Original author: Colin Wu , Wu Talks Blockchain
In this interview, Wu said Colin and Binance founder Zhao Changpeng CZ exchanged views on many aspects. CZ recalled his happy childhood in a Chinese school before the age of 12; after immigrating to Canada at the age of 12, his familys economic status changed, and his mother changed from a teacher to a garment factory worker, which even affected her health; later he dropped out of school early because he received a job offer.
Due to the rapid success of Binance, CZ went from obscurity to the worlds richest man in just a few years. But then he was sued by the United States and eventually went to jail for four months. Every year, CZ said that his biggest wish was to have six-pack abs. He also joked that he was closest to having six-pack abs only when he was released from prison because the food there was so bad.
During the discussion, CZ discussed the reasons for Binances rapid success in the early days, believing that it was mainly due to personal experience and luck. At that time, other exchanges were trading mainstream currencies, while Binance quickly launched a large number of ERC 20 tokens. In addition, they also discussed whether FTX can be saved and the current difficulties faced by CEX in listing currencies; whether centralized exchanges must move towards compliance; and the direction of cryptocurrency policies in Hong Kong and the United States.
CZ shared his experience of writing the most important article in his life, Principles; discussed the current difficulties faced by Vitalik and teased Justin Sun; he analyzed why memecoin on Solana suddenly exploded; introduced his future work and suggestions for entrepreneurs. Finally, CZ sent New Years greetings to the Chinese community, believing that this year will be a very good year, and hoped that everyone would take steady steps to achieve good results.
Listen to the full podcast: Little Universe | YouTube
Childhood life in China before the age of 12, and family situation after immigrating to Canada
Colin: Welcome CZ to our interview. The first question is, you left China at the age of 12. Do you still remember your childhood in China before the age of 12?
CZ: Yes, of course. I think I had a happy childhood, and all my memories are very good. My parents were teachers at that time, and I lived on school campuses all the time, such as elementary school, middle school, and the campus of USTC. Living in a school environment all the time left a very good impression on me. I lived a carefree life when I was a child. My family was not rich, but children don’t have a strong sense of lack of money, and I always lived a good life.
Colin: I watched your later interviews and I have a question. After you moved to Canada, you said that your parents salary was close to the local minimum level. So was life more difficult in Canada? Did your parents continue to be teachers or do other jobs there? Did you need to work to earn money yourself?
CZ: When we first arrived in Canada, we were a middle-class or well-off family in China. Both my parents had salaries, and my dad would save money and send it back to China when he was studying abroad. At that time, our life was not bad after the exchange rate was converted. After arriving in Canada, the quality of life did not decline, but we were at the bottom of the social income class. However, food, clothing and housing were still no problem. My mother could not continue to be a teacher because of her poor English. She could only work in a garment factory, leaving home early and returning late every day to sew clothes. This job was not good for her health, but it was the only job she could find.
In Canada, my dad is a teaching assistant and his salary is not high, but fortunately the university provides family housing subsidies to teaching assistants, so we live in a small house, but it is bigger than where I live in China, which is an improvement for me. We are not particularly poor in Canada, but our income is close to the minimum level.
Colin: What did your father teach?
CZ: He taught geophysics, or Geo Physics. This major requires a lot of math, with many complex formulas and frequent calculations. My father was very good at math, which is probably why I am good at science.
Reason for dropping out of college: Postponing graduation due to good internship pay
Colin: You and Vitalik both immigrated to Canada and dropped out of college. Did you drop out because you wanted to start a business, or was there any other reason?
CZ: I was already a senior when I dropped out, which was different from the situation of dropping out in the first and second year of college. I was interning in Tokyo at the time, and at the end of the internship, my boss gave me a job offer with very good salary. I compared it and realized that it would be difficult to get such a high salary after graduation. My boss was halfway through a project at the time and hoped that I could delay it for a year to continue working. At first, he said that it would be delayed for a few months, that is, one semester, and I would still be paid the normal salary. The offer was very generous, so I postponed it again and again, and finally did not return to school after two years.
Colin: So I didn’t decide to drop out of school and start a business right then and there. It was mainly because the job paid so well.
