Exclusive Interview with CZ: I am very fortunate to be "forced into retirement", but I will not return to Binance.

Video Interview: CZ, Founder of Binance; Farokh, Encryption Host

Compiled by｜Odaily Planet Daily（@OdailyChina）

Translator｜CryptoLeo（@LeoAndCrypto）

Recently, cryptocurrency host Farokh interviewed Binance founder CZ in Dubai, discussing CZ's views on the current and future state of cryptocurrency, Trump, memes, and some previous experiences (Farokh also interviewed Trump in September 2024 about the second assassination he faced and the state of cryptocurrency adoption in the U.S., which you can check out the original video if interested). After the content was released yesterday, CZ also posted several times stating that this is one of the best interviews he has ever done, which includes a lot of information that has not been shared before.

Odaily Planet Daily has extracted key parts for compilation. Due to the lengthy dialogue and frequent interactions between the two, this article does not adopt a Q&A format, and instead uses the first-person perspective of CZ to narrate the key points discussed in the interview. Below is the full compilation:

1. Daily life in Dubai, Memecoin, fields favored by CZ, and the politicization of Bitcoin

This section focuses on CZ's daily life and work in Dubai, as well as CZ's views on Memecoin:

Dubai life, work, and entertainment

Although I can choose to live anywhere in the world, Dubai is truly a great place; it is one of the best-managed countries in the world. I live here and love it. Dubai is a bit crowded now, like many communities, it is developing rapidly, and there are too many people here. Abu Dhabi, on the other hand, is quieter and more reserved, making it more suitable for reflection, but it is also very powerful.

I studied computer science for 4 years at McGill University in Montreal, and I found a job that pays more than I might have after graduation, so I said I might stay a bit longer, and here I am now. I don't watch sports games much anymore, nor do I listen to music very often. When I want to relax, I listen to some audiobooks, but listening to just one book gets boring quickly, so I also play some small games like Candy Crush, which might sound a bit silly, but it allows me to keep reading and learning.

In addition, I would relax with my friends, such as having dinner or chatting for a while, and then I would exercise a little bit every day. My life is simple, but very good for me. I think the definition of a good life is that you're happy with yourself, that you recognize yourself, that you know you're doing the right thing, that you have a sense of purpose. You are able to take care of yourself and want to help others.

Because we work from home, there isn't a lot of leisure time, but it's much better now after being released from prison, as everything else was taken away from me there. You find that you miss your family the most, right? So after that, I will have some leisure time. I don't look at my phone, I spend a little time every day, like most people, making phone calls at home, usually in bed. I also lie in front of the computer like I do in bed, because sitting for too long is bad for my back.

The story of Broccoli and CZ's first experience with memes

My pet dog Broccoli is about two and a half years old, very obedient. When I first got Broccoli, it was only 1 year old. I bought a bike from Amazon to exercise with it, and it ran 13 kilometers for the first time. As for the name Broccoli, in Chinese, many people name their pets based on color; Broccoli is brown and somewhat resembles a cake, but I think the name Broccoli is more interesting.

Of course, the most interesting thing is that after I returned from the United States, I might not have had much energy to pay attention to the industry at that time, and I didn't know that the development of Memecoin was so fast. Everyone liked Memes back then. At that time, there weren't many truly practical tokens in encryption, so I thought I'd figure these out myself. The process was actually very interesting, but Memecoin is really hard to learn. Once a picture is published, many communities get involved.

For example, I don't know why everyone wants to ask me what my pet's name is and to send a picture. I also don't know if there will be that much PvP when you post a picture. So I just feel it would be interesting, and I indicated that I would post it after 25 hours, trying to create some hype. Then after I posted, it felt like thousands of broccoli Memes appeared, and there were also competing communities, and I learned a lot this way. One thing is clear, I will focus all the communities on dog lovers, which is a very strong cultural community element. I also learned that for Meme traders, they are quite tired, chatting in group chats all day, looking for any new hot spots, and so on. So, I learned a lot about Memes.

