CZ Davos Speech Summary: Bright Outlook for Tokenization, Payments, and AI; Establishing a Global Cryptocurrency Regulatory Framework Still Faces Challenges

**Jan. 22 – Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) spoke Tuesday at the “Financial New Era” panel during the World Economic Forum in Davos, sharing key insights on crypto, banking, and regulation:** - **Crypto’s future focus**: Exchanges and stablecoins already have large-scale validation, with three promising directions: national-level asset tokenization, crypto as an “invisible” underlying payment channel, and AI agents using crypto as their native currency for autonomous trading. - **Banking industry shift**: Banks’ core risk stems from the fractional reserve system. Physical branches will shrink sharply over the next 10 years as consumers increasingly skip in-person visits. ING led the push for online banking, and crypto tech + electronic KYC are accelerating this transformation—banks remain critical, but their industry form is being redefined. - **Meme tokens’ outlook**: Meme tokens are highly risky and speculative (similar to past NFTs and the Metaverse). While Dogecoin (with cultural value) may persist long-term, most meme coins will not survive. - **Global crypto regulation**: Policies vary widely across countries, making a global regulatory body challenging to establish. Still, the industry hopes for an innovation-friendly global regulator to simplify compliance, and Binance is collaborating with governments worldwide to shape appropriate frameworks.