CZ: Yes, I was not as decisive as some people to start a business. I postponed my studies because of this good offer, and I didn’t go back to school. Later, I found that it would be difficult to apply for a visa without a degree, so I got a degree from a college through distance learning. So now I have a degree, but I didn’t graduate from the original university.
Discuss the reasons for Binances rapid early development
Colin: I understand that you have started several projects, reportedly 5-10. You founded Binance in 2017. The early days of Binance were difficult, and you certainly didnt expect it to grow so big. Looking back now, what do you think are the most important reasons for Binances explosive growth in just one year?
CZ: Many people think Binance became famous overnight, but they may not have taken into account my 20 years of experience in the industry. I have been working in the technology and exchange industries for more than 20 years. When I started Binance, I had been in the digital currency field for four or five years and had accumulated connections and teams. When I started Binance, I built a strong team, both the technical team and the product team were very strong. At the same time, the community also gave a lot of support, and everyone was familiar with me. I was also lucky, and the timing was very good at that time.
In 2017, established exchanges such as Coinbase, OKCoin, and Huobi mainly traded Bitcoin, and only a few Ethereum ERC-20 tokens were listed. Our BNB is an ERC-20 token, so we supported this type of token from the beginning, and subsequently listed many ERC-20 tokens. From a product perspective, our product advantages are obvious. However, I think the most important thing is that our philosophy is different from that of previous exchanges. We are not just thinking about making money, but putting user protection first, which is clearly reflected in the 94 Clearance incident.
At that time, it was stipulated that projects that had done ICO in China had to return the money to investors if they lost money, but many projects suffered serious losses and could not pay back the money. There were about four projects on our platform that were in a loss-making state, and the project owners had no money to make up for the users losses. After consideration, we decided to make up for the users losses, and it was calculated that this would require 6 million US dollars. You know, we only raised 15 million US dollars two months ago, and the company was still losing money at the time. 6 million US dollars was equivalent to 40% of the companys assets. Even so, we still took out this money to make up for the users losses, and these were not the projects we issued. In terms of customer service, in 2017, other exchanges might have to wait two or three months for customer service requests. We promised to process it within one day, and now it has been shortened to 5 minutes. It is for these reasons that Binance has developed rapidly, and of course luck also accounts for a part of the factor.
Security pressure and system performance issues faced by Binance in its early days
Colin: I was working at Bitmain at the time, and I felt that Binance was under a lot of pressure in its first year, especially in terms of security. At that time, the team was small and the industry security infrastructure was not perfect. Was there a lot of pressure in dealing with security issues such as hacker attacks?
CZ: That’s right. For any exchange, the security pressure brought by hacker attacks has always been great. Security is the key to the operation of an exchange. Without security, it is impossible to conduct business. There is a small episode here, which many people may not remember. In the first four months after Binance went online, that is, from July to mid-to-late October, Binance’s withdrawals were manually reviewed. Every withdrawal had to be processed manually, and several withdrawals were processed every few hours.
No one would deal with it at night when the staff was resting. The reason for manual review was that we were particularly worried that if there was a loophole, the automated withdrawal would lead to the loss of all funds. By October, Binance had become one of the top ten exchanges in the world, but withdrawals were still manually operated. However, the bigger challenge at the time was actually system pressure. Binance was developing too fast, users were constantly pouring in, and the system was always stuck. Although the matching engine we advertised was very fast, the surrounding registration system, KYC system, deposit system, withdrawal system, etc. were all stuck, so more attention was paid to optimizing system performance at the time.
Analyzing the FTX incident, does it seem salvageable now?
Colin: The FTX incident was a very serious matter in the cryptocurrency industry. Looking back now, it was ridiculous in the history of the cryptocurrency industry, and Binance was also involved. Looking back now, was it possible for FTX to be saved? Now it seems that its assets can cover user compensation. Although its misappropriation of user assets is a bad behavior and the relevant responsible persons will definitely go to jail, the remaining assets seem to be able to complete the compensation.