But I don't think I'm going to be a meme trader, I'm not even a crypto trader. I've always been a builder of platforms, and there's a difference between building a platform for people and trading it yourself. But I think we're going to follow the voice of the community, so we're not going to try to decide where the community is going anyway. So, if the community is all over the meme coin, we want to support it. That's why I said, let me take a look at the BNB eco meme, so people want me to spend more time interacting with the meme coin, because I do bring a certain level of attention to the BNB meme.

Then I also want to help the BNB ecosystem, but due to some previous restrictions, I cannot participate in things like CEX, BNB ecosystem, etc., so I spend my time on Memes that I can do.

CZ promising areas

Regarding the current encryption, I believe that AI blockchain requires AI, which is a post-blockchain technology. Then there is DeSci, which has a positive impact on encryption in the long term. Science is difficult and takes a long time, but Meme traders are not interested in this; they want to make a profit the next day. However, I think the long-term development of science will have a huge impact on technological training, such as using smart contracts to fund scientific projects and delivering based on project milestones or timelines, incentivizing millions of small research labs around the world to conduct research, combined with big data AI capabilities. I think we will see significant acceleration in drug discovery and understanding of human biology, so all these things are developing.

In addition, there are other more obvious things, such as RWA, large traditional companies doing this, like BlackRock. ETFs are also interesting because now we are bringing traditional institutional funds into encryption, most of the funds in the United States are institutional funds, and some places are different, but I think we have seen the impact of Bitcoin growing. Because most ETFs are based on Bitcoin. So I think there are many things changing.

The politicization of Bitcoin conflicts with its decentralized spirit.

The politicization of Bitcoin also has its duality. To some extent, as an early adopter of Bitcoin and a believer in decentralization, I somewhat hope that the government becomes the last buyer, especially in terms of the government purchasing Bitcoin. Some of us hope that all retail investors and consumers will first buy some Bitcoin, and then the government will start buying. The government's purchase of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin would be very beneficial for the price of cryptocurrency, but it might also damage the original decentralized spirit of Satoshi Nakamoto, depending on a balance point.

But overall, I believe that in a decentralized world, we cannot control what others do. Just like we cannot control what the government wants to do, the situation in the United States has completely reversed from what it was 100 days ago, so Trump only worked in office for 100 days, but they are now very, very professional. Cryptocurrency has made the U.S. government smart enough to now realize that buying Bitcoin is a great thing. Therefore, now other countries must follow suit, which is beneficial for encryption.

Moreover, the United States has also triggered a domino effect in some aspects, such as I am currently providing encryption advice for Pakistan, and for example, Abu Dhabi MGX has invested in Binance.

2. Problems in the encryption industry, media reports on social media, and prison life

The second part focuses on the current issues in the encryption industry as seen by CZ, as well as his insights on false reports from foreign media and his experiences in prison.

encryption industry issues

CZ: I think too much capital is flowing into Meme coins, and people are too focused on Meme coins, but Meme coins are very short-term, with 99.9999% likely to fail. CoinMarketCap tracks 14 million tokens, which is a high-risk area, but fortunately, most Meme traders understand these risks, and this situation often occurs, so they accept it.

It has also shifted too much attention from practical projects. I think in the past four years, there was a significant risk in running a proper encryption project under the previous U.S. government. The SEC would sue you, claiming it's a security, etc. Fortunately, many similar lawsuits have been dismissed recently, so now I think we will see more builders. Therefore, I believe this industry will move forward in a healthy way, in the right direction.

Foreign media "distorted" reports and market predictions

Regarding the previous WSJ's smear articles about me, from my perspective, it's similar to traditional media; they pick you and try to target you. So they chose Elon, chose Trump, and chose me, along with many others. Then they publish completely negative articles about you. Fortunately, these things no longer work. I believe the fact is that what people care about is not entirely controlled by the media. We can have face-to-face conversations like this, we have our own channels, we have our own voices. So social media is a great platform, a great tool, that allows us to express our own voices.

