At an offline AMA in Hong Kong on August 28, Binance founder CZ discussed investing, risk management, RWAs, Hong Kong regulation, entrepreneurship, education, and wealth. On decision-making, he said most small, reversible choices should be made quickly and adjusted over time, while large, irreversible decisions should be rare and handled carefully. In investing and trading, he emphasized that avoiding ruin matters more than maximizing expected returns.

CZ repeatedly warned against blindly going all-in. He said his own early concentration in Bitcoin only made sense because even if Bitcoin had gone to zero, his family’s basic life would not have been materially affected. Young people, in particular, should avoid borrowing to make concentrated bets and instead use their biggest advantage — time — to take measured risks and build wealth gradually.

He also reiterated his bullish view on RWAs and asset tokenization, arguing that stocks could move on-chain first, followed by stablecoins, FX, and eventually assets such as real estate and intellectual property. On Hong Kong, CZ said its mature financial system makes regulatory change necessarily slower, especially given the need to consider existing financial institutions, mainland China, capital flows, and foreign-exchange controls.

CZ also discussed Giggle Academy, entrepreneurship, and personal wealth. He said AI could eventually enable truly personalized education, while founders should focus on the intersection of what they are good at, what they enjoy, and what creates value. Reflecting on his own experience, he argued that wealth does not automatically create happiness, and that health, family, and strong relationships matter more than continually adding another zero to one’s net worth.

The audio transcription is done by GPT and may contain errors. Please listen to the complete podcast:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/1gFZp4lb6jY

Spotify: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/7qfkmlvhrl8/episodes/CZ--AMA-e3o19ks

How to Know When to Persist and When to Walk Away

Question: In your book Freedom of Money, there are many high points, setbacks, and moments where decisions had to be made under extreme uncertainty. As people working in this industry, how should we think about what is worth sticking with and what should be abandoned?

CZ: There are really two separate questions here: how to make decisions, and what you should or should not give up. I use a very simple framework. First, decide whether something is a big decision or a small one. Then decide whether it is reversible or irreversible. More than 90% of decisions are actually small and reversible, so those can be made quickly. But once you make them, you should not blindly keep going in the same direction. You need to keep reassessing whether the decision should change.

For example, six months ago I was still fairly skeptical about RWA. A few months later, momentum picked up. At that point, we could start supporting it across the ecosystem — YZi Labs could invest, BNB Chain could support it, and others could participate. That is a reversible decision, so you can keep reevaluating it.

What you should try to avoid are big, irreversible decisions. Those are the situations where you really need to slow down and think carefully, and ideally you make as few of them as possible. There is another category: big but reversible decisions. You can reverse them, but the cost of doing so is high, so those should also be minimized.

Making decisions is separate from whether you persist. A person should have a few basic principles, including fundamental ethical boundaries. For us, anything that harms users is off-limits. If a decision conflicts with that principle, then in a sense the decision has already been made. It is a decision you no longer need to debate.

Most other questions — whether you stay in an industry, whether a product pivots, whether you change features, startup direction, or trading strategy — are really medium-sized and reversible. Those can be adjusted.

If you are trading, the most important thing is risk management. Suppose we flip a coin. If you win, I pay you $3. If you lose, you pay me $1. Mathematically, that game has positive expected value for you. But now suppose if you win, I pay you three times your entire net worth, and if you lose, you give me everything you own. You should not play that game. Even if you won ten times before, one loss would wipe you out. So risk management is not just about expected ROI. The real question is whether you can survive the downside.

Which Countries Could Have the Biggest Impact by Opening Up to Crypto?

Question: Since 2022, you have spoken with leaders in many countries about crypto. Which countries that have not yet fully opened up to crypto could have the biggest impact if they did? And if we narrow it to Southeast Asia, which country has the most potential?

CZ: We all know there is one very large country where opening up would have an enormous positive impact. But I think that process should happen gradually. Many countries think digital currencies could threaten their sovereign currencies, but I think that is a misunderstanding. If every country had its own stablecoin, it could actually make that sovereign currency circulate more widely around the world. That is something we may need to explain, educate people about, and gradually build consensus around.

