Compiled by: CoolFish
Source: Binance Square Live AMA
Air date: February 12, 2026 (Eastern Time)
Key points summary
During this live AMA, Binance founder CZ engaged in an in-depth discussion with the community on topics including Meme coin investment strategies, market cycle predictions, the impact of regulatory legislation, developer advice, and personal values. CZ emphasized that while he cannot predict short-term market fluctuations, he is confident in the long-term development of the crypto industry and shared his views on the integration of RWA, Agents, and AI, as well as his personal future priorities.
Summary of key viewpoints
- Meme Coin Investment Advice: The longevity of Meme Coin depends on its strong underlying cultural elements and follower base. Ordinary investors should proceed with caution and avoid blindly following the trend.
- Market Cycles and Policies: The market is difficult to predict due to the influence of many factors, but the new US government's support for cryptocurrencies is a positive sign.
- Advice for developers: Ignore short-term price fluctuations and focus on building applications with real-world utility. Maintain a continuous flow of product updates and engage fully with the community.
- Regarding regulation: Clear regulations are a good thing. While there may be compromises in the legislation, establishing a framework and having the ability to iterate is crucial for the industry.
- Personal Wealth and Motivation: CZ stated that he doesn't focus on money, but rather values health, family, and positive contributions to society. Currently, he dedicates his energy to meaningful projects such as the Giggle Academy.
- Industry trends: RWA (Real-world Asset Tokenization) is an important trend; the combination of AI and cryptocurrency should lead to the fastest implementation of payment.
- Coping with FUD: The best way is to ignore it, protect your mental health by blocking out the noise, and stick to being your true self.
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My cousin wants freedom : I have a simple question. Binance is now supporting Meme tokens on-chain, and we've bought a lot of Meme tokens. But you mentioned in your tweet that those FOMO-related memes will lose money. So how do you think ordinary people like us should play with Meme tokens, or how to play them well?
CZ: I tweeted that if you buy all the meme coins people create based on my tweets, you're almost guaranteed to lose money. I think people might interpret that differently, or perhaps overinterpret it. Many people have created meme coins based on my tweets, and if you buy them all, you won't succeed. I'm not a very good meme coin trader. I don't know what the right strategies are for those who are making money in meme coins. But if you buy all the meme coins created based on my tweets, you will definitely lose money; I think that's pretty much certain. People might misinterpret this.
However, I believe that if you're a meme coin trader, you must develop your own strategy. I don't know what the right strategy is, but I think for a meme coin to be sustainable, it must have a very strong cultural element. If you look at some long-lasting coins like Dogecoin and Floki, they've lasted a long time because they have a very strong following. New meme coins are riskier. So my advice would be, if you're unsure what to do, basically don't touch it unless you know what you're doing. I'm not an expert in this area.
AB Kuai.Dong: I'd like to ask, regarding this bear market, how long do you personally think it will last? Where is the turning point in the market? After all, compared to 2022, this doesn't seem to be a full-blown bear market, and stablecoins and prediction markets seem to be thriving.
CZ: I think it's very difficult. First, no one can predict the market. Nobody can predict it, and neither can I. I don't have a crystal ball to see the future. This market involves many players and many factors: national policies, taxes between countries, a company creating a stablecoin, and another person creating a prediction market—many players are involved. No one can predict what everyone will do.
But generally speaking (at least historically), it follows a pattern of about four years, a four-year cycle. But will it be the same this time? This time there are many differences, so it's hard to say whether it will always follow this cycle.
This time, the US is very supportive of digital currencies. The new US government and market are very supportive, and they have a continuous stream of legislation being passed, which should be very positive. With such US support, other countries will likely follow suit. As you just mentioned, stablecoins, RWA, and others are developing very rapidly.
Another issue is the prevalence of noise and fidelity within the community, which negatively impacts overall market sentiment. So, it's impossible to say exactly which factor will have the impact. I think everyone should carefully assess their own risks before taking any action.
To be honest, I've said a lot, but it's essentially not an answer, and I don't see it very clearly either. However, I think that overall, there are both positive and negative forces at present, but I believe that in the long run, this industry is definitely fine. What will happen tomorrow, next week, or next month is hard to predict, so I can't predict that either.
King Bro: CZ, what impact do you think the Clarity Act will have?
