Billionaire Changpeng Zhao (CZ), founder of Binance, believes that developing countries are facing a golden opportunity to break through in the field of digital assets and blockchain. At a press conference during Binance Blockchain Week 2025, CZ said that while major economies have begun to deploy a series of pilot programs and build legal frameworks, it is emerging markets that have more fundamental advantages.
The key, according to CZ, is that these countries are not tied down by the massive traditional financial system. They do not have the “cumbersome legacy” to dismantle, so they can deploy digital assets from scratch, go straight into modern decentralized financial models, and make technological “leapfrogs” that many developed economies cannot.
CZ specifically mentioned Africa as a prime example. Banking penetration in the region is estimated at under 11%, while smartphone ownership has exploded to 50–70% depending on the country. With people unencumbered by the traditional banking model, using an e-wallet or crypto wallet to access financial services becomes much easier. This is considered an ideal environment for digital finance startups to scale and test their products.
Another key factor is the young population structure. According to CZ, the younger generation in developing countries has a higher speed of accessing technology, loves new financial models and is open to digital assets. It is this dynamism that creates a “natural momentum” forcing governments to change their management mindset, quickly issue policies to attract projects, blockchain engineers and investment Capital – if they do not want to fall behind.
From a regulatory perspective, developing markets still have a lot of 'gaps' to build a suitable legal framework. CZ emphasized that the most important thing is not to create a perfect set of regulations immediately, but to develop it in an adaptive and updated way according to the speed of technology development. He recommended that regulators should actively dialogue with businesses, organize technical workshops and learn more about the operating mechanisms of exchanges, Token, wallets and blockchain infrastructure. This is what the Binance team has done in many countries to support the building of a transparent and sustainable ecosystem.
CZ also took a long-term view on the future of blockchain technology. He compared the current moment to the early stages of the Internet in 1995, when the world expected technologies like video conferencing and virtual meetings to come to fruition. But it took nearly three decades for those technologies to mature. Blockchain and digital assets are similar: while they have great potential, they are still in their early stages and will take time to mature across generations of users.
According to this billionaire, the fact that blockchain technology is not yet widely popular or is still difficult to access is not a weakness, but a natural manifestation of a technology moving from the experimental stage to maturity. The surrounding ecosystem – from legal, practical applications to infrastructure – needs time to complete. When that happens, digital assets will penetrate every area of life like the Internet today.
