CZ Says the U.S. Could Be the Next Crypto Metropolis—If It Stops Ghosting the Media

Binance's former captain, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), is still bullish enough to make a Wall Street bull look like a bear. After a decade of watching crypto evolve from a cypherpunk hobby to a global asset class, the billionaire insists the real institutional adoption party hasn't even started yet.

He dropped these alpha thoughts in a remote fireside chat with The Digital Chamber, the U.S. blockchain advocacy group that just finished its annual lobbying marathon in D.C. Host Perianne Boring, the group's founder, deftly navigated the conversation toward the media's classic "rug-pull then FUD" cycle with the industry.

CZ contends the press is a fragmented mess, where legacy outlets paint the entire crypto canvas with a single, fear-mongering brushstroke. He claims a significant portion of the narrative around him and Binance is pure fiction, a point hilariously validated by U.S. courts tossing related cases for a stunning lack of evidence. Crypto-native media, he notes, generally get his vibe because he's constantly posting on X—his digital hearth—whereas his radio silence with traditional press just fuels more conspiracy theories than a Bitcoin block halving.

In a move to finally set his own record straight, CZ is authoring a memoir scheduled to drop in the coming months. He began drafting this literary gem from a rather exclusive, government-funded residency in 2024, following his guilty plea to anti-money-laundering charges.

On the political battlefield, CZ suggests the current U.S. administration is sweating over its crypto policies, hinting at a partisan "war on crypto" that's about as productive as trying to ban the internet. Yet, he maintains the U.S. could still become the world's crypto capital—if it stops building regulatory moats and starts building competitive infrastructure to attract the kind of liquidity that makes whales blush.

He points out that U.S. consumers are currently stuck with subpar crypto service and pricing, like being forced to trade on a centralized exchange with 10x fees. Even as a policy framework slowly materializes from the regulatory fog, America's global crypto influence will remain on the sidelines until real competition shows up to play.