The second day of Binance Blockchain Week 2025 is done, marking the festive conclusion of the year’s biggest crypto event!
Day 2 of BBW featured enthralling discussions on the future of the industry and the much-awaited debate between Binance’s co-founder, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), and famous investor Peter Schiff on Bitcoin vs. tokenized gold.
If you missed this year’s conference, make sure to catch all the replays on Binance Square, and see you next year!
Binance Blockchain Week 2025 has officially wrapped.
Thousands of builders, thinkers, policymakers, and creators filled Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena for two days of high-impact conversations, market insights, and breakthrough ideas shaping the future of digital assets, payments, and Web3 infrastructure. From headline keynotes to deep technical sessions, this year’s program highlighted the industry’s accelerating maturation and the innovations that will drive real-world adoption in 2026 and beyond.
Missed Day 2? Here are the key highlights from today’s biggest moments.
”In altcoin season, don’t chase other people’s returns.” – Raoul Pal, Co-founder & CEO of Real Vision
Coin Bureau’s Nic Puckrin, who served as Raoul Pal’s sparring partner for the day’s opening session, kicked things off with the question everyone’s been whispering: Are we sliding into a bear market? Raoul, one of the most widely followed macro investors in the digital-asset space, didn’t miss a beat: in his view, this is just a correction in an ongoing bull market. What followed was a macro tour that connected liquidity waves, demographic inflection points, and crypto’s accelerating adoption curve into one clear trajectory.
Pal unpacked the market effects of year-end bank funding dynamics, along with liquidity, a weaker dollar, and big fiscal stimulus. If these forces play out, he expects January and February to be strong enough to mark the death of the rigid 4-year crypto cycle narrative.
On positioning, Raoul likened altcoins to small-cap equities: high on the risk curve and deeply tied to the business cycle. Even with AI stocks in the spotlight, he argues alts still offer the best asymmetric upside, having historically outperformed bluechips. Within crypto, he pointed to stablecoins and high-performing L1s, calling the L1 trade the easiest one.
His main warning into 2026 is behavioral: avoid FOMO, ignore short-term trading illusions, hold quality assets, and stay far from leverage, which he calls “a ticket to bankruptcy.” For those who get the structure and psychology right, he sees 2026 shaping up to be “the year of the yellow fruit.”
“Previously, getting quality inflation and real economic data was very labor-intensive for research firms. With the right incentives, collective intelligence now updates probabilities constantly,” – Nicki Lee, Research Lead of Opinion Labs
The panelists explore how prediction markets, media, and DeFi are fusing into a sharper, more participatory financial layer. Nicki Lee highlighted how real-world data that once took research firms weeks to compile, like inflation or macro signals, can now be surfaced instantly through on-chain prediction markets. With incentives streamlined, people are willing to surface their real opinions. Collective intelligence updates probabilities in real time, giving people a natural way to monetize their insights while continuously refining market expectations.
Farokh Sarmad pointed out that while content comes from creators and journalists, the audience’s voice is missing — a gap prediction markets can close. These markets, he argues, are becoming part of the cultural cycle. On the infrastructure side, Chef Kids highlighted the need to unify fragmented DeFi liquidity, which is now a core focus for leading protocols.
“One of the best on-chain signals is seeing what smart money is doing,” – Alex Svanevik, CEO of Nansen
The minds behind some of the industry’s top on-chain analytics firms came together to discuss how data and AI are changing what traders look at and how they act. Nansen’s Alex Svanevik highlighted how his outfit focuses on identifying a few thousand addresses worth following and has spent a lot of time this year analyzing perp activity on Hyperliquid. Benjamin Cowen of Into The Cryptoverse, instead of relying on any single metric, combines and normalizes multiple on-chain indicators. The finding is that the current environment sits roughly in the “middle” of the cycle, similar to 2019, with Bitcoin leading the market and not yet too much speculative excitement.
On AI, moderator Nicolas Vaiman of Bubblemaps asked whether human interpretation is still as critical. Ben shared that Into The Cryptoverse is building an AI bot so users can query the data directly instead of wading through thousands of charts. Nicolas explained that Bubblemaps combines advanced clustering heuristics with AI to help users understand what each cluster represents: an exchange, an airdrop, or someone “trying to be sneaky.” Alex added that Nansen has launched a mobile app with an agentic interface that has “eyes on” all on-chain transactions across every major L1 and can also settle transactions inside the app itself, tightly integrating data, insight, and execution.
“Mobile payments were new 10 years ago, but now they’re the standard; digital assets are becoming relevant for the next generation. It’s world-changing, and we need to adjust.” – Christian Rau, SVP Digital Assets and Blockchain, Mastercard
Leaders from Mastercard, Ripple, and TON explored how blockchain and stablecoins are modernizing payments without compromising on compliance or user safety. Christian Rau explained that Mastercard has evolved from plastic cards to smartphones and now to blockchain-enabled rails, partnering with firms like Circle and Ripple because stablecoins can solve many existing frictions. He stressed that they tread carefully not to water down compliance or consumer protections even as technology and economic models evolve.
