E187: Binance Founder: Nobody Realizes How Big The Next 10 Years Of Crypto Will Be

Kevin Follonier (0:00)

Sam Ben Fried, the co-founder of FTX, says, your tweet killed FTX.

Changpeng Zhao (0:03)

Absolutely not.

Kevin Follonier (0:04)

Why?

Changpeng Zhao (0:05)

If one of your competitors can make a tweet to kill your company, then you don't have a company. If the whole time he was running a company that I could kill with one tweet, he would never have that company.

Kevin Follonier (0:13)

We didn't expect this at all. Or you underestimated the impact of a tweet you could do.

Changpeng Zhao (0:16)

So I think my tweet was...

SPEAKER_3 (0:17)

CZ Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, a leading crypto figure, now investing, advising governments, and advancing education through Giggle Academy.

Kevin Follonier (0:30)

Let's start with the beginning. Who are you?

Changpeng Zhao (0:31)

I'm like a crypto guy. President Trump called me the crypto guy. I go to a lot of different countries, advising on crypto regulatory frameworks, et cetera. So I'm usually viewed as the crypto sales guy.

Kevin Follonier (0:40)

What happened in your life that can help explain how you became one of the 20 wealthiest people in the world before the age of 50?

Changpeng Zhao (0:47)

Okay, well, first of all, I went to prison for a few months.

Kevin Follonier (0:49)

What belief do you enter prison with that you left without?

Changpeng Zhao (0:53)

I was very worried that I'd be kept there forever. They will bring another charge. They'll bring another charge. There will be endless charges. In my case, no one went to prison for a single violation of a banking secrecy act in US history, even till today. Most people are not even charged.

Kevin Follonier (1:05)

What does Hyperquick do better than Binance?

Changpeng Zhao (1:07)

Well, they don't have KYC. What's that?

Kevin Follonier (1:13)

The US president rents about 10 to 40 presidential pardons every year. You got pardoned by President Trump. Walk me through the pardon process from the first phone call to the final signature.

Changpeng Zhao (1:23)

In my case...

Kevin Follonier (1:28)

Hey everyone, one of our absolute favorite things at When Shift Happens is to look at our data, to improve what we're doing for you every single week. And one of the things that we notice every week when going through our data is how many of you regularly watch this podcast but still have not subscribed. And so if you want to help us get even better guests every week, take two seconds and click that subscribe button just below this video. Thank you for being with us today and for supporting us every week. And now, let's get to today's show.

Changpeng Zhao (2:01)

All right.

Kevin Follonier (2:02)

Just quick in and out.

SPEAKER_3 (2:03)

Yeah, yeah.

Changpeng Zhao (2:04)

And also, yeah, let me sleep here.

Kevin Follonier (2:09)

The in and out is your life in general?

Changpeng Zhao (2:12)

Pretty much, yeah. Go to a place, usually stay one night or two nights. And then get out.

There's always something happening later.

Kevin Follonier (2:21)

So how do you survive?

Changpeng Zhao (2:23)

I'm not sure. Yeah. But now it's actually much easier than before. So I get a lot more downtime. Yeah.

Kevin Follonier (2:30)

How do you choose?

Changpeng Zhao (2:32)

I don't actually, I usually let my team choose. So my team is pretty good at choosing, especially this type of events where like who to talk to, which podcast, et cetera. My team does all of that. Like pretty generally pretty good team. Yeah.

Kevin Follonier (2:46)

If I told you that the biggest shift in your life hasn't happened yet, what do you think that shift would be?

Changpeng Zhao (2:53)

I believe that. I don't know what that will be, but I think there's always more opportunities in the future than there were in the past. And the pace of change or shift is getting faster and bigger.

Before the internet, it's hard to change the whole world at the same time. Now, information flows more freely. Now, we have a network for money, a blockchain, and now we have AI. So I think there will be quite a lot of big shifts in the future. I just don't know what they are. I think AI is going to cause a lot of efficiency improvements, and that's also going to speed up shifts.

Kevin Follonier (3:29)

The biggest shift hasn't happened yet for you. Let's start with the beginning.

Changpeng Zhao (3:33)

Who are you?

I'm like a crypto guy, a crypto sales guy. I think President Trump called me the crypto guy. I'm a strong believer in blockchain technologies, and I think that's where I made the biggest contributions so far, and I think that's where I continue to spend most of my energy as well. So I view myself as a crypto guy. I go to a lot of different countries that are advising on crypto regulatory frameworks, etc. So I'm usually viewed as the crypto sales guy.