CZ: My understanding is that according to the price of cryptocurrencies in U.S. dollars at that time, FTXs existing assets can be converted into U.S. dollars according to the price of the currency at that time. However, if all the Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital currencies held by users at that time were returned to users as they were, the part of these coins that have appreciated to the present cannot be covered by FTXs assets. In other words, if FTX had no problems, the assets in the hands of users now might be three or four times more than what they actually have now. According to the current calculation method, using the currency price at that time to convert to U.S. dollars, and then comparing the current value of FTX assets converted to U.S. dollars, it can be covered. But if users have been holding those coins until now, the market value should be four or five times the current market value. Im not sure if my understanding is completely accurate.
Colin: It seems that the gap is still too big and difficult to fill.
CZ: FTX actually did not fully cover all user assets, but calculated them based on the lower price of the currency at that time. If all digital currencies were returned to users, the money that early users received would be five times what they get now, and this is all the money that users deserve. This is like the Mentougou incident in 2014, when they owed hundreds of millions of yuan, which was a sky-high price at the time, and now the currency price has risen. Although FTX assets can now cover the price of Bitcoin at that time, from the users perspective, if you hold the currency all the time, you will get five times more money now, so users still lost about 70 to 80 percent. Looking back, by the time FTX began to collapse in November 2022, it was too late to save it. If the problem could be discovered earlier, there might be a chance, but there was no way to detect it in advance at that time.
Is the dilemma of centralized exchanges caused by active on-chain economy?
Colin: There is another recent hot topic, I would like to hear your opinion. In the early days, Binance was successful to a large extent because it listed many new coins with high growth, such as BNB and TRON. Later, Binances launchpad and launchpool were also very successful. But in the past year, the on-chain economy has been very active, and many people can get the lowest price on the chain. The listing of coins on the exchange has become a signal that the price has peaked, which is in sharp contrast to the early days. I think neither Binance nor other exchanges are quite clear about how to deal with it. What do you think about this?
CZ: I think there are at least two reasons for this. On the one hand, as the platform grows bigger and bigger, only relatively stable coins can be listed. If a small new coin with a market value of only 10 million, or even only a few million or hundreds of thousands of dollars, is listed on Binance, its price fluctuation will be too large. So from the perspective of large exchanges, in order to avoid excessive price fluctuations, only coins with larger market values can be selected. This is a natural limitation of large exchanges. However, large exchanges can also set up innovation zones or support these small coins in Web3 wallets. There are still ways to solve this problem. Personally, I think Binance is not doing very well in this regard. In the past one or two years, Binance has been distracted by some things in the United States and some of my personal affairs. I have basically been in the United States for the past year to handle personal affairs.
On the other hand, MEMEcoins have been very popular in the past year. The big exchanges basically did not seize this opportunity. Instead, it is easier to participate on the chain, especially on the Solana chain. There are some sayings here, and I am not sure whether they are true or not. Solana used to be closely connected with FTX. After FTX collapsed, many people on Solana lost a lot of money and lost the support of the exchange, so they chose to pump and dump. It is not appropriate to do this on the Binance chain. It is problematic from both moral and legal perspectives. In addition, in the past few years, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, such as Gary Gensler, has basically identified various coins as securities, and the only ones that can be clearly not identified as securities are those that have no practical use, that is, MEME coins, so MEME coins are not easy to be sued. MEME coins have no other practical utility and promises, which is just suitable for pumping and dumping, and they have no close cooperation with exchanges. They are decentralized, so they are very popular on Solana. Its like we were lucky to catch a good opportunity in 2017. The past one or two years have been the opportunity for MEME coins. I think this is quite interesting and I don’t judge whether it is good or bad. Since the industry is developing in this direction, as a Binance shareholder, industry KOL or OG, I will support it as long as it is beneficial to the development of the industry, so I also encourage everyone to support MEME coins.
Do all centralized transactions have to comply with regulations?
Colin: Data shows that Binance’s capital inflow last year exceeded the sum of all other exchanges. This shows that although Binance has been in trouble this year, its development is still very stable. However, centralized exchanges are now facing compliance challenges. Compliance exchanges have difficulty making profits, and offshore exchanges are facing increasing regulatory risks. Exchange owners may have problems traveling to Japan and Europe, just like the Telegram owner who was arrested as soon as he landed in France. What do you think of the current predicament of exchanges? Do you think they will all move towards compliance in the future?