CZ: To be honest, I don't know much about the Clarity Act. I've read AI's interpretation of it, so I think you might not want to hear my advice on this, but generally speaking, I think any regulation that provides clarity is good. Judging from the level of discussion I've seen, this is likely a rather delicate and fiercely debated bill. Who won? I don't know. Are there any flaws or limitations? Probably, there are probably many compromises in the bill. But this is a draft, right? Having a framework first, and then having the ability to iterate and improve it, will be great for the cryptocurrency industry. So I think overall it's very positive, that's my gut feeling, but I'm not a regulatory or legal expert, especially not about US law and legislation, so you'd better ask other experts.
Kevin: I'm from Indonesia, and my question is: Given the current rather negative market sentiment, what do you think BNB Chain and its ecosystem projects should focus on in order to truly drive industry development, rebuild confidence, and drive sustainable long-term growth?
CZ: I think developers in the industry should ignore the market, whether it's rising or falling. The market will grow in the long run, and Bitcoin and mainstream cryptocurrencies will perform well in the long run. I believe most mainstream blockchains will perform well today.
As a developer, you shouldn't worry about daily prices; you should be developing applications that people use. People use applications not based on your token price, but on the specific utility your product provides, whether it's a wallet, a trading platform, a stablecoin for payments, some tokenized asset, or other applications.
Anything you develop that people will use will be used long-term. As a developer, you shouldn't worry too much about the market in the short term. However, if you've issued a token, you should try to maintain a continuous flow of product updates so that your token holders are well-informed about your activities and roadmap. This allows people to understand what you're doing, better assess the risks and opportunities of holding your token, and frequently engage with your community—that's my advice. So far, the projects I've worked with have followed this advice, and most have done it well.
Link: I have a question about Binance Square. First, as bloggers on Binance Square, we're pleased to see the team putting their efforts into it, and we've also noticed that you yourself have been posting independent content there. Bloggers often talk about how we all hope our content can be more diverse, so that users don't just open Binance for trading, but also enjoy browsing Binance in their spare time and find it interesting. So, does this kind of content direction, which isn't limited to crypto and covers more areas, align with Binance Square's future strategic plans?
CZ: First, I don't actually manage Binance's products or Square's products; I'm just a Square user. My current problem is that there's no place where I can see truly comprehensive news, not just crypto news, but also global news . Some Chinese news flashes used to be very good, but I haven't seen them lately. I think there should be a place where I can clearly see today's 10, 20, or 30 news items, and it should be relatively neutral, etc. I think Binance Square has the potential to provide this.
Secondly, as you said, it should be a place for people to chat, not necessarily all about blockchain. Blockchain involves many other industries, including AI, and even international tax negotiations, all of which will have an impact. So I think the plaza should be designed this way, and I hope it will become such a product. However, from a product perspective, its maturity is still insufficient. Even the live stream this time was much smoother than the last one, which was very choppy. Therefore, they still have many performance improvements to make.
Actually, this live stream was also a performance test, so it was much smoother than the last one. I think a product needs to have strong performance first—that is, its performance needs to be very good and very smooth, without any lag—before adding new features. So I think this product will continue to iterate.
Link: So my understanding is that you suggested that if bloggers want to improve their content, they could focus on providing daily news summaries within the crypto space, and also try expanding to other topics such as AI, not just crypto itself. Is that your suggestion?
CZ: It should be a platform where everyone can see very high-quality content, and high-quality content should be promoted. There's too much messy content on social media these days; sometimes it's funny, but the quality is low. Also, many news outlets are inaccurate, so having a platform like this is a great opportunity.
Q: Everyone considers you the richest person in the cryptocurrency world. I think people often put all the funds on Binance under your name and pretend it's your personal property, but we all know that's not true.
However, you have indeed achieved tremendous success. I think you've done an excellent job and made a lot of money in this industry. So, why are you still doing this? Why are you still here? I'd like to know the reason behind it.
CZ: People often confuse Binance user assets with Binance or myself. First, I think I'm relatively well-off financially, but I don't really focus on money. And I've been through a lot, and I think most people, after going through all that, realize what's important to them and what isn't. First, I think health is very important, family is very important, meaningful connections and experiences are very important, and making a positive contribution to society and the world is very important. At least for me, this is important, and it makes me feel good. I do these things not for any other reason than for a "selfish" reason: doing things that have a positive impact on the world makes me feel good. I believe we are genetically selected; any animal tends to help its kind because animals that don't are less competitive and are usually eliminated by evolution. So I think genetically, we are selected to want to help our kind and hope to leave the world better than we arrived, right? We want to make positive contributions, and when we do, we feel a very strong intrinsic reward, which makes me happy, so I do it. And I'm very happy, especially after going through all that; now I cherish the simple joys in life.
