E189: Binance Founder: This Is The Best Time In History To Get Rich In Crypto

Changpeng Zhao (0:00)

I think for Bitcoin to hit a million dollars will be a good thing. I actually don't think we need 25 years. I think it's going to happen much quicker.

Kevin Follonier (0:05)

CZ Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance.

SPEAKER_3 (0:08)

At Bitcoin Asia in Hong Kong, discussing what could define the Bitcoin century in the decades ahead.

Changpeng Zhao (0:14)

I think we need Bitcoin payments to happen on a massive scale. I think we need Bitcoin to be a retirement pension fund reserve. All of those things will happen.

Kevin Follonier (0:21)

If we're heading towards a world with billions of AI agents that can automatically buy, sell, negotiate and transact, what money are those agents going to use?

Changpeng Zhao (0:30)

They will probably start with a stable coin. Once you can accept a stable coin, it's very, very easy to add Bitcoin. It's also possible some of the large AI companies, they may want to issue their own tokens. I've had discussions with multiple very large, the top tier AI companies about how to issue tokens. Some of the AI companies I talked to, they want to build hundreds of gigawatts over the next couple of years, and that's going to cost trillions of dollars.

Kevin Follonier (0:51)

If you're allocating the reserves of a country today, what's the percentage that you recommend them to allocate to Bitcoin?

Changpeng Zhao (0:56)

My recommendation is pretty simple, and it's a little bit self-serving. I usually recommend them to take the top five cryptocurrencies and just allocate according to market cap, percentage-wise. That's the easiest, simplest, and most market-driven approach. So typically, it would be like, no, 50-something percent in Bitcoin, and then 20% in ETH, and then BNB will get in there.

Kevin Follonier (1:14)

As we can see here, the majority of the people have been believing for a long time that Bitcoin will be bigger than gold. How could we all be wrong?

Changpeng Zhao (1:20)

Well, I think there's a very s-

Kevin Follonier (1:26)

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Changpeng Zhao (2:03)

I love you too.

Kevin Follonier (2:10)

CZ, we're calling this session the Bitcoin century. What would have to happen over the next 25 years for you to look back and say, that was really the Bitcoin century?

Changpeng Zhao (2:30)

I think for Bitcoin to hit a million dollars will be a good thing. It will happen.

Kevin Follonier (2:37)

Do you think we need 25 years for that to happen?

Changpeng Zhao (2:40)

No, I actually don't think we need 25 years. I think it's gonna happen much quicker. But more than price, I think we need a lot more utility.

I think we need Bitcoin payments to happen on a massive scale. I think we need Bitcoin to be a retirement pension fund reserve.

It will get there. All of those things will happen. A lot more will happen. But for 25 years, I think all of those things will happen.

Kevin Follonier (3:10)

What's the biggest thing people today are underestimating about the transition that's needed to truly cement this century as the Bitcoin century?

Changpeng Zhao (3:20)

I mean, this whole century. This whole century is a long, long time. So I think what somebody said is very... People tend to overestimate what they do in one year, but underestimate what they do in 10 years. A hundred years is a long time. So even in the next 10 years, I would say a lot of the infrastructure will get built. I think we're seeing the shift. In the last two years, we saw a huge shift in traditional finances' attitudes towards Bitcoin.

And even only in the last year or so, in the last few months, we're seeing tokenized stocks going up tremendously. And this is just the beginning.

I guess B-stock, Binance B-stock was only launched a couple of months ago, like maybe three, two, three months ago. It's already growing very quickly. So if you think about ten years, that's going to be huge.

And that's just one small sector. Not a small sector, but that's just one sector. So with other sectors, there's multiple other sectors, payments, AI, agentic, finance infrastructure, stable coins, tokenization. There's a lot of things that will happen over the next ten years. So I think, yeah, many things will happen. So I think, yeah, we're actually at the best point in time compared to any time in history. There's so many opportunities right in front of us. We just got to take advantage of it, yeah.