Binance Founder CZ on what it took to build the world's largest crypto exchange and stay #1
episode
Talking Tokens: Crypto, Onchain Finance, Investing
23 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
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How will AI reshape crypto payments in the near future?
The way I want to think about AI is the way I want to think about the internet, right? So can you say that you don't want to use the internet, right? So um that's probably not a good thing to do. We should view AI as a productivity tool, right? So today AI can search for the best hotels and the best flights for us, but they don't book it for us. That's gonna come very soon. Um I think that's gonna come within months, uh definitely not years.
I am excited to sit down with CZ, the founder and former CEO of Binance. He probably needs no introduction, but I'm gonna give one anyways. CZ, it's so great to see you and thank you for taking the time.
Well, thanks for joining our event and uh thanks for having me. Yeah.
For sure. I mean, this year marks nine years of Binance. And before founding Binance, you also worked at a major exchange.
What problem did CZ identify in 2017 that led him to create Binance?
When you kind of look back to twenty seventeen and the market and your life back then. What was kind of the problem that you were trying to solve that you felt no other exchange was solving well enough that made you really want to go out and create Binance?
Yeah, I think um well I've spent my entire career before that working on order execution exchange systems. So when I look at the exchange space back in 2017, I thought the products could could be better, the technology could be better, the matching engine could be a lot faster. the security could be better, the customer service can be a lot better. Um the exchanges then wasn't really prioritizing the users. So I thought this definitely room to to make improvements. Um but we got lucky that there was a ICO run and we caught we caught that uh we caught that a rise. Yeah.
Yeah. Do you think twenty seventeen C Z is the same as twenty twenty six CZ?
I'm a lot uh I I'm a lot older, but may may may or may not be wiser, but uh I I've experienced a lot more challenges. Let's let's just put it that way. So I think a lot of have hap a lot of things a lot of uh things have happened in the last nine years. Um I'm a bit mentally, physically older now.
How did Binance climb to the #1 spot within its first year?
So
That's fair. Okay. Maybe if you could give yourself twenty seventeen self a piece of advice, what would that be? Knowing what you know now?
Well, I think well, n obviously knowing what I know now, I would tell my younger self to say, look, uh spend more time on learn about legal compliance aspects. Um, I and also learn about politics. Before like no twenty seventeen, I was just a tech guy. Right. I was focused on building a better product um uh and protect the users. But I think I mis uh misjudged the importance of um the legal aspects of it, which is a weak area for me. So uh that's one piece of advice I would give. Um and also I wasn't very clear I wasn't very knowledgeable on international laws and how different countries apply laws. Some US laws apply globally. Um some are no and they also have a very long look back period.
Why does community‑driven development matter for Binance’s success?
So I think that's one area I would um tell myself. The second area is I would actually just tell myself to go faster. Um there was a lot of stuff that there was a lot of areas where I hesitated about whether to push a product out or not. I think knowing uh what I know now, Um not not so much with hindsight. It's just that for as an entrepreneur, it's much better to push a product out early and then have market feedback. Um I think there were still a few things we did a little bit relatively late. Um, for example, Binance launched futures two years into the journey. Um, if I was to do it again, I would probably launch that much earlier.
Yeah. No, that's a good point. And I think a lot of times like founders, they build so much in like stealth mode and in hiding, and then they launch it to market and they expect it to be like this amazing like firework experience. And then like sometimes they get feedback of like, we don't like this, right? And it it would have been so much better if they put it out sooner. Um, but Binance also like yeah, surpassed like dozens of exchanges and it it climbed its way to it the top very quickly, right?
What product strategies keep users returning to Binance?
Was it within the first year or second year?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How will AI reshape crypto payments in the near future?
0:00–0:50
2
What problem did CZ identify in 2017 that led him to create Binance?
0:50–2:03
3
How did Binance climb to the #1 spot within its first year?
2:03–2:55
4
Why does community‑driven development matter for Binance’s success?
2:55–3:54
5
What product strategies keep users returning to Binance?
3:54–4:22
6
Why does CZ consider crypto a foundational technology alongside the internet and AI?
4:22–4:57
7
How are AI and crypto intersecting to create new use cases?
4:57–6:05
8
What does the future hold for the convergence of traditional and on‑chain finance?
6:05–22:59
Speakers
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