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.
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“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.
“Crypto exchanges, stablecoin issuers should maintain one-to-one peg and it should maintain 100% reserve,” he said. “But there are ways to generate yield even when you do that. And then for those yield that we generate, I actually encourage companies to pass that to their users.”
Tokenized Assets Ant The “Everything Exchange”
CZ also pointed to the rapid growth of tokenized traditional assets on crypto exchanges. He said Binance had listed gold roughly two months earlier and had already become “the largest gold trading venue outside of the traditional markets,” with gold representing about 10% of the platform’s futures trading volume. Binance has also listed oil, which he described as part of a broader convergence between traditional finance and crypto venues.
The former Binance CEO said he now expects exchanges to compete toward becoming “everything exchanges,” covering crypto, commodities, prediction markets and potentially other asset classes. He said Coinbase and other platforms are likely to pursue similar strategies.
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“I think everyone wants to be the everything exchange,” CZ said. “Binance trades oil and gold now, which I didn’t see even a year ago. I think Coinbase most likely will do the same thing and then other exchanges will do the same thing.”
At the same time, CZ said the balance between centralized and decentralized exchanges remains unresolved. If crypto adoption expands quickly among less technical users, centralized platforms could benefit first. If self-custody tools become easier and safer, decentralized exchanges may grow faster.
CZ Remains Optimistic on Bitcoin
Asked about Bitcoin’s market outlook, CZ said two forces are currently in tension: the historical four-year cycle and a more supportive backdrop from equities, institutions and geopolitical uncertainty. He said Bitcoin’s decline into 2026 fits the cycle pattern, but argued that institutional ETF participation could stabilize the market because large allocators tend to move slowly and hold for years.
“I’m hoping that the worst part is over,” CZ said, while adding that his comments were not financial advice.
For markets, the broader message was clear: CZ sees crypto’s next phase as less narrowly defined by native tokens alone. In his view, AI transactions, stablecoin incentives, tokenized assets and Wall Street’s adoption of blockchain rails could all become central battlegrounds in the next cycle.
At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
