Changpeng Zhao (CZ) in Davos

Today in Davos, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), co-founder of Binance, took the stage. Formally, it was just another panel at the World Economic Forum. In substance, it was a statement that crypto has finally moved beyond the “sandbox for enthusiasts” and taken its place in the conversation of governments, corporations, and global regulators.

CZ’s main thesis was clear: cryptocurrencies are no longer an experiment. They are already a functioning global financial infrastructure that solves problems faster, cheaper, and more resiliently than traditional systems.

Key points of the speech

First, tokenization of government assets.
Zhao stated directly that he is currently in talks with roughly a dozen governments. The discussion concerns the tokenization of national assets – infrastructure, real estate, natural resources, and possibly even stakes in state-owned companies.

Tokenization allows governments to turn “dead” or illiquid assets into digital shares that can be sold, transferred, and recorded on a blockchain. In effect, this is a new way to raise capital without classical borrowing and without lengthy bureaucratic procedures.

For governments, this means:

• faster monetization of assets;
• access to global capital without intermediaries;
• transparent ownership records;
• lower costs of issuing and servicing financial instruments.

For investors, it means access to assets that were previously unavailable to individuals or small funds. In essence, government assets become “investable” in digital form.

Second, cryptocurrencies as native money for AI.
One of the most interesting and underestimated theses. CZ predicted that cryptocurrencies will become the base payment instrument for AI agents.

AI agents will act on behalf of users – purchasing services, paying for computation, ordering data, and interacting with other agents. They need money that:

• works without banks;
• is available 24/7;
• is easily programmable;
• does not require manual verification at every step.

Fiat money is poorly suited for this. Cryptocurrencies are ideal. In essence, AI and blockchain converge not as a fashionable trend, but as a technological necessity.

Third, three key growth drivers of the crypto industry.
According to CZ, the market is currently driven by three forces: tokenization, payments, and AI.

Not DeFi for the sake of DeFi, and not NFTs for hype, but applied use cases that solve real economic problems. This is an important shift: crypto is maturing and moving away from selling a dream toward selling infrastructure.

A separate emphasis – the resilience of crypto infrastructure.
Zhao noted that in stress scenarios, crypto systems often prove more resilient than banks. Blockchain does not close on weekends, does not require emergency liquidity injections, and does not depend on physical infrastructure.

This does not mean the death of banks, and CZ emphasized that point. Banks will not disappear, but they will change radically. Physical branches will gradually fade away, and banks themselves will become digital services embedded in ecosystems, rather than standalone buildings with queues and paperwork.

Finally, regulation.
There is no universal model. Each country needs its own regulatory architecture that reflects its economy, the development level of its financial market, and political realities. Trying to copy someone else’s model “one to one” is almost guaranteed to fail.

The overall conclusion of the speech is simple and uncomfortable for skeptics.
Crypto is no longer a matter of “believing or not believing.” It is a matter of competitiveness of states and financial systems. Those who integrate into the new infrastructure will gain access to capital, technology, and speed. Those who hesitate risk being left behind – with well-written laws, but without liquidity and innovation.

If earlier crypto was looking for where it could be useful, now governments are starting to look for how to integrate crypto into their economies. And that is perhaps the most important signal coming out of Davos.