A lot of people are still afraid of digital currencies. I used to think the industry might develop through a “surround the cities from the countryside” strategy — bring smaller countries in first, then gradually influence the larger ones. What I did not expect was for the United States to suddenly become so friendly. That is a major positive development for crypto.

Large countries obviously have a bigger impact. Smaller countries have less impact individually, but together they still matter. Southeast Asia is already moving fairly quickly in a number of places. Thailand and the Philippines are good examples. Binance now has a license in the Philippines, and I believe fiat rails are already available, so users are no longer completely dependent on P2P and can transfer money directly through banks. Malaysia may be moving a little more slowly, but overall progress across the region is quite fast. I remain optimistic.

“CZ’s Principles” Are Not a Startup Manual — and May Not Work for Everyone

Question: The appendix of the book includes an evolving list of “CZ’s Principles,” and the version in the book has 72. Has there been a 73rd principle since then?

CZ: No. There is actually a newer version where I changed the numbering and reorganized a lot of the principles. The book used the previous version. By the time the book was published, the newer version already existed, but I thought the older version probably fit the book better.

To be honest, I did not really want to include those principles. While writing the book, many people told me I should add my startup principles or explain how I approach entrepreneurship so readers could learn how to build companies. But once you write those things down, it starts to look like a tutorial, and putting that next to your own story can feel a little self-important. I sometimes think the book would have been better if it had simply ended with the final line: “If you can, you must.”

Also, these principles are simply how I do things. They are not necessarily the best way. I originally wrote them so people inside the company could understand how I think and make decisions, which made it easier for them to make decisions that were aligned with mine. But for people outside the company, there is no reason they need to follow the same approach. I can be stubborn, and there are plenty of things I have not fully thought through myself. So people can read the principles, but there is no need to take them too seriously. Hopefully some of them are still useful.

Giggle Academy’s User Growth and Long-Term Education Goals

Question: I read about your free education project, Giggle Academy, in the book. At the current growth rate, when do you think it could reach 10 million learners?

CZ: I do not want to make a precise forecast, but I can give you some numbers. Last June, we had only around 20,000 to 30,000 users. At the beginning of this year, it was around 100,000. Now we are around the middle of the year and we are at roughly 1.3 million. So growth is currently exponential. If that trend continues, 10 million could come fairly quickly. There is a chance we reach it within one or two years, but I would not promise that. I think two or three years is more realistic.

But there is a more important metric: how long people keep using it. Ideally, I want a child to use it for 18 years, and that goal is much harder. A lot of children use it for a while and then stop. Part of that is an app-retention problem, and part of it is that our content is still not broad enough.

Right now, we mainly cover ages two to six, because around age two is when children really start learning. But what attracts a two-to-six-year-old is different from what works for a six-to-ten-year-old, and we have not really built the second stage properly yet. Of course, it is also not good for children to spend too much time staring at electronic devices.

So I think we can probably reach 10 million users in two or three years. After that, 100 million users is a small goal for us. I mean users, not money.

How Traditional Businesses Should Enter Web3: Control the Size of the Bet

Question: I have worked with around 100,000 traditional businesses. How should these companies manage risks in Web3? What are the major pitfalls? And how can they participate more effectively, especially within the Binance ecosystem?

CZ: Any new industry — especially a financial industry — is going to have a lot of traps and risks, so the first priority is risk management. And the most important part of risk management is size — how much money you are putting in. For a new product, new project, or new direction, do not put too much money in at once. Adapt gradually. If you are going to put in a large amount, you need to be very sure because that becomes a big decision. Small decisions can be made more easily.

For traditional companies, Binance actually has many functions they can use. For example, Binance Pay can be used for cross-border payments, and the cost can be very low. The problem is that Binance has always been seen primarily as a trading app, so many people do not realize it can also be used for cross-border payments. The workflow may not be completely intuitive, but if you know how to use it, the cost is low and the efficiency is high.

I also know many users who only use the yield or wealth-management functions for asset allocation. That said, I am actually a relatively light Binance user myself. I am not a power user. Many people here probably know Binance’s products better than I do.

The Two Most Stressful Periods in Binance’s First Nine Years

Question: Over the nine years of building Binance, when did you feel the most hopeless? And what helped you get through it?

