Binance CEO Dismisses Doubts About Future of Cryptocurrency
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Binance Founder & CEO, Changpeng Zhao “CZ” shared his views on several prevalent issues in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sectors.
Answering the question related to the opposition from regulators regarding cryptocurrency and specifically about the recent statement of former ECB President Jean Claude Trichet, “Bitcoin is not real and Not the future of Money,” CZ explained that there are different time-frames of view. If the short-term view is taken into consideration, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are smaller market cap instruments and are subject to higher volatility. But if a longer-term view of around 5-10 years is considered, the industry has the potential to stay and grow higher.
CZ also applauded China’s efforts towards the adoption of blockchain technology. China is investing extensively in blockchain technology and on the education of blockchain technology as well. He opined that sooner or later, other countries would be left with no choice but to adopt blockchain in order to move ahead faster. As cryptocurrency is integrated into blockchain technology, China’s youth would benefit a lot if they educate themselves about the blockchain and cryptocurrency domains. This will thereby ensure more adoption of blockchain and crypto by the mainstream population.
He also singled out Singapore as a key market and appreciated its role in the widespread adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency. He added,
Singapore has some of the smartest government and regulators around, and they have an in-depth understanding of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. They upheld some of the most rigorous but also sensible regulations towards cryptocurrencies. So, I think Singapore is going to play a key role in South East Asia and beyond.
CZ commended the recent endorsement of blockchain technology by Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying that it would be a significant boost to the cryptocurrency and blockchain sectors. Commenting on Binance’s China strategy, he elaborated, saying,
Our strategy is very simple. We want to follow the recommendations very closely and we want to promote the blockchain technology research and development. We are looking at a number of initiatives in that area. We would just want to help wherever we can.
Speaking about Facebook’s Libra, CZ clarified that it was too early to make any predictions about how Libra will look like before it comes out. However, he assured that the team at Binance would have a good look at Libra when it comes to the market. He elaborated, saying, “Our matrix is very simple; we look at the number of users. If the users are all using it, then we will have no choice but to list it.” Zhao pointed out that the criticism against Libra was directed more towards Facebook rather than Libra.
Answering the question about the growing concerns for more regulations, whether they were affecting the institutional interest or was there still a lot of institutional interest, CZ said,
We are definitely seeing a lot of institutional interest picking up. I think the regulatory uncertainties certainly haunt us in some countries, but we are definitely seeing a race towards adoption now.
He informed that Binance is currently working with a number of governments and has recently signed an MOU with the Ukrainian government to advise them on creating a regulatory framework. Binance has also been working closely with a regulatory body from Singapore. Besides these two, Binance has been working with a lot of other regulatory bodies across the world.
While talking about the initiation of OTC trading in the Yuan market, CZ confirmed that Binance is servicing the OTC market, similar to the other exchanges in China.
Elaborating on the potential of the market in Turkey, CZ stated,
What we have seen is a very strong interest from Turkey; it has very active markets … We want to support the market more proactively.
Regarding the participation of Binance in the Capital Markets Summit organized by the Turkish government, CZ emphasized that the summit would help Binance learn about the market and facilitate its move to support it.