However, some traditional regulatory bodies, such as politicians, still read more traditional news. So sometimes they have a distorted view of what is happening. Unfortunately, there is only so much we can do to try to correct it, and at least now we have our own channels. I once talked to a friend at Bloomberg, and they told me they are really considering shutting down the investigative journalism department. Because investigative journalists are not really investigating issues; they are just investigating someone who sets their own agenda. They look for any little thing that can be twisted into a non-news narrative, which causes significant damage to the company's reputation, as Bloomberg is a technology company, not a media company. Therefore, the media does not bring them profits, while also harming some people. Bloomberg sells terminals, and they make a lot of money from those terminals.

I have also heard that over 30% of news is actually written by AI, but those are big news stories, not investigative articles, and people read more big news. Of course, because these are data, they are facts, and will be published quickly, like the market is falling, there is actually a lot of discussion about this. So I believe the media industry will change unless they change their standards. In some ways, I also agree that Polymarket is doing well; their predictions are better than the media, which is also the role of encryption.

Prison life and a twisted and strange ending

The experience in prison changed me in some way, making me realize that health is the most important, followed by family, and then work and other things. In prison, you won't miss gourmet food, but I do miss my bed a bit, I miss my family, and I won't stop working, even though I resigned as the CEO of Binance. I am a Builder, I am lucky, I am not young but not very old either, so I still have the energy to do things, therefore, I am still active, but I am doing different things now.

I am providing some assistance, just like I advise other founders, meeting with them, talking to them, learning from them, and I also established the Giggle education platform. So I am still busy doing other things, and one can always make a positive impact anywhere. Furthermore, I am now more cautious than before. After getting out of prison, I also took a few months off; I am less active on X and haven't participated in many activities. It took me a few months to slowly reintegrate into society, and now I still keep in touch with a few friends there; you can see friends everywhere there.

There are many people in prison who have been excessively punished, and they find it very difficult to find lawyers, especially a very expensive external lawyer. They have no pictures or internet, and can only use a very outdated messaging system. They can call their families, but it is only what their families want to tell them, 15 minutes each time, 500 minutes a month, and I also have no internet. So, friendships can be formed everywhere there, and some people send messages to tell me the price of bitcoin.

But there are TVs in prisons, most of which broadcast series and sports, and I don't watch sports, so I don't watch TV either. But some of the people in prison kind of want to know about cryptocurrency, and I like it, it's a channel, just like a financial channel. I can see the development of Nvidia, I know that President Trump was shot, and it all happened during my time in prison.

I also saw that Trump faced 34 criminal charges, one of which was bringing documents to his bathroom. However, you shouldn't charge your former president for bringing classified documents into the bathroom. If this happened in my company and some employees brought classified documents into the bathroom, I would give that person a bonus; they are working hard, after all, they are working in the restroom. I also saw Trump attend the Nashville conference like an encryption professional, which was really great.

I saw the Democratic Party accept encryption two months after I was in prison, just five days before my sentencing, when Senator Elizabeth Warren announced the anti-cryptocurrency bill again, which was very interesting.

Although I describe my prison experience with somewhat beautified language, it is very difficult when you actually go through it. Now I can laugh it off, but there is nothing funny about it. I don't wish this experience on anyone, and I was very resilient at the time.

My first roommate committed a double murder, so once you enter prison, the people in there don’t care who you are; they will treat you equally. Therefore, I didn’t receive any special treatment. I was told that I was under central surveillance in prison. This means that some central office is monitoring me.