CZ: Everyone defines “hopeless” differently. I do not think I ever reached a point where I felt completely hopeless. I always had hope. I am naturally optimistic, fairly resilient, and reasonably good at handling pressure.

If we are talking about the most stressful period, I would say it was right after Binance launched. The biggest issue was that BNB fell below its offering price. Before that, a lot of projects had launched and their tokens had performed very well. But once BNB broke below the issue price, tens of thousands of people who had invested in us were losing money. Psychologically, that was probably the most stressful period. Those two weeks were likely the hardest.

Another very stressful period was dealing with the U.S. situation a couple of years ago. But that pressure was more personal. I did not feel that I had let other people down. It was my issue, and I dealt with it myself. Whether we are talking about Binance users, BNB holders, or the broader industry, I still felt I had done right by them. So dealing with the U.S. regulatory case was very stressful on a personal level, but it did not weigh on me as heavily as the period immediately after Binance launched, when BNB fell below its offering price. Those were probably the two most stressful periods.

Should Crypto Founders Actively Build Personal Influence?

Question: In crypto, we often see people use their influence to generate enormous wealth. Should people in the industry actively and publicly pursue influence? And how should they build and use it?

CZ: That is a tricky question. There is no single correct answer because everyone has a different style. A lot of old Chinese sayings still make sense. One is roughly, “The bird that sticks its head out gets shot.” From that perspective, if you can quietly make a lot of money without attracting attention, I would strongly encourage you to do that.

Look at Satoshi Nakamoto. If everyone knew who he was today, a lot of pressure would probably be directed at him first. So he was very smart. On the other hand, influence itself can also create wealth, and many projects may not succeed at all if they have no influence. Having influence often does make it easier to create wealth.

So there is a tradeoff. It is not 100% right or 100% wrong. Everyone has to find their own balance.

Stocks, Stablecoins, FX, and More Real-World Assets Will Move On-Chain

Question: Recently we have seen FX and stocks begin moving on-chain. Do you think this eventually develops into a world where all kinds of capital and assets are on-chain?

CZ: Definitely. I have said this many times. One thing I think is very clear is that stocks will move on-chain first. Once stocks are on-chain, why would any country not want its stocks to trade globally? If I am a company listed on your exchange, why should only people in your country be able to buy my stock? Why should people all over the world not be able to buy it? If the whole world can buy it, the price could be higher and liquidity could be better.

After stocks move on-chain, the next question is whether currencies move on-chain. That means stablecoins. There are already hundreds of billions of dollars in stablecoins, and more than 90% are pegged to the U.S. dollar. That effectively gives the dollar a massive additional layer of global liquidity inside the digital-asset economy. So why would other countries not want their currencies circulating in the future Web3 economy as well?

Once stablecoins are on-chain, FX naturally moves on-chain too. Today, FX trading is not very transparent. A lot of it still happens through systems such as Bloomberg and Reuters, often through RFQ models. Once it moves on-chain, you get 24/7 trading and transparent pricing.

Further out, assets such as art, cultural intellectual property, and real estate can also move on-chain. Those will be more difficult because they are less liquid. But eventually, I think all of these things will move on-chain.

Young People Should Not Make “Getting Rich Overnight” the Goal

Question: Many people experience moments of getting rich overnight, while others experience losing everything overnight. When you became wealthy almost overnight, how did you keep your emotions in check? And during low points in your life, how did you manage your mindset?

CZ: Part of it is mindset, part of it is personality, and part of it comes from building a system and becoming more mature over time. Of course everyone would like to get rich overnight, but it is actually not very healthy. There is a Chinese saying: “What comes quickly also goes quickly.” When you get rich overnight, it usually means you were taking on a lot of risk, and the faster the money comes, the harder it often is to hold on to it.

The better approach is usually to accumulate gradually. If wealth comes slowly, it is easier to keep, and your mindset is more stable. If you have already become rich overnight, then try to keep it. Do not lose it all overnight. Risk management is still critical.