From the crypto-native side, Ripple’s Reece Merrick highlighted a dramatic shift in attitude: his early conversations in Europe about crypto or stablecoins made people uncomfortable, whereas today having a digital-asset strategy is table stakes for banks and institutions. Nikola Plecas, representing TON – a blockchain serving retail and business users within the Telegram ecosystem – noted that in the blockchain payments space, market volumes and transactions are growing 20-30% per year, at rates unimaginable just a few years ago. He emphasized how users adopt these technologies for utility, and stablecoins already deliver a large part of that utility in everyday payments and transfers.
“The real story here is tokenization. The best years of growth are still ahead: there is 200x adoption to come,” – Tom Lee, Chairman of BitMine
BitMine chairman Tom Lee argued that the traditional 4‑year crypto cycle is about to be shattered, with markets entering a structurally different regime. Looking across macro and commodities, he observes that copper, gold, and ISM manufacturing are no longer following their usual 4‑year cycles – and Bitcoin could well break out of its own cyclical pattern, too.
Lee pushed back on the idea that tokenization is “simply digitizing assets,” calling that an oversimplification of a much bigger unlock. He noted that in crypto, despite strong fundamentals in 2025, price action has been “terrible.” It masked what he sees as the real story: tokenization and its impact on market structure. According to Lee, crypto prices, including ETH, have already bottomed, and that the best years of growth are still ahead, with as much as 200x adoption to come.
He expects Bitcoin to make new highs in January, with a target of 250K “within the next few months.” For Ethereum, he frames 2025 as its “1971 moment” – a structural break akin to the end of the gold standard – arguing that tokenized products are consolidating on the network, which continues to upgrade even while its price has been rangebound for years. At roughly 3K, he calls ETH “grossly undervalued” and sees tokenization, especially fractional ownership combined with prediction markets, as the catalyst for the next major unlock in Ethereum’s role as the market’s lodestar.
“Education is the key to long-term trust: we want people to understand what they are buying and how to keep their assets safe,” – Major Faisal Al Yaaquobi, Head of Virtual Assets Division, UAE Ministry of Interior
This panel, featuring Major Faisal Al Yaaquobi from the UAE Ministry of Interior and Payal Patel from Circle and moderated by Binance’s General Counsel Eleanor Hughes, focused on how to build a safe, compliant digital asset ecosystem – and how the UAE aims to help set a global standard. Major Faisal stressed that consumer protection is the top priority and that prevention is better than cure, with education as the foundation of long-term trust. People must understand what they are buying and how to keep their assets safe; once educated, they become partners in ensuring security rather than passive victims. He emphasized open communication with industry as essential to effective partnership, noting that the internet and crime have no borders and calling for similar standards across jurisdictions so criminals have nowhere to hide and regulators and industry can work as one team.
From the industry side, Payal tackled misconceptions about stablecoins. The idea that “all stablecoins are the same” is, in her words, like putting baby food and rat poison on the same shelf. She argued that digital assets still have a PR problem and that the goal should be to reach a world where using crypto feels as simple and familiar as Apple Pay or tapping into the metro – while ensuring users actually understand where they are putting their money and what risks they’re taking.
“Once you use stablecoins for payments, you’ll never want to go back to traditional ways. I think, in 2 years, stablecoins will no longer be a niche product.” – Marcelo Sacomori, CEO, Braza Bank S.A.
Banking Circle and Braza Bank brought a grounded, regulatory view to the panel, arguing that stablecoins are becoming essential financial infrastructure. Marcelo laid out the three pain points they solve better than FX today: every FX trade in Brazil must be registered with the central bank (and the system isn’t 24/7), spreads are wide because FX desks must meet strict standards, and speed is still stuck in the SWIFT era — where even a Friday-to-Tuesday transfer can go wrong.
Daniel pushed the conversation forward, noting that once assets are tokenized, settlement will fundamentally change. On-chain, you need atomic settlement because there’s no counterparty, and the traditional idea of “singleness of money” doesn’t cleanly apply. He emphasized that the real challenge is guaranteeing mint–burn efficiency and 24/7 redemption, even if an issuer collapses.
From TRON’s vantage point, Sam pointed to LATAM and Africa, where high fees and weak banking access push users toward low-cost chains. There, stablecoins aren’t speculative; they’re practical.
When the moderator pressed the panel on liquidity, security, and utility, the answer was implicit in the conversation: without trust, liquidity fails; without 24/7 redemption, security fails; and without cross-border usability, utility fails. Marcelo added that Brazil’s domestic PIX system already shows what fast, feeless payments can look like — but it stops at the border. Stablecoins, he said, are the bridge.
The takeaway was that stablecoins have moved from curiosity to core infrastructure, now powering remittances, payments, and treasury flows — and soon, they won’t be niche at all.