I think I'm in a very fortunate position. I have enough resources to do impactful things; I have enough talent, a team, and funding to do it, and I also have the time. I'm not very young, but I'm not very old either; I have the ability to do these things. At my age, very few people have the luxury of doing what they want to do.
Furthermore, Binance has been running very well without me for the past two to two and a half years, and that should continue. This gives me the freedom to do other things, such as the Giggle Academy, and to engage with national leaders to advance cryptocurrency. All of these things are actually quite difficult to do if you're running a company full-time as CEO. I feel very fortunate to be in this position; I'm in good health, so I feel I need to do something meaningful. Skiing is great, but I can't ski forever. I can ski for a few days, a season, or a month, but I can't ski for 30 days straight—that's too much. I still need to do something meaningful. That's my motivation.
Q: The next question extends slightly from the previous one. You've mentioned Ray Dalio's *Principles* on several occasions. I'd like to ask, given Binance's rapid growth in a highly volatile and challenging environment, which principle is the most difficult for you to follow in real life? Have you ever compromised to protect the company?
CZ: I'm not sure which specific principle you're referring to, but I wrote a blog post listing all the principles, probably 30 or 40. I'll pick one that's simple but interesting. I think the hardest principle to follow is actually how to save time. Many people know that saving time is important, that time is more valuable than money. You only have so many hours in a day; you can't expand that. You can delegate tasks, hire teams, but you still only have 24 hours a day. And then there are all sorts of meetings and things that are time-consuming because it's hard to refuse out of politeness.
For example, some experienced people might say, "Can you have a meeting with this friend of mine? He's so-and-so." Then you think: Should I attend that meeting? What do they want to talk about? Saving time by being "rude" is one of the hardest things to do, and I'm quite aggressive about it now. But even I sometimes worry about offending the other person. But I think most people would be very shy and polite if someone unfortunately asked to borrow a thousand dollars; but when they say, "Hey, can I have a few minutes of your time to talk?" which usually means half an hour to an hour, they wouldn't be worried or shy at all. Most people in the world won't come up to you and say, "I'd like to have five minutes of your time, strictly speaking, to talk about point one, point two, point three, that's all I want." And then you can say, "I don't want to attend this meeting" or "That won't happen." If it's just a five-minute conversation, that's it. Most people aren't that efficient. How to get everyone around you to be that efficient is very problematic, actually very difficult.
Basically, people will think you're rude—and I won't go into profanity. So I think this is probably one of the hardest things I do with principles. But it's also the most effective. If you can do it well, you'll really optimize your time, and the people around you will become incredibly efficient, which will also make you more efficient. This actually contributes a lot to success.
Other principles, such as strong professional ethics and the commitment to protecting users and their assets no matter what, are actually easier to implement. Throughout my career, when we built Binance, we were extremely protective of anything involving user assets. So, while these things are difficult, they are easier to execute because the principles are so firmly upheld. The issue of time is that many people want to maintain courtesy but don't adequately protect their own time.
Hmm: I'm a loyal holder of both BNB and Aster. Recently, Aster has seen a significant price increase, even surpassing some competitors' platform tokens. What are your thoughts on BNB ecosystem projects outperforming other platform tokens? What are Aster's future prospects?
CZ: I won't comment on other platforms yet. I think we should focus on doing our own thing. My advice to all projects in my ecosystem, or all projects related to me that I can advise on, is: focus on our project. We don't discuss others, and we don't look at others. If other products are good, we learn from them; if other values are good, we learn from them; if other teams are strong, we recruit from them, and we're always hiring. But we only look at ourselves; as long as we make our product good, that's enough. So ultimately it's about the product. If you make a good product that people use, that's enough. Other things aren't that important, and other things shouldn't be analyzed.
Don't be overly excited if your coin price is slightly higher than others, or overly upset if it's slightly lower. This is a very long-term, protracted battle, so try to stay calm and don't compare yourself to others every day. Of course, many people in the community will do this, and it's fine to post it occasionally. But from my perspective, that's more of an entertainment and lighthearted activity. It's not that important or serious. In the long run, long-term success is the real victory . It's about consistently providing excellent service to users, protecting their funds, and ensuring they can use all the features of your product at the lowest price, with the fastest speed, and the best user experience. That's the most important thing. So everything else is just noise; don't worry about anything else.