Especially in highly volatile markets, do not bet everything. Do not go all-in. Anything capable of making you rich overnight is usually also capable of taking you to zero overnight. If you really want to pursue high-risk opportunities, do it through a series of small decisions and small positions. Of course, if everything is a small position, then on average it is also very difficult to become rich overnight.

I strongly discourage young people from making overnight wealth their goal. A young person’s biggest asset is time. You have years to accumulate gradually. For example, if you regularly put a modest amount into Bitcoin each month, ten years later the outcome could look completely different. Young people are often impatient, but they are actually the people who need to be impatient the least. Time is on your side.

How Newcomers Should Enter Crypto: Join the Community Before Buying the Token

Question: Blockchain is evolving from distributed ledgers toward broader forms of decentralized and verifiable productivity. Could that drive another major transformation in the industry? And how should newcomers participate?

CZ: Any idea or concept could become the next major trend, or it might not. It is very difficult to predict. I genuinely do not know what the hottest theme will be six months from now.

But participating in blockchain is actually very easy. It is probably one of the easiest industries I know to enter. In fact, it is so easy that there are a lot of scams, so the first thing you need to do is avoid fraudulent projects.

With many projects, you can buy the token very early. But before buying a token, I think you should first spend real time in the community. Start by asking whether the project has a real community. If a project has no community at all, it is usually difficult for it to succeed. If it does have a community, the next question is whether the community is real. Are these genuine, active users, or just bots and paid promoters?

For newcomers, I still think risk management matters most. But when it comes to participation itself, blockchain projects should generally be relatively easy to get involved with.

How CZ Evaluates Projects: It Still Comes Down to the People

Question: You have invested in many projects, and the Binance ecosystem has incubated many projects as well. From your perspective, what determines whether a project succeeds or fails?

CZ: From my perspective, it still comes down to the people. No matter how powerful AI becomes, you still have to judge the team behind the project.

There are many dimensions. The first is technical ability. There are actually quite a lot of technically strong people, and there are also many people who can build a product and build it reasonably well. But you also need emotional intelligence and the ability to understand users.

What is much rarer, in my view, is resilience. Can this person keep moving forward when things become extremely difficult? You cannot really learn that from a first conversation. You only discover it by working with someone over time.

The second is mindset. In our industry, whether someone’s mindset is healthy and aligned matters a lot. If the mindset is right, it is easier to make money steadily over the long term and to stay in the industry for longer.

Another factor is sense of mission. A lot of people have recently moved into AI. That means the people who are still building in blockchain often have a stronger sense of mission. During a bull market, it is difficult to tell the difference because everyone is building something and every project has a high valuation. You cannot easily distinguish the people who genuinely want to build long term from those who are simply trying to make quick money.

I actually do not mind if the people who want quick money move into AI. That means those who remain in blockchain are more likely to be patient and committed. And if we are purely talking about making money, I still think it may actually be easier to make money in crypto. Crypto is the “money industry.” AI is the industry of data and intelligence. AI can improve efficiency, but it is highly centralized. If you are not one of the founders of the very largest companies, or you cannot build a huge company yourself, it can be very hard to build significant personal wealth.

So in our industry, having the right long-term mindset is still extremely important.

Should You Go All-In? First Ask What Happens If It Goes to Zero

Question: Years ago, you gradually put most of your savings and time into Bitcoin. That looked very much like an all-in bet. Should young people entering crypto today have the same all-in mentality — the idea that you need to bet big to win big?

CZ: For the vast majority of people, I strongly recommend against going all-in. When it comes to investing, especially if you are thinking about going all-in, you first need to answer one question: What happens if this goes to zero? If you cannot answer that question, or you are not comfortable with your own answer, then do not go all-in.

When I went all-in, I was already 35 or 36 years old. I was not fresh out of university, and I had thought through the downside very carefully. Even if Bitcoin went to zero, my family and children would not have been fundamentally affected. I could still go back to work and earn money. My salary had always been enough to support my family, and my family was not living off my savings.

So you need to have that kind of safety net. And absolutely do not borrow money. Never borrow money to go all-in. That is something you should not do.

Will there be opportunities in the future? Absolutely. There will always be more opportunities in the future than there were in the past. Will those opportunities make you rich overnight? Not necessarily. I do not know how much higher Bitcoin can go, and that certainly does not mean it cannot fall tomorrow.