CZ: I think so. As long as the platform develops to a certain scale, it must comply with regulations. From the perspective of the regulatory authorities, small platforms may not be able to manage or temporarily ignore them, but large platforms are definitely the focus of supervision. Just like Binance, it has been regulated for a long time, so it must take the road of compliance. Binance has many restrictions, such as the Web3 wallet associated with the exchange, and Binances wallets need to undergo KYC certification. Although users control their own assets in the Web3 wallet (using MPC technology), some exchanges that are slightly smaller than Binance do not require KYC certification for their Web3 wallets. This is something Binance cannot do. These second-tier exchanges are also not small in scale, but they often do not do KYC certification, so Binance is more restricted, and large exchanges are generally more restricted, but compliance is the only way. Moreover, in the process of compliance, regulatory enforcement is not balanced, and not all platforms are treated equally.
Colin: It is indeed different. Now you may donate like Justin Sun to Trump, but you may not have the chance when the Democrats are in power.
CZ: Yes. But I think the regulation will be improved sooner or later, especially since the US is now very supportive of digital currency. I think the US will introduce a series of very positive regulatory provisions for the digital currency industry. The regulatory provisions proposed by the new US Securities and Exchange Commission are very clear and much more positive than before. In this way, the overall regulatory environment will be better and the regulatory framework will be more complete. Platforms that have obtained licenses and meet regulatory requirements will have a better chance of growing and developing.
As you just said, although MEME coins are very popular now, judging from the inflow of funds, the inflow of funds on Binance platform last year exceeded the total of other exchanges. This means that many retail investors, especially those who are new to digital currency, will choose large exchanges that seem to be the most regulated and stable and are still in operation after multiple reviews. So many new users tend to choose this kind of more stable platform. MEME coins are indeed very popular, but most of the people who play MEME coins are OGs. Although there are new people joining, early adopters account for a large proportion. After playing with MEME coins, many people will still choose to buy Bitcoin when investing in digital currency, and they may still choose large exchanges when buying Bitcoin. So different fields will have different development speeds, regulatory pressures and models. I think this is good. An industry should have multiple different platforms.
Hong Kong has not done enough and will be more relaxed in the future due to pressure from the United States
Colin: What do you think of the current regulatory policies in Hong Kong? You just mentioned the United States, which will be a major positive for digital currencies in the next two to four years. At present, the entire Chinese region may regard Hong Kong as a breakthrough in the field of cryptocurrency, and the latest report of the Peoples Bank of China also encourages Hong Kong to actively explore cryptocurrency policies.
CZ: I think Chinas strategy is very wise, using Hong Kong as a pilot area. In the past four years, the United States has been very unsupportive and even suppressive of digital currencies. In contrast, Hong Kong is more friendly to digital currencies, but Hong Kong may be a little behind in this regard. Hong Kongs existing regulatory terms are quite restrictive. Take Japan as an example. Seven years ago, Japan also had many regulatory restrictions on listing coins and futures, and the regulations were unclear. However, about three or four years ago, Japans restrictions on listing coins were basically completely lifted. Hong Kong has not yet reached this level of relaxation. But recently, after communicating with some senior officials from the Hong Kong regulatory authorities, I feel that Hong Kong has begun to relax its regulations. Now that the United States has made some progress in digital currency regulation, Hong Kong must not lag behind. I think Hong Kong will soon make major positive adjustments. The adjustment of regulatory policies needs to be gradual. Hong Kongs regulatory terms were indeed tight before, and it should be more competitive in the future, so I am still optimistic about Hong Kongs development in this regard.
The most important article in my life: Principles
Original text: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/gUU-tp4U9X43qIkX9niCgQ?token=386014621lang=zh_CN
Colin: Next, I want to talk about your previous article Principles. This article has been widely circulated. Many people think it summarizes your many years of entrepreneurial experience. There are many interesting ideas in it, such as your hope to cooperate more with people who actively find you, and about work efficiency, if you can use text instead of phone calls, and if you can use phone calls instead of meetings. Now thinking back on this article, what points do you most want to convey to the outside world? After all these years, do you have any new ideas to add? I heard that you are writing a book. Is it an extension of this article?
CZ: Yes, it took me about two or three years to write that article.
Colin: It took me so long to write.