Q: I'd like to ask if you could share your latest thoughts on Aster, as well as its competitors and the upcoming Aster Chain. We've discussed the importance of privacy and the speed of blockchain technology a lot in the past.
CZ: First of all, I'm just an advisor to Aster . They have a team running it, and Leonard and the team are very ambitious and excellent. Relatively speaking, they started later, so there's still a lot they need to catch up on. But I believe the team is very strong, which is why I volunteered to be an advisor. I also think the Perp DEX (perpetual contract decentralized exchange) sector is huge and still evolving; we're just getting started. I believe this sector will still exist in 10, 20, or even 50 years. Who knows if the current players will become the ultimate winners, but the current strong players clearly have a great opportunity. I fully support them and want to do everything I can to help.
I think the upcoming new blockchain is very interesting. The Perp DEX blockchain presents many technical challenges and is not as simple as people imagine. It's also interesting to see different players in this field going in different directions. Some are pursuing so-called transparency, where you can see everything; others want to protect the privacy of people's transactions. I think it's good to see different players trying different routes. It's still unclear which approach will ultimately become the one with widespread adoption, or whether multiple platforms will succeed. So I'm basically their cheerleader, trying to cheer them on. I have high expectations for them.
Peter: I'm Peter from Talex, working on the MVB8 project on the BNB Chain. I'll keep it brief. Recently , He Yi and Binance launched a fantastic event called the "Binance AI Short Drama Competition," aimed at combating FUD and seeking the truth. We strongly support it and hope to amplify its impact in a unique way, rather than just releasing videos on platforms like X—after all, that approach has limited exposure. Currently, no one has ventured into the content prediction market, so I'd like to hear your thoughts. For example, we could predict the popularity of content and "bet" on it. The method is simple: pay to unlock the full content—for example, paying for a paid episode of a Binance AI short drama. There's no binary "yes or no" outcome here, but rather an infinitely distributed flow of funds: a revenue flow exists between those who discover and pay for content early on and new users, because content gradually gains popularity through word-of-mouth.
What do you think of this "content prediction market" model? Especially in the current environment, with more and more people using Seedance 2.0 to create high-quality videos and publish them on X, wouldn't this model make it easier to find a product-market fit?
CZ: This is the first time I've heard of a content prediction market, and I haven't thought about it deeply. I don't know how you monetize it, or how you determine the ultimate value of an event or prediction. For event predictions, the result is usually 0 or 1, or a value between 0 and 100, with the winner taking the loser's money. In a content model, I don't know if there's a ceiling. We've discussed this before; I think Yzi Labs incubated a project that tokenized opinions. But then again, everyone can have opinions, so how do you determine the ultimate value? So that project eventually changed course. This sounds somewhat similar. I need to study its token economy and financial model further. But I do think a content economy using cryptocurrency is coming; it's a huge field. You can see in this live stream that people have already donated $12,000, and it's still continuing. I think this crypto content economy will be huge, and we haven't fully developed it yet. Current media, people in the crypto community don't rate it highly because they tend to be biased and no longer neutral; and social media is difficult to monetize. While it's possible to monetize on X, it's still limited. We're still in the early stages of the content economy world, and cryptocurrency can play a significant role.
Ekowreel: Do you foresee that platforms like Binance Square will evolve into a YouTube-like monetization model, where creators can earn revenue through video content, but in a native Web3 way (such as involving project tokens or on-chain incentives)? Do you think Binance Square will become the Web3 version of YouTube?
CZ: I don't manage Binance Square, but I think it's already moving in that direction. Binance Square already allows content creators to monetize. I think I just saw recently that we have an official Binance Square account here, I don't know who's behind it, or which intern, maybe you can talk more about that. I think they already have things like a 50% commission split.
An official statement clarified that Binance Square currently offers two monetization models: the first is the trader path, or "Writet to Earn," where you can earn up to 50% commission; the second is the creator path, where you can participate in project activities and create content for them, earning project tokens based on quality. These are the primary monetization methods at present.
Q: How can the Chinese community project a responsible, innovative, and welcoming image to the world in order to better compete with international representatives on a global stage? As veterans in building the BNB ecosystem, could you offer some advice?