There are also many other digital assets beyond Bitcoin. For young people entering the industry, I generally recommend a diversified portfolio. Within a digital-asset allocation, maybe 80% to 90% should be in the major assets. And do not put your entire net worth into crypto. Definitely do not sell your house to buy crypto.

Young people can take somewhat more risk once their basic living needs are covered. When you are young, your salary may be lower, so even if you invest 10% or 20% of your monthly income into crypto, the absolute dollar amount is usually not huge. Your living costs may also be lower. You may not have a spouse, children, or elderly parents to support, and your lifestyle may be more flexible.

So I generally recommend keeping fixed costs as low as possible. That gives you more capacity to take higher-risk investments. But you should never take so much risk that you do not know where you are going to sleep the next day.

Education in the AI Era: The Endgame Is Truly Personalized Learning

Question: Giggle Academy was created in the AI era from the beginning. As AI becomes more powerful, has your original vision for education changed? What do you think education will look like in the AI era?

CZ: When Giggle Academy started, ChatGPT was already very popular. So by my definition, Giggle Academy was a post-AI project from day one. From the beginning, I said we should use AI as much as possible.

We also asked ourselves whether Giggle Academy even needed to exist. Maybe eventually AI would simply teach children directly. At the time, our view was that AI still could not teach children continuously, especially very young children. Older children can ask AI questions and get answers, but at least today, AI still does not really behave like a teacher that follows a complete curriculum and keeps teaching a student over time.

I think the end state may really be that an AI can simply teach you directly. Maybe one of the major AI companies eventually builds something that can teach you continuously, and if that happens, great. Before then, maybe there will be a specialized education company that tunes AI extremely well and gets it to teach individuals according to a real curriculum.

At the moment, most courses, lessons, and content are probably still designed by humans, with AI used heavily to accelerate production. That is roughly where we are today, although AI is improving very quickly.

If one day AI can genuinely teach a child from age zero to 18 and do it very well, then I am perfectly fine with Giggle Academy shutting down. It is not a revenue-generating project anyway. The whole point is simply to make a positive contribution.

The opposite could also happen. Because we use a lot of AI while building Giggle Academy, we may accumulate enough experience to create an education model that uses AI better than anyone else. Maybe one day a major company acquires it. Maybe someone copies everything we build. I do not really care. The important question is how to make education better.

Traditional education has many limitations. One of the biggest is that classroom education pushes people toward the average. It tries to make you reasonably good at everything. But future competition will be extremely global and extremely intense. You may need to be in the top 0.1% in your own field.

So the future should emphasize specialization. You still need basic skills such as communication and arithmetic, but in your strongest area, you should receive highly specialized training. One-on-one human teachers are not realistic because there are not enough teachers. But one-on-one education through technology — through apps or AI tailored to the individual — is definitely where education is heading.

If CZ Were Starting Over: Don’t Chase a Hot Sector Just Because Others Are Making Money

Question: If you were starting a company again today with a team of ten and limited capital, what would you build? And what criteria would you use before deciding a direction is worth going all-in on?

CZ: If I were truly starting again today, my options would actually be fairly limited. My highest-probability path would still be in areas I understand best. Entrepreneurship is not about finding the “best” industry and automatically entering it. You need to combine three things: what you know how to do, what you are interested in, and what creates value.

AI is extremely powerful, but I do not know how to build AI. If I wanted to do AI today, I would basically need to go back to university and relearn algorithms and many other things. My understanding of Transformers is probably still very superficial. To actually build an AI company, I would need to understand those systems deeply, and that is not my advantage.

So if I could not build an exchange, I would probably still work on something related to K-12 education.

For most people, do not look at someone else doing well and immediately decide you need to do the same thing. If someone runs a great Sichuan restaurant and you want to open a restaurant, that does not mean you also need to open a Sichuan restaurant.

Look at NVIDIA. It is enormously profitable today, but it spent 40 years getting here. For a long time, GPUs were less profitable than CPUs. GPUs were also difficult to build and were not especially “sexy.” They worked on the problem for decades, and then AI companies suddenly needed huge amounts of GPU computing. Apple also went through many ups and downs.

