If you think CZ's statement is just 'tired of entrepreneurship and not wanting to struggle anymore', then you really are underestimating it.
A very intriguing signal came from the Davos site—Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) publicly stated that he 'really doesn't have the drive to engage in that kind of high-intensity entrepreneurship anymore, and mainly focuses on investment and strategic layout.' This statement is not made casually, but is a true reflection of an entrepreneur's mindset after going through a rolling life.
A person who has brought an exchange to the global top level, and has fully experienced extreme squeezes, regulatory storms, and identity switches, chooses to say in public—'I am mainly investing now', essentially marking a stage line for the entire industry.
This is not about lying flat; it's about making judgments.
the judgment that the industry is no longer suitable for relying on 'working hard to create exchanges' to generate the next round of growth.
In a recent public forum, CZ spoke very frankly: he no longer wants or needs to go through that high-intensity startup experience from 0 to 1 again. For him, what is more important now is to stand in a higher position and see which directions are worthy of long-term bets.
Many people overlook a key background:
In December 2023, Binance processed over 7 billion dollars in withdrawals in a single day, with 14 billion dollars flowing out in a week.
This is not a pressure test on a PPT; it is real liquidity combat that has been endured. CZ also casually mentioned traditional banks—under a fractional reserve system, when faced with this scale, everyone knows the outcome.
So his current judgment of the industry is actually very 'unfiltered.'
In his view, the cryptocurrency industry has already produced two truly mature tracks:
Exchanges + stablecoins.
These two things no longer need to prove their value through emotional narratives; the infrastructure is already established.
And next, the real potential for incremental growth lies in three new pipelines:
First, asset tokenization.
it's not just talk. He is already discussing with more than ten governments about bringing real assets onto the blockchain and creating economic efficiency in a lower-friction way. This direction relies on compliance, patience, and structural design.
Second, payments.
It's not about performance-based applications like 'using cryptocurrency to pay for coffee,' but rather the integration of cryptocurrency systems in the background with traditional payments. Only when users cannot perceive 'whether this is on-chain or off-chain' will the payment volume truly rise.
Third, AI × Crypto.
CZ's perspective is very clear: in the future, a large number of AI agents will have real payment needs, and cryptocurrencies are their most natural settlement tools. This is not about storytelling, but a calm judgment on 'how machines transfer money between each other.'
You will notice a very obvious change:
He no longer talks about 'what products I want to create,'
but rather discussing 'which structures are worth long-term investment.'
To put it simply, CZ's current role is no longer that of a front-line entrepreneur.
It is more like someone standing upstream in the industry, observing how funds, technology, and policies are re-converging.
The true meaning of this statement is not 'I'm tired,'
But rather—
The era of wild growth has ended; the real phase of focusing on fundamentals has just begun.