“Blockchain doesn’t really fit into any existing ministry in most countries. We need someone in government to make a definitive decision to move forward.” - Xin Yan, CEO of Sign
Crypto policy is no longer dominated by superpowers: emerging markets are shaping the digital regulatory order. Global emerging digital nations and regulators discussed national strategies, echoing global trends toward licensing clarity and digital-asset sandboxes. Unsurprisingly, the UAE has been cited as a reference model a lot.
"If hundreds of millions of people use something and build on top of it, you can't dismiss that as just a casino." – CZ
The showdown pitted Peter Schiff’s high-energy gold maximalism against CZ’s measured, use‑case‑driven defense of Bitcoin. Schiff argued that tokenized gold upgrades a scarce, industrially useful metal with digital rails, preserving its role as a timeless store of value while improving its monetary properties: ownership can change hands instantly while the bullion stays in a vault. In his view, Bitcoin is ultimately just another unbacked asset whose price depends on confidence, whereas gold’s value is grounded in real-world utility and millennia of monetary history.
CZ pushed back by stressing that much of today’s economy already runs on virtual records, and that Bitcoin’s value comes from its trustless design, global community, and real-world usage, from people in Africa paying bills in minutes instead of days to millions spending via crypto cards. He highlighted that tokenized gold still requires trust in issuers and vaults, while Bitcoin does not. The two never converged on what “sound money” should be – Schiff rooted his view in physical scarcity and industrial demand, CZ in networks, openness, and censorship resistance – but their clash crystallized the core fault line now running through the future of money debate.
The debate underscored how far the narrative has shifted: gold maximalism now sounds defensive, while digital scarcity feels inevitable. CZ closed with a final wink at the audience: “I think gold would do well, but Bitcoin will do better.”
Yi He, Binance’s Co-CEO, shared that she aspired to get into modeling earlier in her life and was even willing to do it for less money just to get the opportunity. She shared that later on, she felt the same way when she had discovered Bitcoin and resolved to become a crypto startup founder. That was the same energy she brought to building Binance. Day 2 closed on a warm note: beyond all the technology and markets, crypto only matters if it helps people use it with confidence and benefit from it safely.
Day 2 at the Innovation Stage kicked off with a look into how top traders build loyal and engaged communities, followed by an insightful discussion on the meeting point between Web2 and Web3 marketing, featuring leaders from BMW, Moca Network, and Australian Crypto Convention.
Binance Angels then took the spotlight, sharing grassroots stories from Lebanon, Armenia, Taiwan, and across global communities, highlighting how local advocacy continues to drive adoption on the ground.
The afternoon sessions shifted into technical and real-world applications. Cloud and infrastructure leaders from Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft broke down how enterprise-grade systems are accelerating Web3 development at scale. A deep dive into next-gen blockchain architectures followed, with Plasma, Marlin, Kava, Manta, and AltLayer exploring scalability, consensus, and performance breakthroughs.
The stage then turned toward real-world integration, examining how digital assets are transforming property, payments, identity, and data networks through projects like Propy, Lumia, Huma Finance, and Pyth.
The day wrapped with creator insights from Coin Bureau, Into the Cryptoverse, and Bonnie Blockchain, alongside exclusive roundtables featuring Blockchain 100 awardees and a forward-looking discussion on building the Internet of Value.
Binance BlockchainWeek 2025 closed on an unmistakably forward-looking note, reflecting a year defined by real-world adoption, institutional acceleration, and major advancements across payments, infrastructure, and digital-asset policy. Over two days at the Coca-Cola Arena, attendees witnessed headline moments, from Raoul Pal’s 2026 macro thesis to deep dives on stable-value assets, multi-chain liquidity, enterprise cloud infrastructure, and next-generation blockchain scalability.
Panels featuring leaders from Mastercard, Ripple, TON, Celo, Solana Foundation, Polygon, Aptos, Algorand, Ethena, and Ondo showcased just how rapidly crypto is converging with global finance. And of course, the live showdown between CZ and Peter Schiff delivered one of the most anticipated debates of the year, underscoring the industry’s growing confidence and intellectual diversity.
This year’s BBW highlighted a defining shift: crypto is becoming the connective tissue of global markets, culture, and technology, from AI-driven trading intelligence and tokenized assets to payments infrastructure, digital identity, and the emerging networked society. A huge thank you goes to every attendee, speaker, builder, partner, Binance Angel, and team member who powered this unforgettable event.
Here are all the links to watch the replay of Binance Blockchain Week 2025:
LIVE: Binance Blockchain Week 2025 Day 1
LIVE: Binance Blockchain Week 2025 Day 2
LIVE: The Blockchain 100 Award Ceremony
LIVE: The Big Debate: Bitcoin vs. Tokenized Gold featuring CZ and Peter Schiff.
As BBW 2025 comes to an end, we carry forward the same momentum that brought the industry’s brightest minds to Dubai. The next era of Web3 is taking shape – and together, we’re building it. See you at the next Binance Blockchain Week!
Brace for Impact — Binance Blockchain Week 2025 Is Almost Here
BBW 2025 Speaker Line-Up: Exclusive Speaker Announcements for Binance Blockchain Week 2025
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