So do not suddenly change direction just because someone else is doing extremely well right now. When you start a company, you still need to understand your own strengths.

And do not casually go all-in. There are times in entrepreneurship when going all-in makes sense, but ideally, you wait until you already have a product and have validated Product-Market Fit. Then you can consider going all-in.

Trading Anxiety Usually Means Your Risk Exposure Needs Adjustment

Question: I have been running quantitative spot strategies in crypto for seven years. During market downturns, quantitative strategies can sometimes stay mostly in cash for long periods, and that can create anxiety. How should someone manage that mindset?

CZ: If trading is making you anxious, usually you should reduce the position size.

Question: But in this case, I am anxious because the position size is too small.

CZ: Then I honestly do not have an answer.

Binance’s Next Growth Phase: Follow Trends Rather Than Trying to Manufacture Them

Question: What will be the most important growth areas for the Binance ecosystem in the next stage? And how will Binance help high-quality projects, creators, and ordinary users benefit from that growth?

CZ: If you mean the Binance centralized exchange, I am not very involved in that business anymore. From what I understand, they are putting a lot of effort into RWA. I think RWA is a reasonable direction, and it is growing quickly.

But RWA is not just a centralized-exchange business. In fact, the Binance centralized exchange is not necessarily the ideal issuer of these assets. There are many regulators and securities markets around the world, and every country has its own framework. A better model may be for local brokers to issue the relevant on-chain assets, while Binance provides infrastructure and support.

The broader Binance ecosystem is also much more than the centralized exchange. There is BNB Chain, PancakeSwap, Aster, Trust Wallet, and many others. The entire ecosystem needs to support a sector together.

As for what the next big trend will be, if something new appears and the data clearly shows that it is gaining traction, I believe the whole ecosystem will support it. It could be AI-related, or it could be something we have not even imagined yet.

My advice to the Binance or BNB ecosystem has always been to follow trends. We do not necessarily need to create the trend. The people who truly create trends may be entrepreneurs in the community. We ourselves cannot reliably predict what will become popular and what will not.

An entrepreneur builds something, others start following, and if one project performs extremely well in a particular sector, it can pull the entire sector forward. Our role is more about supporting that process.

Wealth Does Not Automatically Create Happiness — Health and Relationships Matter More

Question: A lot of people say, “Money solves 99% of your problems.” Do you still have problems today? If so, what are they?

CZ: A common misconception is that wealthy people must be extremely happy. That is not true. Happiness has very little direct connection to how much money you have. Money makes life more convenient, but it does not automatically make you happy.

Personally, I never had too many worries even before. Everyone has problems, and I still have plenty of complicated things to deal with today. But overall, those problems are only a small part of life. Most of the time I am fairly happy.

And my happiness has very little to do with money. I have not sold my coins or cashed out. From my perspective, I really do not spend much money. There are many people with far fewer assets than I have who spend much more than I do.

For example, I have never bought a sports car. I have barely even ridden in sports cars. The reason is simple: I just do not like them. I am not interested. I do not do something simply because other people like it.

I like skiing and kitesurfing. I am almost 50 now, so I think about how many more years I will realistically be able to do those sports. If I stay healthy, maybe I have another 20 years. So I want to enjoy those 20 years. When I eventually cannot do those activities anymore, maybe I will learn to appreciate art and explore other things.

What actually makes me happy is not buying sports cars or doing whatever other people think I am supposed to do. It is doing the things I genuinely enjoy. People need to find what actually makes them happy. If you cannot find your own interests and you are always comparing yourself with others, it becomes very difficult to be happy.

Most people think, “If I doubled my money, I would be extremely happy.” But after your salary really doubles, maybe you are happy for two weeks, and then you return to your previous emotional baseline. Add a zero to your net worth and maybe you are happy for a month. Then you start thinking about the next zero.

Of course, I strongly support people working hard to make money. But happiness should not depend on it.

The first thing that truly matters is health. A healthy person may have 100 problems. An unhealthy person may end up with only one problem: how to become healthy again.

The second is family. If you have a supportive family and a warm home, that is an extremely important source of happiness.

