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What is Binance CEO most excited about in 2022? | Interview with CZ - YouTube
Channel: Cointelegraph
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Hi, my name is Joe.
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I'm here today with a man who needs no
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introduction. CZ from Binance.
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CZ, hello, welcome. Bienvenu.
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How are you doing today?
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Très bien.
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Très bien! It's been here a couple of days and
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already learning French.
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Actually I learned French for many years.
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But that's always my worst course in high school.
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Oh, okay, okay.
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Whereas crypto, obviously, very, very ahead in
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terms of crypto. So we've just come from your
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stage this morning where you were talking about
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the best way to handle a business is to step out
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and to look at it from a different perspective.
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How do you personally detach yourself from
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managing Binance, you know, this giant that
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you've built?
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So for Binance, anything that's operational, I
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don't touch. And if I touch it, it's going to be
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a disaster because it's going to be stuck all the
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time. So we've moved away from, but you can only
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do that once your team gets
to a certain size, of course.
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Right. So you can't do a startup that way.
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And so once our team get to a certain size, they
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actually don't want me to touch operational
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stuff. So I typically get involved in newer
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things and less certain, less procedure type of
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things. So anything that can be procedurized,
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investments, we have an investment team doing that
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listing, we have a listing team doing that.
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Running the exchange, we have a team doing that.
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And like, for example, dealing with regulations,
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talking with senior government officials, etc,
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now I have to do some of that.
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Hiring the best people at the senior levels, have
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to do some of that. So I do more of those type of
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more strategic, not urgent type of things.
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Okay. Yeah, absolutely.
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I mean, just on that note of hiring executives
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and talking to regulators, I mean, I have a list
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here which I'm not going to read out today.
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But, you know, Binance has hired execs from the
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Dubai fintech authority, the Dutch police, the
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IRS, I could go on.
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I mean, what's the play here?
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What are you getting at?
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It's very simple, right? So, number one, we
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started as a technology startup, so we didn't
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have a strong compliance background.
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And so, the best place to hire this compliance
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background is either from traditional banks or
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from traditional regulators.
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And we hired many people from banks as well.
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But hiring people from existing regulators is
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good in a number of ways.
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They come in, they can look at what we're doing
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in a lot of detail, give us a gap analysis to
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help us how to improve, etc.
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More importantly, they can communicate with their
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ex-colleagues, the regulators still today, in a
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way they understand each other.
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And they also have, many of them have the history
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going back 10, 15, 20 years.
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And then when they say something, they believe
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each other because they use a common language.
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Whereas when the regulators ask me questions,
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when I say something, they're sometimes a little
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bit skeptical. I'm a crypto guy.
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Do I really know my stuff or stuff like that.
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So the communication really improves and the trust
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really improves. And the knowledge base for us
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really improves. So we find that super helpful.
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So in places where we were able to hire
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ex-regulators, we see the relationship
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communication improve almost immediately.
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And so that has been a huge help.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Okay. And so you occupy a unique vantage point in
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the crypto industry.
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Is that perhaps a trend or an undercurrent,
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something that perhaps people aren't noticing at
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the moment that you're quite keen to talk about
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today?
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Not so much, to be honest.
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Like crypto is pretty transparent.
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We actually have to monitor the industry trends
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carefully to make sure that we don't miss
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anything. So when DeFi is growing, we're like:
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"Hey, what are we doing in the DeFi?
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Are we doing enough investments?
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Are we doing enough projects in the DeFi space?"
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When NFTs are growing there we say: "Hey, are we
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doing enough?" So we don't have a lot of extra
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information that people don't have.
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In fact, on the contrary, we often get too busy
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running Binance.com that we may miss something
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that's popular now.
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So many people think I know all the coins, I have
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a vantage point, but the fact is I don't know
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most coins because I'm busy running Binance.
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Well, I'm not really doing much, but I still have
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a lot of meetings. Yeah, it's still pretty busy.
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Okay, absolutely. Okay, well, let's flip the
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question around then. What are you most excited
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about in 2022?
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I think in 2022, we are now seeing regulators want
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to attract this industry now.
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So I think that's one of the most fundamental
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things we see.
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Multiple countries like, you know, US issued
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executive order, they want to do their stablecoin.
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Dubai issued the regulatory framework, and
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issued a number of licenses to big players, which
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is significant.
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And getting licenses in Bahrain, other places.
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So we're seeing that. And also now we're in
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France.
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France, Portugal, Sweden, Gibraltar, they're all
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very positive towards crypto.
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So I think that really helps the adoption.
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And the other stuff like the industry always
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innovating like this GameFi, this metaverse.
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Not sure how they will shape.
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GameFi is pretty standard now.
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I think it continues to iterate and improve.
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Metaverse — multiple people, multiple companies
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are trying different things. We'll see how it
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plays out.
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Yeah, yeah, for sure.
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I mean, yeah, we're here today in La Bourse,
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which is the old stock exchange.
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And of course you were explaining the story
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earlier, I just thought it'd be interesting to
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share it today, but yeah.
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So where's the location of where we are right now
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and where's the French regulator?
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Yeah. So, in setting up this conference,
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our team, our France team asked for permission to
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put a banner, say banners 'We love France' on the
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top of the building, which is La Bourse, the
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traditional exchange building.
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And also the AMF office is right across the
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street, and they have a view on this building.
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My understanding is our team specifically got
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permission from them to have the banner set up so
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that we didn't want to surprise them with hanging
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our banner on top of the exchange building and
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surprise them. So we explicitly got permission,
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and they're totally cool with it, which shows that
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the progressiveness of the French government, the
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French regulators, that they are extremely
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confident, extremely progressive and extremely
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pro-industry. So yeah, so I think just little
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things like that, you can tell.
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Yes.
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It gives you the indication of how comfortable we
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feel with the governments here.
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And that's why we want to make heavy investments.
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We want to grow the industry here.
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Absolutely. I mean, you don't get much more
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transparent than that, do you?
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You know, big flag on the top of La Bourse.
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Yeah. So, yeah.
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So I think it's just one of those little things
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that, you know, a little bit more promotion, etc.
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But it's great to have that support from the
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regulators, the government, and also the other
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industry players here.
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Thank you so much for your time this morning, CZ.
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It was lovely to talk to you.
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And yeah, best of luck with the conference.
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Thank you so much for having me as always.
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Thank you.
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