negative media?

CZ: Honestly, it’s not that hard for me. I know Binance—both the platform and the ecosystem—has genuinely helped hundreds of millions worldwide, especially those in remote areas with almost no access to financial services.

Although mainstream media often report negatively or make accusations, I also receive many thank-you letters. When I appeared in court, I got about 230 supportive letters. Reading those nearly made me cry—because we have changed many lives, and those are just a tiny fraction of the people we’ve helped. Public opinion is always two-sided.

For “black” online comments, I roughly categorize into two types:

First are mainstream media pushing anti-crypto narratives: “Crypto is dangerous,” “Bitcoin is used for illegal activities,” etc. These mostly come from traditional institutions afraid of new tech. In the US—though I don’t involve myself in politics—some Democrats like Elizabeth Warren have been attacking crypto. I don’t understand why, since most Americans support crypto. That’s the first group.

The second is traders who lose money. When they profit, everything’s fine; when they lose, they blame others. I understand their frustration, but investing always carries risk. No exchange can guarantee you’ll always make money. Stocks, startups, any investment involves risk; not investing is also risky—perhaps you’ll never accumulate wealth. Life is about trade-offs.

Once you understand these basic principles, maintaining a good attitude becomes easier. I’ve been through a lot—including jail time. But I know no users were harmed, there was no fraud, no misconduct. I take full responsibility for my actions. That’s why I can sleep peacefully, knowing I genuinely helped many.

Over time, you learn to filter out meaningless noise. But I do pay attention to “constructive negative feedback”—like suggestions on improving products, collaborating with partners, or features that need enhancement. These help us improve. As for purely complaining or unconstructive comments, I just treat them as background noise.

What does it take for crypto to truly achieve mainstream adoption?

CZ: I think it’s a gradual process. “Mainstream adoption” really means enabling traditional financial users to naturally use crypto tech. The first step is clear regulation. Many countries still lack a comprehensive regulatory framework. I personally work with over a dozen countries, helping governments—including Kenya, Pakistan, Thailand—to review laws and even run workshops explaining how exchanges operate, how crypto works, and industry mechanisms.

I also serve as an advisor to several countries. But currently, only a few have clear, forward-looking regulations. The US is starting to lead, which is a good sign, but it’s still early. Trump was in office for just a year when the “Genius Act” passed, and the “Clarity Act” is still progressing. Regulatory frameworks often need time to iterate.

Once regulations are in place, banks need to start cooperating with crypto businesses. Crypto isn’t magic—it’s just new technology. For scale adoption, integration with existing financial systems is essential.

There are many practical issues to resolve:

· How should companies hold crypto assets?

· How to handle cross-border taxes?

· How to report crypto holdings in financial statements?

· How should auditors verify these assets?

Standardization is needed, but it’s not particularly difficult—just requires time and coordination.

Currently, crypto-native financial products are severely lacking. The entire industry is about $3–4 trillion now, but long-term, it should reach hundreds of trillions of dollars. The space is still very early. Payments need to mature, and more financial products must be built.

Any new tech takes time to mainstream. In 1995, people envisioned video conferencing and VR meetings, but VR meetings are still not widespread, and video calls still have “can you hear me?” or “can you see me?” issues. Maturity often takes decades.

Crypto’s disruptive potential is even greater, so it might take longer—perhaps generations. But ultimately, it will happen.

How can crypto technology bring real value to emerging markets?

CZ: I think developing countries have more opportunities. Many places lack mature financial infrastructure. For example, in some African countries, bank account penetration is below 11%. But smartphone adoption is very rapid—50%, 60%, even 70%. This creates a perfect environment: people can download an app and immediately access financial services. In many places, even basic payment networks are absent.

I received a letter from someone in 2017, saying it took three days to pay a bill, walking from a village to another town. After adopting crypto, it only takes three minutes. He saves three days each month. Plus, he can access new asset classes, even with a small investment. He started with $50, then $300, then $1,000. For someone in a very poor country, a few hundred dollars is a huge improvement. His life changed significantly; he wrote me a very touching letter.