After that come friends and human connection. You do not need many friends, but you need good ones. Career, money, and everything else come later. If you are very poor, of course you should work hard to make money. But after a certain point, money matters less and less.

How Minimalism Helps With Complex Crises

Question: When Binance faced complex crises involving global regulation, compliance, user interests, and the survival of the company, how did your minimalist approach help simplify the decision-making process? Can you share an example?

CZ: Many problems look extremely complicated on the surface, but when it is time to make a decision, you can often reduce them to one fundamental question.

For example, in some countries we deal with law enforcement. Ninety-nine percent of law-enforcement agencies are very reasonable, but occasionally, you encounter very unreasonable situations. At that point, there may be threats and pressure, and in theory the other side may have many actions it can take against you. The situation can become very complicated. You may be asking whether to compromise, whether to pay, or how else to respond.

But for me, it eventually comes back to one question: Is this decision consistent with our principles? Are we protecting users?

In theory, law enforcement should also be protecting users, so our goals should be aligned. If the other side is asking for something that conflicts with the principle of protecting users, then even under intense pressure, the decision becomes relatively simple.

The Nigeria situation that people saw in the news is one example. We faced a lot of pressure there, but in the end we still acted according to our principles. There are many similar examples, although a lot of the details are not appropriate to discuss publicly.

Why Hong Kong’s Crypto Policy Moves Slowly

Question: Hong Kong is a very important gateway, but from my personal observation over the past two or three years, progress has not been especially dramatic. What obstacles is Hong Kong facing? Or is crypto simply not a major enough priority yet?

CZ: Hong Kong has a very mature and highly developed financial system. In a system like that, changes to financial regulation naturally move more slowly. The more mature a system becomes, the slower change tends to be because there are more things to consider.

Hong Kong has many brokers and banks. Every policy change has to account for the impact on existing industries. If I were a regulator, I would also want to support new industries. But before introducing a new rule, I would first need to understand what the change means. And even after that, you cannot implement it immediately. You need to give existing companies enough notice so they have time to prepare and adjust. Only then can you gradually implement the change.

That process is usually measured in years. Startups like to think in days or even hours, but regulatory changes inside a mature financial system are usually measured in years.

Hong Kong also has to consider its relationship with mainland China. Most people understand that Hong Kong can play a testing and sandbox role in many areas. That also means Hong Kong has to think carefully about what any policy change could mean for China as a whole.

There are several major challenges. One is the RMB. If the renminbi is meant to become a more global or mainstream currency, policymakers need to think about whether supporting Bitcoin and digital currencies helps or complicates that goal.

The second issue is foreign-exchange controls. If digital currencies are more widely supported, how does that affect the existing framework for managing cross-border capital?

Suppose someone holds $100,000 worth of Bitcoin and flies from Shanghai to New York. There is no need to execute a traditional cross-border bank transfer. Where is that Bitcoin actually “located”? That is difficult to define using traditional financial concepts.

So mainland China and Hong Kong both need to think about how to solve these problems. It is not that there are no solutions. It is that every solution has tradeoffs, and that naturally means policy takes more time.

Overall, I think Hong Kong is working very hard to move forward. The senior officials and regulators I have met in Hong Kong are making a genuine effort to push the industry ahead. The real issue is that the problem is much more difficult than people in the crypto industry sometimes assume.

Universities Are an Important Place for Crypto Education

Question: Many young people on Hong Kong campuses still do not know much about crypto. Do you think universities are a good environment for education and outreach? What advice would you give students?

CZ: I think universities are an excellent environment. Many major reforms and transformations start at universities, so beginning there makes a lot of sense.The only complication is that our industry involves finance, which can make promotion and education on campuses somewhat sensitive.

I have already given similar talks at many universities, including the University of Hong Kong and universities in many other countries. As an industry, we can definitely do more.

Binance has Binance Academy, which provides free educational content. Among exchanges, I think Binance Academy is probably one of the more developed and comprehensive education platforms.

But when it comes to promoting crypto education through universities, the entire industry can still invest much more effort.

Follow us

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain

Telegram: https://t.me/wublockchainenglish