Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, said the crypto industry has already come through its harshest "winter" and that the sector's fundamentals remain healthy, according to BlockBeats.
Speaking in Hong Kong during Bitcoin Asia 2026 in an interview with Hong Kong 01, CZ said Hong Kong has a relatively progressive mindset and serves, in large part, as a "sandbox" for China's efforts to explore digital currency and financial innovation. He said that makes the city a suitable place for Web3 development.
Hong Kong needs to keep pushing financial innovation
CZ said Hong Kong must continue trying financial innovation if it wants to maintain its leading position among Asian financial centers. "If it only keeps defending the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, that probably won't work," he said.
He said he is especially bullish on real-world asset, or RWA, tokenization. In his view, once assets are moved on-chain, they can break through time-zone and cross-border limits, connect with investors around the world, and improve liquidity for assets in smaller markets.
Calls for a balance in regulation
CZ also said Hong Kong still needs to expand regulatory flexibility. He said some markets currently face a binary problem: "either there is no regulation, or regulation is too strict." He said policymakers need to find a balance between risk control and room for innovation.
On the pace of regulation globally, CZ said the United Arab Emirates is currently ahead. He said the United States has done more on stablecoin and trading platform regulation, Japan has taken a positive attitude, Hong Kong is making relatively fast progress, and Singapore is comparatively conservative.
CZ says market structure has matured
CZ said the industry's underlying health remains intact. He added that decentralized trading platforms have become more mature after 8 years of development, both in terms of technology and user understanding.
He also said the industry could see a larger wave of growth if regulators around the world continue to ease policy.
AI agents may start with stablecoins
On artificial intelligence, CZ said Hong Kong is not a base for the internet or AI industries. Even so, he said the convergence of AI and crypto will be irreversible. Looking ahead, he said that when billions of AI agents begin buying, selling, negotiating, and transacting automatically, they may first use stablecoins, then gradually connect to Bitcoin and other public-chain assets.