But I was a white-collar criminal, and even if charged, I was supposed to be in a minimum security prison, but because I wasn't a U.S. citizen, I ended up in a low security prison even though I volunteered to fly there and deal with these issues, and my roommate was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering two people at the same time, but he served 12 years for doing well. He was moved to a medium-level cell, then to the lowest cell, but I was put there, and the prison grouped you by race. As a result, they grouped their Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans into a category known as Pacific Islanders. So, so I shared a cell with him for a couple of weeks, but we got along just fine, so, but when it came time to actually go through it, I was scared.

The prison takes your photo, asks some questions, and changes the script search. This prison resembles a three-story building with two rows of salespeople facing each other. Most of the time, you can walk around inside the prison, as the cell doors are open, and there are about 240 people inside. As soon as you walk in, you will see that some people have similar tattoos, such as large individuals with tattoos on their faces and heads; they all look very similar.

They were all shouting at each other when you walked by, which isn't fun. The guard told me I was in room A Five, and when I got there and tried to open the door, it was locked. However, after a minute, a guard who looked like a vampire came over and opened it for me. When I opened the door, everyone knew I was the new fish. In reality, everyone was very polite and friendly. Once you got to know them, they understood I had no issues.

They all look like very fierce people, but they are all good people, with no problems between prisoners or guards. But another thing that is most painful is the mental aspect; I always worry that they might make me stay there for more than four months.

You know, there may be some other random issues that arise during this period, generally happening in a lot of emails. They can accuse me again, like being trapped in the "Hotel California", able to check in but not able to leave. This is what I worry about the most, and I believe I will get through it. But there are too many unexpected events during this time, even when I was taken to the halfway house (re-entry training facility) when I should have had another month and a half, the last month and a half, but 14 days in they arrested me again and put me in detention because the immigration office said my visa had expired, so I was ordered to stay in this country. We applied for a longer extension, they denied it, I said I want to stay in this country's prison.

They locked me in a detention center, and then my lawyer found out about it, illegal detention contact, and later they never brought me back to the halfway house, all of these events will appear in the book I am writing.

3. SBF, Trump's encryption methods, and the leadership of the UAE

The third part focuses on CZ's insights on SBF, Trump, and his Meme coin TRUMP:

It's hard for me to comment on SBF.

It's hard for me to comment on SBF. I think I don't wish for anyone to have a prison experience, but I believe that such misconduct involving fraud, scams, and embezzlement should not happen. I also don't think the sentencing time in the U.S. is long; there are ways to reduce it. For good behavior, in general, every 30 days of good behavior can earn you 10 days off. So most people only serve two-thirds of their sentence. I sympathize with everyone in prison. It's not an easy experience. And staying in prison for a long time doesn't make people honest; what I've seen in prison are those who have been sentenced to 10 years and still won't change, no longer considering our own transformation.

They know that most of them have done wrong, but some have conformed there because they were overly punished. I don't know what the best way to correct this is. For example, if you really want this person to change, they need to learn from their mistakes and then make changes.

Trump's encryption methods and UAE leadership

I think he is starting to become more popular. Just like when he was charged with 34 crimes, that was crazy. Then he ran for president. At that time, I thought, well, this will be a great thing. Then Trump became a cryptocurrency professional, and you can see that he really supports cryptocurrency and is not just talking about it. It is clear that this is beneficial for our industry and for anyone with criminal charges, and I can see all of this from prison, so I think we are in a very fortunate industry, with the current President of the United States being very professional and smart, although I have never spoken to Trump.

As a foreign company and a foreign citizen, we cannot make election donations and cannot donate to any political figures. This is something I am very cautious about; I do not engage in anything related to elections, even though I am still a major shareholder at Binance US. There have been many news reports saying that I am trying to exchange our equity for a pardon, which is completely untrue. I have not discussed anything regarding the equity of Binance US with anyone, and many of these stories are fabricated.

I am very optimistic about Sino-US trade and believe that some consensus may be reached soon.

