E189: Binance Founder: This Is The Best Time In History To Get Rich In Crypto

CZ predicts Bitcoin will reach $1 million in substantially less than 25 years, but says its lasting success depends on broader utility, not price alone. He expects Bitcoin to become usable for payments at massive scale and to serve as a retirement or pension reserve. He thinks much of the infrastructure for these uses could be built within the next decade, with adoption developing over the next 25 years. He calls the present the best point in history to take advantage of crypto opportunities.

CZ says Bitcoin could overtake gold “pretty soon,” even though gold is currently about ten times larger. He expects institutional adoption to take years and sees Bitcoin as a better asset than gold, with its prospects strengthened if countries adopt it as a strategic reserve. He also allows for a small chance that another digital currency could surpass Bitcoin first. In his view, Bitcoin is the largest and most decentralized cryptocurrency and is likely to remain crypto’s reserve asset for a long time.

For governments building crypto reserves, CZ recommends allocating among the five largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins. His example places Bitcoin at a little over 50%, Ether at about 20%, and includes BNB; he also describes a typical allocation as more than 50% Bitcoin and 10–20% ETH. He argues that other blockchains and tokenized assets can complement rather than displace Bitcoin. Tokenized stocks, for example, could give people without access to US brokerage accounts a way to gain market exposure on crypto platforms, and may bring some of them to Bitcoin.

CZ expects AI agents to begin transacting with stablecoins, with Bitcoin potentially joining once stablecoin payments are established. He thinks AI will trade on users’ behalf before it pays bills or books hotels, and that agents could make trading ten times more efficient by placing orders directly. The AI companies he has spoken with are focused more on making agents smarter than on payment systems. Some major AI companies are considering tokens for services or data-center access; CZ says some are planning hundreds of gigawatts of capacity over the next few years, requiring trillions of dollars. He expects Bitcoin to remain primarily a savings technology while stablecoins and other crypto serve more machine-to-machine commerce.

CZ urges governments to develop and regularly update crypto rules, build reserves, and consider stablecoins backed by their own currencies. He describes the UAE as having the most progressive regulation, citing ADGM’s global license for Binance.com. He says the US is moving quickly on stablecoins and federal derivatives licensing, while Japan and Hong Kong are advancing and Singapore is more conservative. Kazakhstan is moving quickly, with strong banking support for Binance and Binance Pay QR codes in use; in Pakistan, regulatory progress has outpaced implementation.

He warns that restrictive policy can push countries behind and says governments could suppress Bitcoin activity through law or taxation. A 36% transaction tax, in his example, could eliminate activity and generate no revenue. Beyond Bitcoin, he sees real-world assets and AI as strong areas, expects stablecoins, exchanges, DeFi, and memecoins to keep growing, and says the next major trend is difficult to predict.