CZ: That's a rather broad question. First, I can't represent the Chinese community, or even such a large group. I speak Chinese, but my Chinese isn't particularly standard. I think it's like this: from my personal perspective, I only speak Chinese and English, so I hope both communities will grow stronger and better. I will continue to support and promote in the languages I can speak. I believe I've promoted a considerable amount of Chinese content in the English-speaking X community. Of course, maybe I can promote even more. We've actually promoted it to many foreigners who say I speak too much Chinese, but I think that for me, other people's complaints aren't my problem; I promote in both languages.
Furthermore, the Chinese-speaking community is vast. Sometimes, internal competition among Chinese people is too intense. For example, many recent cases of fake news are, in my opinion, perpetrated by Chinese competitors or rival companies. Therefore, I feel our current Chinese-speaking community lacks unity. Ideally, we should be more united to increase the international influence of Chinese, which would be far better. However, we often lack a shared vision, and there's nothing I can do about it. So, while this vision is excellent and I strongly support it, it seems quite difficult to achieve at present. I think we should focus on improving the Chinese-speaking community, platforms, projects, and cryptocurrencies, rather than undermining or attacking each other. Undermining is one thing, but pointless attacks are completely unnecessary.
Jason Daily Web3: Where do you think the real focus of capital and developers will be in the next two to three years? What early signals should the ecosystem pay attention to?
CZ: That's a difficult question, a predictive one, and my predictions are likely to be wrong. But I think RWAs (Real-World Assets) are getting a lot of attention right now. Based on my conversations, every country I've talked to wants to tokenize its assets. For countries, tokenized assets provide immediate access to funds, and when people want to redeem their tokens in the future, they can then ship the physical goods. Moreover, tokens create an economic ecosystem for these assets, and supporting infrastructure can be built around them. For example, gold—many countries actually have unexploited gold reserves. Some countries are also talking about rare earth minerals, and even salt and water. Many countries have high-quality mountain spring water, right? For example, Kyrgyzstan has abundant water resources.
I don't know if everyone realizes, but these days, a liter of drinking water is often more expensive than oil. If water resources could be tokenized, it could generate considerable revenue. Therefore, I believe that tokenization of real-world assets will become a significant trend. As for the specific timing of this surge, whether it will be this year or next, I'm unsure. Predicting the market is an art in itself; some directions are quite obvious, but I can still be wrong. Often, some completely unexpected dark horses emerge from the margins and become unstoppable.
CoinPoison: How do you view the possibility that DEXs will face compliance issues similar to those faced by CEXs in the next three to five years? If so, when do you think this will happen?
CZ: Today's questions are quite difficult. First, I'm not a compliance expert. Second, compliance isn't simple; it's different in every country, and it's hard to predict. Look at the US; a year and a half or two years ago, it would have been hard to predict that the US would be so proactive now. DEXs also have varying degrees of decentralization; some are highly decentralized, while others have fewer nodes. Spot DEXs, perpetual contract DEXs, etc., also have differences. It's hard to say how far it will develop.
However, I believe the industry trend is towards increased communication. I think many countries haven't even figured out how to regulate CEXs yet; they're still discussing it. I think that's the first step, and DEXs will come later. So this question is difficult to answer; I don't have a definitive answer.
Crypto Warehouse: Do you think stablecoins have stolen the spotlight from Bitcoin in the current US government? What do you think are the current areas of interest in the US?
CZ: I'm not particularly familiar with the United States. And the US is a large country with many different participants and individuals. But based on my limited understanding, the Genius Act was passed last year, about six or seven months ago. This provides significant compliance clarity for conducting stablecoin business in the US, which is a very positive sign. At the same time, it also has a driving effect on other countries globally.
I think everyone's been discussing this, and we're seeing a lot of news about the Clarity Act these days. Hopefully, it will pass smoothly. I believe a government that supports cryptocurrency will allow the industry to develop rapidly in that country. This is the future of currency, and it will help upgrade the country's monetary system and give the country a leading position in the financial system. The US is already a leader in traditional finance (like Wall Street), and if it can adopt this new technology earlier than other countries, it will gain an even greater competitive advantage.