CZ: Yeah, I didnt expect it to take so long at first, and I added content bit by bit while writing. It was only after I read Ray Dalios book Principles that I thought about writing one myself. But I couldnt write it at first. Later, I met with Ray and asked him how he wrote the book Principles. He told me to think about the decisions I made that day and why I made them every night. If there are principled factors behind some decisions, write down the principles. After hearing what he said, I started writing a little bit every day. I would review the meetings I had that day, the decisions I made, and the reasons for making the decisions. If the reasons were universal, I would record them. This lasted for two or three years before I finished this article, although it is not long, only about 10 pages.
Colin: This is a very important article in your life.
CZ: Yes, it did take a lot of time. Rays advice gave me some ideas, and I slowly wrote down my ideas, and tried to write about things that were different from other peoples thinking. For example, I didnt write about things that everyone knows, such as the company needs to save money. I kept observing myself to see which ideas were different from others. For example, others think that if you can meet in person, dont call, and if you can call, dont send messages, but my view is exactly the opposite.
This article took me a lot of effort, and the team also helped me polish it, but the main content is indeed written by me. In addition, I am currently writing a book about my personal experience. I originally hoped to finish it and publish it at the beginning of this year, that is, in the first or second quarter. I didn’t have much to do in the United States before, and I couldn’t meet many people, so I spent a lot of time writing. But now I have encountered a bottleneck. Although I don’t have a job, I am still very busy. I don’t know why.
The future focus will be on participating in investments and communicating with early-stage entrepreneurs.
Colin: There was news before that you might be more involved in Binance Labs investment work. Are you mainly busy with investment-related matters now?
CZ: Yes, we are going to give Binance Labs a new name, which may be released this week (it has already been released, Yzi Labs). I am indeed doing some investments now, but I don’t see many projects in terms of investment. I prefer to communicate with early entrepreneurs, because I am also an entrepreneur and I am happy to support other entrepreneurs, so I pay more attention to early investment projects. Recently, I have been communicating frequently with founders from all walks of life, and everyone is very respectful. Many people come to me to meet and chat, and I try to give advice as much as I can.
I learned a lot from talking to these founders. I have been focusing on Binances centralized exchange business for the past seven or eight years, and now I have been exposed to many new fields, such as AI, bioscience, and many new things in the blockchain field. You may think that I know everything about blockchain, but in fact, when you are busy running a centralized exchange, there are many new things that you dont have time to learn in depth. I only know a little bit. Now I have the opportunity to spend more time learning with these founders and understanding the new things they do, which I find very interesting.
Views on Ethereum’s predicament
Colin: Another interesting question, do you usually check Twitter? Vitalik has been attacked badly recently, and Justin Sun gave him some advice yesterday. What do you think of the current predicament facing Ethereum? Do you have any suggestions?
CZ: I think this is more of a public relations crisis, a PR problem. Ethereum itself is actually still very strong. Looking at the market value alone, it is larger than other coins except Bitcoin. Although Solana has a fast growth, its current market value is still behind Ethereum. To be honest, Justin Sun has always liked to take advantage of hot topics, and he has done a good job in public relations. However, Justin Suns suggestions to Vitalik are like small exchanges giving suggestions to large exchanges. There is still a gap in business level. Of course, Justin Sun is very smart and has his strengths. Every founder has his own strengths.
Vitalik is a technical genius, which cannot be ignored or denied. ERC-20, NFT, Soul-bound Token were all invented by him, all of which were born in Ethereum. He has made great contributions to the entire industry. Although the price of Ethereum has not risen much in the short term, it is still considerable in terms of overall market value.
From my perspective, I support every entrepreneur in the industry. Vitalik and Justin Sun have had a hard time. For people who speculate in cryptocurrencies, it is difficult to guarantee that they will only make money and not lose money. It is impossible for the price to rise all the time. The industry is bound to fluctuate. I suggest that everyone maintain a long-term investment mentality and not be emotional because of the rise and fall of the currency price. From its birth to now, the overall increase of Ethereum has exceeded that of Bitcoin, which is not easy. Vitalik has recently sent out several tweets, which may not be the right time.
Colin: I feel a little anxious.