In many developing countries, local currencies are unstable, with inflation or hyperinflation common. Bitcoin and stablecoins offer them a hedge. Some countries don’t have their own currencies and only use dollars. When the Fed conducts quantitative easing, these countries don’t get new money; they are passively diluted. So, crypto might actually be a better choice for these regions.

Another characteristic of developing countries is their young population. Young people naturally love crypto. For instance, Pakistan, which I’ve worked with, has an average age of only 25. Young, open-minded, and genuinely interested in crypto. Governments are starting to realize “people want this, so we should go where the trend is.”

Ultimately, it depends on the leadership of each country. If leaders are open and willing to seek the best path for their nation, I strongly encourage them to embrace crypto. We’re happy to help.

How is Giggle Academy progressing in promoting free education?

CZ: First, it’s not a commercial project—it’s a completely free educational platform. I just had a meeting with the team this morning. Giggle Academy currently serves about 88,000 children, with 3,000–4,000 new students weekly, growing rapidly.

The platform has roughly 300 courses and 2,000–3,000 storybooks. Most content is in English, recently adding some basic Arabic. The storybooks are available in 30–40 languages via AI translation. The team is continuously expanding content and improving interactivity.

AI interaction is still weak, especially speech recognition for kids speaking, which isn’t ideal yet. The team is working on this. Currently, about 60 full-time staff and several hundred content contributors are involved. For the first 8–9 months, I funded it personally.

Later, we designed a donation system. Someone created a meme coin to support the project, which quickly raised about $11 million in donations for Giggle Academy. We’re planning how to use these funds to scale further.

Overall, Giggle Academy is doing very well. It’s not a business— all content is free. If your child is between 2–6 years old, give it a try. Kids keep coming back; it’s very engaging. They learn vocabulary, phonics, concepts, through play.

Next, we want to expand to more languages. We start with English, but found that simply translating content isn’t enough—each language needs to be redesigned to suit its audience. So, we’ll rebuild courses from scratch for each language.

In Abu Dhabi, local leaders are very interested and want us to deploy it in kindergartens. They’re even willing to fund the expansion, but we told them that funding isn’t the main challenge—scaling and deployment are.

We also want to add Korean soon, depending on our course production capacity. Long-term, I hope to develop tools enabling anyone to create courses—UGC for education. But making engaging, high-quality, focused content for kids is very difficult. We’re constantly optimizing with AI.

This is truly a passion project for me. I dedicate a few hours weekly to work with the team, which is full-time on this.

What social causes and community projects will you focus on in the future?

CZ: First, I believe money isn’t just for hoarding—it’s a tool for action. Money allows us to promote meaningful things. Currently, my main philanthropic focus is education. Honestly, I haven’t spent much personally—supporting a team of 60 at Giggle Academy has cost around $1–2 million. Later, the community donated about $11 million, but that’s not my money; it’s all for the platform. If you’re doing something truly valuable, fundraising is not hard.

As for my own wealth, I’m exploring more effective ways to deploy it. When leading Binance, we had a full charity team I could rely on. Now, I don’t have that team, so I consider rebuilding—probably a small team of one or two people focused on different causes.

I’ve met very interesting people. For example, I met Bill McGlashan yesterday—he was a senior VC executive and served time for a very unusual case (10 years before me). I knew him during that period. Now he’s working on a soil microbiome project. Due to over-fertilization and over-farming, many soils have lost nutrients. His project aims to restore soil health. He doesn’t seek profit; it’s a non-profit, but sustainable.

This kind of project is what I’m currently interested in. I initially said I wouldn’t do climate-related philanthropy, but soil projects are actually closely related. Restoring soil can absorb about 30% of atmospheric carbon emissions. I’m not an expert in this field but often meet people doing impactful work.

Beyond education, I haven’t committed to a specific cause yet; I’ll rely more on expert judgment.

I also support Prison Professors privately—an organization focused on prison education and supporting inmates. I donate anonymously through another organization that helps orphans in the US, Thailand, etc. So my philanthropy is presently spread across a few areas, still in exploration.

My hope is that future donations are fully on-chain and cryptographically transparent, so the entire process is open and traceable to beneficiaries. The challenge is many beneficiaries don’t use crypto wallets. If we require only crypto payments, the reach shrinks considerably. Balance is needed.