This is good for the crypto industry and beneficial for other countries around the world. But for other countries, I think it's important to catch up, embrace it early, introduce favorable regulatory policies, attract talent and industry participants—simply put, attract the entire industry. So overall, I think this is a good trend. I don't know much, and I'm not good at detailed analysis, so I can't answer this question with absolute precision. But I think what the US is doing regarding cryptocurrencies right now is fantastic for the world.
Q: AI is developing rapidly, and its large-scale applications are increasing. BNB Chain's roadmap includes an "AI First" strategy for 25 years, which includes promoting AI integration and providing AI tools. What are the real-world applications of AI in the crypto industry? What kind of AI applications will truly stand the test of time and become popular?
CZ: I think the first reason is the rapid development of AI, and the second is the rapid development of blockchain. How these two industries combine is still in the experimental stage. Currently, there isn't a super application that fully integrates the two. However, as AI capabilities improve, whether it's using AI, AI payments, or AI data training, it will all be combined with digital currencies. I think payments will be the fastest to be implemented, but it's still in its early stages. If we look at the long term, say two, three, five, or even ten years, there will be tens of thousands of intelligent agents, and they will have payment relationships, almost certainly using digital currencies. Many of these are cross-border, high-frequency, small-amount payments, which will most likely be settled through blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Evgeniy: I remember you tweeted at the market bottom, "They want to buy cheaper." Two questions: Is the current situation similar to the previous bottom? Who are you referring to as "they"?
CZ: I don't know how to answer either of those questions. I don't think I tweeted "This is the market bottom," I don't usually say things like that, and I don't know when the bottom is. I also don't know who "they" are referring to. I don't think anyone knows exactly where the bottom or top is; anyone claiming to know is just guessing. The market works strangely, with so many participants, and anyone's actions can have a ripple effect.
_Ram: Thank you, CZ. You haven't been the official CEO since 2023, but your voice still carries significant weight. How do you balance the freedom of speech with your responsibility to the ecosystem?
CZ: I don't think it needs a balance. I don't manage Binance. I'm a believer in free speech, and I will continue to be. I spend most of my time in countries with free speech, and I'm active on social media. I don't think it affects anything else. Whether people think my words carry weight or not won't change how I speak; I'm just being myself. Sometimes people suggest, "There's a lot of FUD (negative news) about you right now, maybe you should keep quiet." I say no, I don't want to do that, because that would make FUD work. I don't let others change how I behave. I express my opinions, do what I think is best, and interact with the community in a way that I think is appropriate and helpful. That's what I do, and I don't want to change anything.
Q: I'm particularly interested in the CEX and DEX issue. Do you think there will be more competition between CEX and DEX in the future, or will they merge? What kind of users will choose CEX or DEX?
CZ: I think they will coexist for a long time. Currently, they serve two very different types of users. DEXs require you to directly operate your wallet, and protecting your wallet is a specialized skill these days. Most people can't protect their own wallets. If you want to trade on a DEX, you need a secure computer and can't just download files or open pictures sent by friends; otherwise, your wallet is at risk. This is completely different from users using CEXs (via email, passwords, and customer support). Furthermore, current cryptocurrency adoption is still very low; globally, perhaps only 8-10% of people own some form of cryptocurrency, and its asset percentage is usually less than 10%. For most ordinary, non-technical people, their first encounter with cryptocurrency is usually through decentralized exchanges (CEXs). As they become more experienced, they may switch to DEXs. However, many early adopters in the crypto world are tech geeks, and these people are more likely to switch to DEXs. For the general public, switching to DEXs is still difficult at present, but the tools will improve over time. Hopefully, in the future, non-technical people will be able to easily hold cryptocurrencies. Currently, DEX product services are relatively fragmented; exchange, loans, and wealth management may be located in different places. Hopefully, self-custodied wallets like TrustWallet will be able to handle all of this in the future. I don't think there's any real competition right now; the market is large enough to accommodate thousands of CEXs and DEXs. That's a long answer.
Entamoty: I'd like to ask your thoughts on the role of emerging markets (particularly Africa) in driving the next phase of crypto adoption. How does Binance plan to support innovators in Africa through initiatives like the YZi Labs incubation program?
CZ: I think Binance has the largest investment and presence in Africa among all crypto platforms. The entire ecosystem, including myself, has invested tremendous effort in Africa; I've visited over 12 African countries. From the early days until now, my idea has always been: we just want to bring as many people as possible into the crypto world. Frankly, Africa's overall GDP per capita is lower than other continents, so the business returns and income levels in Africa are indeed lower compared to other places. I believe this is also the main reason why many platforms don't focus on Africa.