CZ: And his way of speaking may not be acceptable to others. He is a technical person, a straight man, young, and speaks directly. For example, he said that he controlled or specified certain aspects, which triggered more criticism. But as industry practitioners, we should be more tolerant of him and not put a lot of pressure on him because of small things. Starting a business is really not easy.
Responding to the difficulties faced by cryptocurrency startups
Colin: And this industry needs diversity. Not everyone can focus only on Solana, or issue MEME coins, and not everyone can be like Justin Sun. The industry should have different development directions. You just mentioned that you are mainly communicating with entrepreneurs and supporting them, but cryptocurrency startups seem to face some difficulties. Recently, there is a popular saying that good products do not need tokens, and good tokens do not need products. In any case, cryptocurrency startups seem to face a problem. Except for financial businesses, it seems difficult to make money in other fields, and the entrepreneurial path is relatively narrow. Do you have this feeling? What suggestions or ideas do you have for these entrepreneurs?
CZ: This is the first time I heard this sentence today. But I have a completely different view. I think there are many opportunities in the cryptocurrency circle now. There are a large number of projects that can not only do the projects themselves well, but also perform well in the token performance. On the contrary, I think that if there are only tokens but no actual project support, it is difficult to understand how its value can be maintained in the long run. Even if MEME coins are issued, there needs to be value support behind MEME coins, and it cannot rely solely on hype. So I think there is a lot to do in the industry. The transaction volume of decentralized exchanges is increasing, and more and more people are using them, but every blockchain will freeze when the transaction volume is high. Even Solana, which is known for its fast speed, has recently experienced freezes. And there is still a lot of room for improvement in the ease of use of wallets.
There are still many industries that have not been served by blockchain, such as scientific research. Many scientists need financing to conduct research. Although there may be many failures, once successful, the rewards may be very generous. This model is feasible, but it has not yet been fully realized. Now some politicians have also begun to issue MEME coins. How to provide value support for these MEME coins after they are issued also needs to be explored.
From my perspective, I have always been an entrepreneur. I see countless opportunities, but I always feel that I cant do enough. Good entrepreneurs are always the most scarce resource. People who trade in coins may complain why the coins they bought cant soar immediately. But if you extend the time a little bit, when Bitcoin was $60,000 a few months ago, everyone was very happy and felt that it was a new high. Now it has reached $100,000, but everyone is still complaining. I think we cant expect it to rise every day, and we should look at it from a long-term perspective.
Talk about your views on Bitcoin price trends
Colin: How high do you think Bitcoin can rise in this cycle?
CZ: Many people ask me this question, but I really cant say. But I think Bitcoin has not reached its peak yet. Trump has just taken office, and a series of new measures such as new compliance clauses in the United States have not yet been introduced. I think there should be a lot of positive developments in the future. I have always been optimistic about the entire industry. Even in the worst bear market, I remain optimistic, and the same is true in the bull market. So I have always been optimistic, but my views may not be completely accurate.
Changing attitudes toward U.S. digital currency policy
Colin: In your last interview in Dubai, I remember that Trump had not yet taken office. At that time, you said that you did not want to have any relationship with the United States. Has your attitude changed now? You talked a lot today, and it seems that you are still very confident. But after you get closer to Trump or the United States, if the Democrats come to power again in two or four years and the policies are reversed, how will you deal with this situation?
CZ: Yes, the last interview was probably before the US election, around the end of October or the beginning of November. At that time, the US election had not started yet, so the situation in the United States was not very clear. No one knew who would be elected. Even if he was elected, it was not clear how optimistic Trump was about digital currency.
But there have been big changes in recent months. Not only was Trump elected, but he also issued relevant policies, which was not expected before. Now a series of newly appointed officials in the United States, especially those in core government positions, are very supportive of digital currency. It is obvious from this change of leadership that digital currency has a very large influence. Many young people hold digital currency. If they are not friendly to digital currency, it will directly affect their wealth, which will affect their voting. This is an instinctive reaction. So it is obvious that digital currency can no longer be ignored. I personally feel that the previous faction believed that suppressing digital currency would gain more support, but the current election results show that this perception is wrong. So I think that in the next four years, digital currency will have greater development, and it is very unlikely to return to the previous suppression attitude four years later.