Right now, I’m working with different NGOs to see which are efficient and impactful, then decide where to support long-term.

When 1 billion people use Web3, what will the world look like?

CZ: I believe that ultimately, people will use Web3 naturally. In that future, we won’t even be talking about “crypto” or “Web3.” Discussing crypto is like discussing TCP/IP—just the underlying protocol; talking about blockchain is like talking about the network infrastructure. Ordinary users shouldn’t even feel these technologies exist.

People will just say: “I want to pay someone,” “I want to send something,” “I want to buy stuff.” It’s like today’s “Google it”—the brand becomes a verb, the tech is hidden. Ideally, users won’t need to understand TPS, fees, Gas, or concepts like “address.” You’ll just type a name and pay.

All the complexity must be abstracted away.

Right now, technology and the industry haven’t reached that point. We need to develop better, easier-to-use products. It won’t all be Binance; it’ll be an ecosystem of multiple applications and products.

Eventually, I think the ecosystem will tend toward certain centralization. Today, if you want to search something, you usually use Google—even though AI is challenging it, network effects tend to create dominant platforms. I believe Web3 will also develop such a pattern.

That’s my vision for the future.

How do you see Binance’s new leadership structure? Where will your focus be in the future?

CZ: I see this as a very natural evolution. Helin was a co-founder from the beginning, with great strategic vision and incredible diligence. She has a close connection with the community—active on Twitter, Chinese social media, very attuned to users and products, thinking strategically. She’s one of the most hardworking and resilient people I’ve met.

She’s always had significant influence in the company. Her current title just formalizes what she’s been doing. I trust she’ll do very well. Feedback has been generally positive. Western markets may not know her well yet, but Asian users do. Even in Western feedback I received, her performance looks promising. I believe she’ll excel in this role.

She’s nine years younger than me, which is natural. I became CEO around 40, and she’s at that stage now. Taking on more leadership is a natural progression. Although the official title is new, she’s been unofficially carrying these responsibilities for some time.

She and Richard have complementary strengths. Richard has a stronger background in regulation and is more fluent in English. Her English still has limitations—though improving. Listening to her, you hear grammatical errors, but she communicates clearly. Her learning ability is excellent, which is a rare trait.

For me personally—when I stepped down as Binance CEO, I was quite emotional. I wrote the announcement late at night in Seattle, and I cried while writing it. It took some time to adjust. But then I realized: life can be so relaxed. During that nearly one-year period in the US, I couldn’t do much—so I went skiing, kite surfing, etc. When I returned and saw everything working well, I felt relieved. I realized I no longer need to be involved in daily management.

Life is about moving forward, not going back.

Now I focus more on ecosystem development—BNB Chain projects, supporting entrepreneurs, and working with Nina more often. This is actually my first time meeting her offline—not just online—just a few minutes ago. Though we often communicate virtually.

We’re helping founders through projects like YZi Labs, Giggle Academy. I also assist in forming crypto regulations in different countries, thinking from a “regulatory perspective,” which is quite interesting.

For me, stepping back from daily Binance management is actually beneficial—it allows BNB Chain and the ecosystem to grow. I enjoy my current work. Binance’s team is very strong. A person shouldn’t stay in the same role forever—proper transitions and updates are good for the organization and create opportunities for new leaders.

I believe this restructuring is a better direction for everyone.

What daily habits do you think most contribute to your success?

CZ: I believe learning a little every day is crucial. The education we received in school mostly covers reading, writing, basic logic, some math—and those are what we remember. Schools don’t teach entrepreneurship, negotiation, leadership, financial literacy, or how startups operate. These key life skills must be learned oneself.

If you’re a professional—doctor, lawyer—you’ll heavily rely on what you learned at school. But for most people, especially entrepreneurs, continuous self-education and learning from users are essential. Keep an open mind. Learning a bit daily prevents stagnation and helps you see new opportunities.

Another vital habit is working hard while maintaining health. Entrepreneurship is not just mental work—it’s physical too. You need a strong body. Develop good habits: handle stress, sleep well, eat healthy, exercise regularly, and take care of yourself. You must be able to work long hours—16 hours a day if needed—while staying healthy.

For me, these habits are very important.