Regarding Trump's TRUMP coin, I've heard many versions of the story from different people. Some say TRUMP is very closely related to it. Others say it's not related at all. Actually, I don't know that much. I know there will be a TRUMP TOP Holder dinner on May 22, but I'm not a holder of TRUMP, you know, because of media reports, I try to avoid certain associations with political figures, otherwise the media will link us together in some way.

In addition, I believe that the leadership in the UAE is very advanced; they are smart and visionary, knowing how to handle very tricky issues. They understood encryption earlier and realized that besides oil, they need to develop other industries they have. I think encryption is an important industry. AI is also significant; the leadership here is very knowledgeable about these future technologies. Furthermore, the leadership here has a very good relationship with the United States, but I don't know the specific details. However, they have deep cooperation in fields like AI, encryption, and so on.

4. CEX & DEX, CZ and Binance and 5 Small Predictions

The fourth part focuses on CZ's optimism for DEX, his decision not to return to Binance, and his 5 small predictions in response to the host's questions:

CZ: Both CEX and DEX are tools for entering encryption, but I believe the future is DEX.

CZ: Many people believe that CEX and DEX are different, but I think this is a misguided view. CEX and DEX are just opposite terms, but they are both tools that provide access to blockchain, just different ways of accessing it. So, for any Builder and solution provider, we should provide everything. Centralization is just a means to provide access. We have also made significant investments in CEX, DEX, Perps, blockchain development, and many other ecosystems.

But DEX is still a market with huge potential, in its infancy, and there is still much to be done. I believe that a fully transparent model may be the best right now, or maybe not. But the fully transparent approach is not suitable for everyone; for example, a large holder has opened a short position of 300 million dollars, but he does not want the trades to be seen by everyone. The trading methods of whales and ordinary users are different.

The future is decentralized, and DEX will be larger than CEX. We hope to invest heavily in these areas. Yes, invest in projects that will impact CEX operations; in fact, we have already invested in multiple DEX and DEX Perps, but I am not concerned about that now.

There is also news about the token being listed on CEX. Short-term speculators will see the CEX listing as the last dance for the project token, but for true Builders, this is just the beginning.

PS: The next section is about the group chat between CZ and other exchange executives: regarding the dispute with SBF and other content, it will not be translated for now.

Can we still return to Binance?

Even if the situation allowed me to return to Binance, I feel that I wouldn't go back. I am lucky to be "forced into retirement." If it were voluntary, I might have exhausted all my energy because I am a bit of a workaholic, working at least six days a week, usually six and a half, with meetings on Saturdays and Sundays. Even when I'm not working, I'm always thinking about work, trying to train my brain to think. I also have some extracurricular activities; I enjoy kitesurfing and am currently learning. I can do a little jump, but I can't land well, but it's okay since it's on water.

Most people define me as a workaholic, but I don't think I will return to Binance as CEO; Binance has excellent leaders now. The company has been running very well for a year and a half without my involvement, and I am still a shareholder, so I still benefit. Binance is a cutting-edge team, and we hope to continue to drive and grow the team.

My current role is more like a mentor and coach, somewhat like a coach standing on the sidelines, actually a new entrepreneur, so I don't really lead another project myself, even though I still work very hard. I'm much more at ease now than when I led Binance; I don't think I have the stamina to do that again, as it requires too much effort, work, and mental strain. I'm very satisfied with one attempt, like someone who succeeded by luck once.

I'm not trying to prove that I'm a capable serial entrepreneur; I do well, but I believe my role should focus more on helping multiple founders grow. That's my mindset now.

5 small predictions

What will the total market value of the encryption market be by the end of this year (cycle end): possibly 5 trillion, I don't know what it will be when this cycle ends, it's a difficult question to answer.

What level will the price of Bitcoin reach in this cycle: 500,000 - 1,000,000 US dollars;

Can TRUMP surpass DOGE: I'm not sure;

Can fartcoin's market cap reach 10 billion dollars: I'm not sure, I don't even know the current price, it's highly unlikely.

Will you raise another dog: Not in the short term.