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During the World Economic Forum (WEF) currently taking place in Davos, Switzerland, crypto billionaire and former CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), took part in a roundtable discussion. CZ shared his take on the future of the crypto space, banks and the next big three targets for the crypto industry.
Among those targets (or next big things) are widely spread crypto payments and AI using cryptocurrencies.
Three next big things in crypto, per Binance's CZ
During the roundtable, CZ stated that two major products produced by the crypto space have proven popular on a large scale already – crypto exchanges and stablecoins. Those are “huge businesses” at the moment, he said.
When asked for the next big frontiers for crypto in the future, Zhao revealed three things that are going big next.
The first one is the tokenization of assets on the state level. CZ said that he has spoken to many governments over the past few years about that. If some states’ assets are tokenized and put on-chain, this way, governments will be able to be the first to realize profits and help develop that industry further.
The second potentially big thing mentioned by CZ is crypto payments. So far, consumers use crypto-to-fiat bridges when they pay with a crypto card, which converts the payment into fiat currency. In the future, crypto payments are going to become “pretty big,” CZ believes.
The third frontier is AI, where crypto is going to be used as a native crypto by AI agents. He named crypto and blockchain “the most native technology for AI agents.” When AI agents start doing things for people, they will make autonomous payments — not using bank cards but cryptocurrencies, according to CZ.
Physical banks to become less popular: CZ
CZ also predicted that over the next 10 years or so, traditional brick-and-mortar banks will decrease significantly. People will prefer online banks and will choose to use physical banks much less frequently.
CZ reminded his co-speakers that, 25 years ago, ING launched the first online bank, and now there is crypto and e-KYC (know your customer), which are making the shift to online banking much faster.
While CZ is positive that banks will not disappear completely, since they perform several important functions, the need for users to go to physical banks will substantially drop.
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