But I firmly believe that if we can get people across the entire African continent involved, their economic strength will grow accordingly, and the business returns will naturally follow in a few years. Moreover, Africa presents a very unique opportunity: extremely low banking coverage, I recall it was less than 11%. At the same time, smartphone penetration is rising rapidly. This essentially means that people here don't need to go through the traditional banking stage and can jump directly into the crypto world—which is exactly what we're seeing. Therefore, I believe this is a golden opportunity for any crypto business or platform.
Furthermore, Binance Incubator has invested significantly in Africa from its early stages. One of our investment directors used to live in Africa for an extended period; he's now starting his own business, but he was with the team for several years, including a time specifically focused on the African market. So we've indeed done a lot, and we want to do even more. From the perspective of BSC Chain and Binance Incubator, we very much hope to increase our investment in Africa and hope more people will join us in this endeavor.
Q: CZ, how do you deal with FUD and noise on a daily basis?
CZ: The best approach is to ignore it. Sometimes you still need to provide some simple clarifications because many people aren't used to this level of noise and may believe it. But otherwise, my advice is to ignore it. For those spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Uncertainty), I reduce the noise by muting or banning them. Banning is better because they don't know, and I don't see it. I'm also careful not to offend those providing genuine feedback. Many naive people get caught up in the hype. We welcome feedback, which is why I spend so much time doing AMAs on social media. But for those deliberately spreading misinformation, you just need to ignore them. The only people they attract are those who aren't very bright, and frankly, you wouldn't want those people on your platform anyway. The bright people will stay.
Data shows that the more people talk about you, the higher your exposure becomes. Many users say they joined Binance because of negative news, only to find the platform great. So I advise everyone to block out this noise; too much noise is bad for your health. I'm calm; the noise doesn't bother me. There's another saying: you are the average of five friends around you. By removing negative influences, your quality of life will improve. I won't change myself because of external attacks; I will be myself. So far, this strategy has worked well for us: Binance deposits, growth, and my Twitter followers are all increasing. We're not worried.
Q: Do you think a Crypto Winter is coming?
CZ: I don't know. Markets are cyclical and fluctuate. And everyone has a different definition of a "winter." If you look at Bitcoin's price, it's fallen quite a bit from its all-time high; but is it better than it was a year and a half ago?
How do you define it? I don't know; even traditional markets like gold and silver fluctuate significantly. But in the long run, the crypto industry will perform very well. Not every project will succeed; many will fail, but the excellent ones will stand out. Investors or traders need to learn to manage risk and understand that this is a highly volatile industry.
Year after year community: CZ, what are your goals for Giggle Academy this year? Will you participate in Giggle Academy courses held by Year after year community anywhere in the world?
CZ: Because there's a new token every year, I generally try to avoid activities that already have a community token. However, I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to the community for its support of Giggle. Also, I'd like to share that Giggle Academy's meeting today showed that they now have over 150,000 registered users.
But there were just too many meetings, and I hadn't had a chance to attend. This is a significant milestone, considering they only just surpassed 100,000 a few months ago; the growth rate is indeed accelerating.
At the same time, they are also working hard to refine the product. Over the past few months, they haven't added a lot of new content, but have instead focused their efforts on optimizing existing content, making the course experience smoother and more engaging, and supporting more languages. So I think—I don't actually have any grand goals—this is a team of fifty or sixty people, steadily making progress, and everyone is very enthusiastic and hardworking.
Currently, they are in the product optimization phase: aiming to make the existing content extremely engaging, fun, and effective for children's learning. Once this is achieved, they will expand the content at a faster pace. They are currently tracking various data metrics daily, such as day-two, day-three, and day-seven retention rates, conversion rates, completion rates, and dropout rates, conducting extensive analysis in these areas. All these metrics are trending upwards, and this is their current focus.
So content production has slowed down a bit for now, but once this phase is over, the pace of content creation will pick up again, and they will apply various new AI technologies very quickly. For example, they've recently been using new video generation tools like Seedance 2.0, and the videos they've created are of excellent quality; AI has made their work much easier.
My assessment is that Giggle Academy should reach 1 million children this year, and in the next 5 to 10 years, that number could reach tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions. I think this is a very meaningful thing, and I am genuinely happy for the team's progress. I would also like to publicly give them a thumbs up here.