Just like the Internet back then, everyone questioned whether it was good or bad at the beginning, but after it developed to a certain extent, its recognition could not be ignored. So the risk four years later, first, is relatively small, and second, at present, the talent pool of the Republican Party in the United States is very strong, such as the vice president, who also has a high reputation. So we will see what will happen four years later. But now the United States has a positive attitude towards digital currency, which is a very good thing for the entire industry. Now all countries are actively promoting blockchain regulatory terms, and the terms are becoming more and more friendly, which is very positive. Binance does not currently serve American users, but there is an independent company called Binance US. Although there is Binance in the name, it is a completely independent company from Binance. Because of some problems before, its scale has become much smaller, but it is still in operation now. We hope that it can develop healthily in the United States and continue to grow with the help of this wave of good news in the United States.
I think Binance US products are very competitive. They have reached 40% to 50% of Coinbases global trading volume twice, but both times they fell due to objective reasons from other third parties. So as long as the regulatory terms are fair, it is very competitive, and I am not particularly worried about this.
Share your daily life
Colin: Some of my friends would like to ask you a few more questions. First, how do you spend your day? Second, your New Years resolution every year was to get six or eight pack abs. How is your progress now? Third, what is your favorite city?
CZ: Okay. As for my daily schedule, I am much more relaxed now than before. I have about 7 or 8 meetings and a few phone calls every day, but now I can exercise every day, go to the gym, and I like two sports at the moment.
Both of these sports are board-related, one is skiing and the other is kitesurfing. When there is wind, I play for an hour or two every day, and the rest of the time is spent in meetings and the like. My life now is more like a retired investor, much better than when I was the CEO of Binance. Speaking of six-pack abs, when I just got out of prison, I could vaguely see six-pack abs, and I took a photo.
Colin: Is it because the food is light?
CZ: The food there was really bad, so I ate less. When I first got out, I could vaguely see my six-pack abs. When I have the courage one day, I might post the photo I took in the toilet. Its not a beautiful photo. After I got out of prison, it was hard to keep my six-pack abs because I didnt eat well before. It was hard to control myself when I suddenly had delicious food. You need to control your diet to train your abs, but I dont have strong self-control over my diet now, so my six-pack abs are gone. That was probably the closest I ever got to having six-pack abs. What was the third question? Oh, my favorite city.
I like many cities, and each city has its own unique features. I feel very comfortable living in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The business environment and digital currency environment here are good, and the national management and public security are also very good. Of course, there are also bad places. This is a desert, and it is really hot in summer, but it is very comfortable in winter, and it is very comfortable now. I also like Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore. There are also many good cities in Europe, but Europe is currently developing slowly in digital currency, so I don’t go there very often. I don’t go to South America and the United States very often because they are far away. I am now mostly active in the Middle East and Asia. In Thailand, the traffic is quite congested, but I like it in other aspects.
Colin: You can only travel by motorcycle.
CZ: Yes, but when I go to a place, I usually stay in a hotel. I don’t spend much time on the road, and I meet a lot of people in the hotel.
New Year greetings to Chinese entrepreneurs and investors
Colin: Finally, thank you CZ for taking the time. I hope we can have another chance to communicate with you next time. As the Chinese New Year is coming soon, could you please say something to Chinese entrepreneurs and investors?
CZ: Great, thank you very much Colin for giving me this opportunity. I think we can communicate frequently in the future. In many Asian communities before, I usually let He Yi take charge of the Asian market, and I mainly focused on the English market. Thats how we divided the work. So I may not communicate enough with the Chinese community. Now that Im retired, I will take care of both sides as an individual.
Here, my advice to everyone is to look at this industry, technology and industry development with the right attitude and patience. Whether you are an investor or an entrepreneur, the entire industry is in an upward period. Although there is not obvious progress every day, the situation is very favorable from a monthly or annual perspective. Dont be anxious. Whether it is starting a business, issuing coins or investing, you must do your own thing steadily. I think this year will be a very good year. Here, I wish all my friends and supporters in the Chinese community a happy new year. In addition, I will spend more time in the Chinese community in the future, and we can communicate more in the future.
Colin: Okay, thanks CZ.
